Taylor recalls one particularly horrendous month in which no fewer than 13 matches were played. And we should bear in mind that the Valencia and Bayern Munich players were allowed to train in the San Siro last night, giving him less than 24 hours to make the pitch sparkle again."I'll be up at first light on Wednesday, about 5am, after working until midnight on Tuesday. In fact I'll be sleeping in the stadium the night before the final I might even sleep on the pitch if it's warm enough Because there's lots to do. There'll be some kind of show on the field as well, which they'll have to prepare. So I'm not worried about the condition of it, but I do wonder when I'll cut it and water it and speak to it."By now we are inside the 86,000-capacity stadium. Taylor has assured me that the San Siro is like nowhere else, and he is right It was built in 1926 and in many ways shows its 75 years But by Georgio it has character. I have been to an Everton v Liverpool FA Cup final at Wembley, but this is a more dramatic backdrop by far.
And we're only here for a league match.The fossa dei leoni the so-called lions' den, broadly equivalent to the Kop is packed with Milan's most fanatical supporters, the Ultras Many of them are waving lighted red flares. A gaggle have erected a temporary sound system, three megaphones lashed to a pole, which provides deafening amplification for the hooters and horns. The noise is incredible.Optimistically, I call my friends Peter and Paul, back in calm old Blighty, on my mobile phone I tell them that I am on the pitch at the San Siro. I'm sure they would believe me, if only they could hear me.By half-time it is 2-1 to the visitors. My fellow zollistas and I replace the divots kicked up by Shevchenko, Rui Costa, Maldini, Bierhoff and co, and I find a cheap bracelet in Fiorentina colours, surely flung on less in anger than as a love token intended for Enrico Chiesa, the goal- scorer.I linger in the six-yard box, Shevchenko-like, resplendent in my red boiler-suit. I also have a crash helmet to wear should it prove necessary, which it almost does, because at the end of the match which remains Milan 1 Fiorentina 2 a speeding bottle misses my head by no more than a yard.It strikes me that everything I have just seen of Serie A, from the quality of football to the volume of support to the propulsion of missiles, is a heightened version of conditions in the English Premiership. Taylor tells me that on the day of the Milan derby 10 days ago, the first fan had climbed over the wall by 8.30am By lunchtime the stadium was almost full.
Kick-off was not until 8.30pm.All of which seems a little excessive, but then Taylor can hardly ridicule the excess of others. He admits that he will check the nets "about 18 times" before tonight's final. "Not because I think they really need checking, but because I can't stop worrying that the referee will test the net by giving it a little pull and a post will fall down."It is now 11pm and we are getting quietly drunk in the Bar Trotta, just outside the stadium. Unable to let go of the contrast between football in Milan and football in Burnley, I ask Taylor whether his favourite player of all time is Christian Vieri, or Brian Flynn? "Neither," he says. "My all-time hero is Andy Lockhead, who was our centre-forward in the early Sixties. Unfortunately I was just too young to appreciate the great side of the era before that, people like Jimmy Adamson and Jimmy McIlroy."And have Burnley ever played at the San Siro? "No, but we played Napoli, in the old Fairs Cup in 1967 We beat them 3-0 at Turf Moor and drew 0-0 in Naples.
