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SCMP Reporter

GERMAN striker Oliver Bierhoff has pledged to take AC Milan back to the top of Italian football, as the Serie A giants begin to unveil their battle plan for the new season.

Bierhoff, the Serie A's top scorer with 27 goals for Udinese last season, was one of four new signings presented at Milan's training base near the Swiss border.

Argentinian defender Roberto Ayala, Danish midfielder Thomas Helveg, who along with new coach Alberto Zaccheroni has also arrived from Udinese, and German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann were also on show.

Once the biggest club in world football, AC Milan again finished mid-table last season, scoring a miserly 37 goals in 34 games.

Fans of the club are now hoping that the arrival of Bierhoff, famous for his Euro 96-winning Golden Goal at Wembley, will be the turning point.

'It's a big responsibility and I'm not going to run away from it,' he said.

'At 30 years old, I feel ready to take on a challenge like this one and prove that I am a quality player. I don't feel any of the fear that I might have experienced if I'd only been 22.

'AC Milan have paid ?9 million for me and they therefore have every right to expect a good performance. And I hope that with my performances, and my goals, we can take this club back to where it deserves to be.' Explaining his decision to join a side which has been through two disastrous seasons, Bierhoff said: 'As a club, and in terms of organisation, AC Milan is still the number one in Italy.

'I also have a lot of faith in this group of players, and although I didn't know that Zaccheroni would be joining when I signed, this is obviously another good reason to be here.

'It was also a decision that came from inside, from the heart, even though I can't say I have been an AC Milan fan since I was a boy.' Though Bierhoff's contribution will be vital, Milan's fortunes are also tied to the skills of Zaccheroni, their fourth coach in two years after Oscar Tabarez, Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello.

'Zaccheroni can give Milan a great deal,' Bierhoff said.

'In the last three years, he's had excellent results with Udinese, and he's not the sort of coach who stands still and sticks to one scheme of play. He's always looking at ways of improving things.

'It's down to him to decide the way we play, but it's down to us as players to create the team spirit; and if these two things can come together, it can only be to Milan's benefit.

'The important thing is to believe in ourselves, in our abilities and to work hard. We mustn't look at what's happening left or right but look straight ahead and try to win every match.' Bierhoff will lead the attack in Zaccheroni's 3-4-3 formation, but faces competition from George Weah, Maurizio Ganz and now Patrick Kluivert, after the Dutchman rejected a move to Manchester Uniuted.

'I've got to prove that I deserve a first-team place and the competition is going to be tough,' he said. 'But Milan officials told me right from the start that I would have to accept that. And it's not a problem.' Bierhoff's compatriot Lehmann, meanwhile, faces competition between the posts from veteran 'keeper Sebastiano Rossi.

Lehmann, who joins after 11 years with Schalke 04, is famous in Germany for becoming the first goalkeeper ever to score a goal in open play in the Bundesliga, in December 1997.

And he has already won a place in the hearts of AC Milan's volatile fans by denying archrivals Inter Milan in the penalty shoot-out which decided the 1997 UEFA Cup final at San Siro.

'I come from a team who were successful because they had team great spirit,' Lehmann said. 'And I'll do everything I can to help to develop that here.' That feeling was shared by Ayala, who arrived from relegated Napoli.



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