With their new manager Filippo Inzaghi at the helm, the Rossoneri have suffered two heavy defeats in a row this pre-season and it does not look as if things can improve once the real action in Serie A gets under way.
D. Ray Morton, 28th July 2014.
New Milan manager Filippo Inzaghi looks on in horror as his side are vanquished by Premier League champions Manchester City
Italian teams have a tendency not to take exhibitions very seriously but AC Milan's most recent appearances will certainly worry their newly-appointed manager Filippo Inzaghi. The seven-time European champions were dreadful in their 3-0 loss to Greek side Olympiakos three nights ago in Toronto and they were equally abject in their 5-1 loss to Manchester City yesterday in Pittsburgh. To say Inzaghi has a tough challenge ahead of him in the coming season would be a grand understatement.
A.C. Milan are not only in crisis, they are a club who have been slowly dying for several years now. Having dominated the European and Italian football scenes on and off again during the Silvio Berlusconi era, the club are now spiralling out of control, incapable of challenging even in a now weakened Italian top flight. Serie A used to be the strongest league in the world. It is now probably Europe's fourth league, arguably fifth with the English Premier League, Spain's Liga and Germany's Bundesliga comfortably ahead. French football is on the rise too purely down to the rich owners of Paris St. Germain and Monaco.
Looking through the Rossoneri squad right now is a pretty depressing experience. In the past, even in times when the club underachieved, there was still a lot of star power available. They could be accused of being a group of talented individuals and not a great team at times. Nowadays, they simply do not have great individuals and they certainly do not have a team that can trouble the likes of Juventus, Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina and local rivals Internazionale. They are a mere shell of their former selves.
There does not appear to be a strategy for rebuilding either. The club's ownership is deadlocked in a battle between Silvio Berlusconi's daughter, Barbara, and Adriano Galliani, the shady vice-president/CEO who has been at the club since 1986. Their plan this summer was to try and offload troublesome striker Mario Balotelli for as high a fee as possible based on having a good World Cup. Though "Super Mario" scored against England in Italy's first match, his miserable performances in the subsequent two games dropped his value if anything. It was rumoured that they would accept a bid as low as €20m which Arsenal thought about for a while before pulling the plug on what would be too risky a gamble.
A.C. Milan are not only in crisis, they are a club who have been slowly dying for several years now. Having dominated the European and Italian football scenes on and off again during the Silvio Berlusconi era, the club are now spiralling out of control, incapable of challenging even in a now weakened Italian top flight. Serie A used to be the strongest league in the world. It is now probably Europe's fourth league, arguably fifth with the English Premier League, Spain's Liga and Germany's Bundesliga comfortably ahead. French football is on the rise too purely down to the rich owners of Paris St. Germain and Monaco.
Looking through the Rossoneri squad right now is a pretty depressing experience. In the past, even in times when the club underachieved, there was still a lot of star power available. They could be accused of being a group of talented individuals and not a great team at times. Nowadays, they simply do not have great individuals and they certainly do not have a team that can trouble the likes of Juventus, Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina and local rivals Internazionale. They are a mere shell of their former selves.
There does not appear to be a strategy for rebuilding either. The club's ownership is deadlocked in a battle between Silvio Berlusconi's daughter, Barbara, and Adriano Galliani, the shady vice-president/CEO who has been at the club since 1986. Their plan this summer was to try and offload troublesome striker Mario Balotelli for as high a fee as possible based on having a good World Cup. Though "Super Mario" scored against England in Italy's first match, his miserable performances in the subsequent two games dropped his value if anything. It was rumoured that they would accept a bid as low as €20m which Arsenal thought about for a while before pulling the plug on what would be too risky a gamble.
Strange bedfellows: Adriano Galliani and Barbara Berlusconi are now running Milan but there is zero cohesion between them
Even in they did sell Balotelli, who would they replace him with? The San Siro, at least the red side of it, is not the most tempting destination for a top-class player these days. Milan finished eighth last season. A disaster but there is no improvement in sight. Manchester United, who had their own nightmare season last campaign, finishing outside of the European positions, are totally restructuring and improving. They have an exciting manager in Louis van Gaal, they have the financial means to sign big enough names and they are quietly optimistic about challenging for the title. Milan have no such aspirations.
They have a young, inexperienced manager, a weak squad and tonne of debt without owning a ground from which they can generate revenue. Their player roster looks like a "who's who" of failures between the pudgy central defensive pair of Adil Rami and Philippe Mexès, flops like Robinho and Keisuke Honda as well as old-timers like Michael Essien and Christian Abbiati who seems not to know when to retire.
Simply put, the whole thing is a mess and a shambles. They finished eighth last year and there is absolutely no indication that they can do better in 2014/15. Sorry, Pippo. You were a club legend as a player, just as your predecessor Clarence Seedorf had been, but now you will enter the meat grinder. Good luck.
They have a young, inexperienced manager, a weak squad and tonne of debt without owning a ground from which they can generate revenue. Their player roster looks like a "who's who" of failures between the pudgy central defensive pair of Adil Rami and Philippe Mexès, flops like Robinho and Keisuke Honda as well as old-timers like Michael Essien and Christian Abbiati who seems not to know when to retire.
Simply put, the whole thing is a mess and a shambles. They finished eighth last year and there is absolutely no indication that they can do better in 2014/15. Sorry, Pippo. You were a club legend as a player, just as your predecessor Clarence Seedorf had been, but now you will enter the meat grinder. Good luck.
Here's hoping that an Italian team have a successful Champions League campaign this season, hopefully demolishing a few German teams on the way. As for Milan they must get back into the Champions League ASAP.
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