Journalist Franco Ordine has spoken once again about the injury crisis that AC Milan are continuing to endure, while also commenting on the returns of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ismael Bennacer.
Milan have won their last two games against Newcastle in the Champions League and Monza in Serie A, improving the mood a bit after a difficult patch. They face Salernitana tomorrow night at the Arechi, and if you think you know which way the game will go you should find the best betting sites.
Ordine spoke in his weekly column for MilanNews about a number of different topics, with his comments translated below.
“The number of injuries at Milan has become such (29, of which 21 muscular) as to decree an uncomfortable truth for many: it was the original sin of this season with a clear negative influence on the results from a certain day onwards (in the first 8 rounds Milan collected 7 wins and 1 defeat in the derby),” he said.
“At this point Pioli and the club continue to repeat that they are studying some solutions to try to remedy this impressive ‘pandemic’ not in the short term but in the coming months. None of us reporters – not having access to training every day – are able to establish what the responsibilities are and above all whose responsibilities they are.
“However, what I know precisely is that the little game of shifting the blame now onto this sector, now onto the other, is a practice that leads only to one side: to creating tensions and causing clashes! Stop. Stefano Pioli took political responsibility for the serious deficit but this does not completely absolve him.
“May he meditate, also for the future of his career, on the validity of the methods of some of his historical collaborators and I hope he doesn’t decide, at the end of the season, to go down with his entire staff so as not to change one, two, three, four of them.
“There is another problem and it concerns communication. I understand that having to list the casualties every time after every blessed match becomes a very uncomfortable practice.
“But we can’t talk about a ‘cramp’ for Okafor when we can tell from the television that it’s a muscle injury (he was touching his back thigh). Thus he does double damage to Milan and to his own image. Think about it dear Stefano.
“Having recovered from the flu, Ibra showed up at Milanello and began his second adventure. It is clear that he will be able to be useful to Pioli himself, to the team group and to the management that deals with the Rossoneri market with the knowledge learned on the pitch.
“According to Giorgio Furlani, Ibra ‘is keen to make it known that his presence must not be seen as a tutor to the coach’. This is the same impression I got in recent days when I repeated on the topic that someone like Ibra would never have dreamed of making his debut in the new role by chopping off Pioli’s head, thus taking on an enormous responsibility, among other things, for future results.
“Bennacer has been included in the list of Algeria’s preliminary squad ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations. Yesterday he spoke for the first time on the topic of his participation with a sentence that opens a debate.
“He dictated: ‘If the national team called me I would say yes. And naturally I didn’t decide that the African Cup should be played in the month of January’. True: it is not the players who decide the dates of the tournaments.
“But a player who is on the salary of a club for over six months during which he is out of action due to injury and has just been put back on the pitch, is preparing to reach match rhythm with stints at Milan as Bennacer is doing and then flies from the club in January his national team, certainly cannot be noted for his generosity towards his employer.
“This episode must induce Italian football managers, as suggested by ADL president of Napoli, to shy away from purchasing players from that continent.”
Unfortunately this is true, why buy African players and pay them huge wages and they dissappear half way through the season!!
and quite possibly come back injured or tired….
We all understand players want to play for their country, but purely from a selfish point of view, it harms our chances of a successful season when you lose players to AFCON for 1 month.
We will be losing Bennacer and Chukie and if we stupidly buy Adams or Guirrasy, we will lose them as well ??!!
Some of the best players in the world are African and we love watching them, but unfortunately it does have a negative impact on our club, and if it means we lose games because we are missing important players then why buy them in the first place.
Can Milan not block him from going? It seems crazy that the club paying millions of dollars to a player has no say as to whether he can leave and miss multiple club matches to play for his country. Especially one as injury prone as Bennacer , who is just off of a major injury. This would never be a thing in any other sport.
didn’t he get injured playing for us ???? i question the motive behind this article , of course any players should be allowed to represent his country ,vwhen european notional teams play all league stop and take break when African notional teams play all league continuous and then blame african players and afcon , the hypocrisy is unreal with those ppl im sick of it every time , why not schedule european leagues according to afcon like you do with other notional competitions or sh$t up im sick of the hypocrisy
European National teams are not playing every 2 years. And it is fair that European clubs stop when European national teams play, because African clubs don’t stop in that period. I think clubs must at least add some clause on contract, so if you decide to go and play for nation it’s fine, but the salary for this days will be deducted. So then we will see who are really proud and will go to this cup anyway
As i understand every player wants to play for their national team. its their dream. so when they get called up and go i cant fault them for it.
If yall can, good for you. Think tho, what would you do in their shoes.. I’d go play
and i dont even f*cking like my country
Are you from the US?
Are you from the US?
Agreed I can’t blame the guy. He should play. Sucks for us but it’s the highest honor to play for your country.
Have to play for your country and accept the call. It is something that fundamentally makes this sport different and better than all the others.
Winning international trophy has always been a dream for many player. Maybe Bennacer would discover his match sharpness there
Man, I totally get it. It’s an honor to represent your country at international level. But AFCON such a deterrent to scouting players from the continent because of their unavailability in January. Especially if the player is very good – you lose them for the entire month at the half way stage of the league.
This is especially painful with a player as good as Bennacer because he is returning from injury and needs to help the club at a difficult time. I guess if I’m Benny I’d stay at the club through AFCON under the circumstances.
AFCON has got to stop. If they want to keep it going it must be in summer time. Normal summer time. It is also cooler in Africa during June and July. Get real.