Where Has Milan Gone?

A short, but tough question to answer…

(Credits to somuchpurplebass, via Tumblr)

Where has Milan gone? This is the question. A question which contains a lot of more questions. And there are as  many answers as problems. This team isn’t the Milan I fell in love with when I was a child. No, this Milan isn’t what it’s supposed to be, on every level, from the players to the society.

What are our players doing? The answer here is pretty easy: nothing. Aside from Ricky, De Jong and not many others, this team is made of people who don’t understand what Milan is and don’t have respect for our jersey. Players that aren’t supposed to play with Milan, not only because they’re not good enough, but also because there isn’t any trace of passion in the way they play. Most of them are there for the money. They don’t deserve this club. But what is this club now? What are our goals? Where do we want to go? Are we still the ones who wanted to win everything? And here it comes my second question:

Where has Milan’s mentality gone? Ever since I remember, Milan’s mantra has always been QUALITY GAME. Maybe not effective, sometimes. Maybe too creative. But we’ve always wanted more quality than physicality, this was our philosophy. A way of playing which was spectacular because it was coral. As our president likes to call it, “Champagne football”. And I’m not saying it’s a good thing per se, but it was our way to play football. But then Allegri came and even during his first year, when we had Ibra and Thiago and a far better team, yet Pirlo was on the bench. Yet Seedorf was on the bench. And we won, but we didn’t win with our way of winning. I know it may sound pretty stupid, but problems need to be faced at their origin. And the origin is there, because denying our ideals and ourselves didn’t bring anything good for us. Anything. Neither that Scudetto, because imo Ibra won that almost all by himself. And who decided to disrespect our ideals and our history? Who treated Pirlo and Seedorf like shit? Who? Massimiliano Allegri. Of course, part of this changing of mentality has to do with lack of money. This is pretty obvious. Quality players cost a lot. But when we had to spend money, we didn’t spend them on quality players (except for Mario, but again, he’s not an ideal Milan player: he plays all by himself!), just look at what we did with Matri. My point is, if we have to suck because there are not enough money, let’s suck remaining faithful to our ideals. Even if it means making play very young players.

Why is Allegri still our coach? Let’s be honest. It’s not completely his fault. He doesn’t have great players to play with. But even when he had, during his first 2 years, as I said, Milan still didn’t play how Milan is supposed to play. I’m not saying he’s a bad coach, because even tho I hate the idea of him at Milan, I don’t think he sucks on a general level. He’s just not the right man for Milan. Milan means history. Milan means fantasy. Milan means that Milan should be coached by a Milanista. Because that’s what has always brought us on the top. Us being a big family, us loving this team, us putting passion and force and pride to make this team great. This is what Milan should be. What it’s always been. The truth is that Allegri is an outsider here. He doesn’t belong. He doesn’t have that sparkle. He’s not one of us. He should go. But there are no money to replace him correctly right now. And why should we? Firing Allegri now isn’t a solution. It’s just a waste of money. It’s not like we can possibly think to save this season now. But why did we arrive here?

Why is our society being disorganized? Because there are not enough money. And because the president is, for a lot of reasons, not involved in the team anymore. There’s not a strong president behind the curtains. No one to impose mentality and organization. Let’s just take as example what happened with Galliani. He’s been blamed for a general disorganization and huge collective mistakes. Yet he’s the only one paying and he doesn’t deserve it. These things used to happen in Inter, not in Milan. Never in Milan. We’ve always been elegant, steady, full of dignity. Now the situation is just messy and confused. And that’s also why players like Balotelli are allowed to play for Milan. Since when do we allow a player to be this arrogant? Or since when do we allow a player to disrespect us like Mexes did with Juventus? Why? The question here is not why they’re acting like this or what do we do to stop their behavior, or even how good they are. I don’t give a damn. The question here is different! It’s why are they playing with Milan to begin with? Again, we’re disrespecting our mentality, our history. And we’re paying it.

Are we ready to change? Is Barbara ready? No, we’re not and no, she isn’t. But we arrived to the point where we have to change. It’s not a choice anymore. A revolution has to be made. Because our Milan needs to be rebuilt, it just doesn’t work anymore. I don’t like Barbara. But I’m taking my time to judge. She has good ideas imo. We can’t do much but wait and see what happens.

And the only consideration which isn’t a question is still about Ricky. Because he’s not a question, he’s an answer. A certainty. In all of this mess Ricardo Kakà is still the best thing happened to us in a long time. Even today, in that huge mess, he was the only one to bring some light. Because he loves Milan. Because he’s what a Milan player should be. Quality, grace, elegance, love, passion and humility. What Milan should be.