Silvio Berlusconi’s former associate Fedele Confalonieri has heavily criticised AC Milan’s current ownership, management and squad.
As yet another season without much of a serious Scudetto fight will end soon, Milan have been left licking their wounds amid a dreadful recent run of form. Fans are rightly questioning the ambition and competence of those at the top, as Inter continue to close the gap in trophies having won Serie A.
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Some notable columnists like Antonio Vitiello have even openly begun calling for Gerry Cardinale to sell the club, in order to give it fresh impetus and a new vision moving forward. Yet, that seems unlikely while fans continue to show up and the accounts generate profits.
Fake champions and no ambition
While attending the launch of a book about the club, Confalonieri spoke to reporters about the current state of things at Milan and he did not mince his words. Football Italia published his comments.
“Leao is a fake champion. He looks like he might be a champion, but a champion plays 90 minutes every game. How much does Leao play, really?” he began.
“Luka Modric, now there is a champion, he plays every minute, even at age 40. He is someone who won the Ballon d’Or in the era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“A bank owns a football club, what do they care about winning the Scudetto? This is the point. If you are fortunate enough, like Inter now, to have a great President in charge like Beppe Marotta… If we’d had Adriano Galliani at the helm, we might’ve stood a chance.
“Furlani? I haven’t met him, and as a Milanista, I really don’t care to.”
Very true…
Snackpåsen Zlatan och Dvärgen Furlani
True champions always fights and bleeds until the very end, others are just winners of trophies so to speak so in that sense I do agree with him.
Leao is nevertheless a force to be reckoned with when he plays up to his best but considering that he is probably our most athletic player by a large extent he really does leaves something to be desired, and always has and probably always will. If I had played with someone like him I would be furious a lot of times as the team will have to work harder with him on field and I simply doesn’t buy that he gives his utmost and if he does he is in the wrong profession as a short distance runner would be more befitting in my view as he would be able to utilize his sparks of explosiveness.
I believe he could have reached far higher levels with a different character and there lies a great disappointment as it will always leave a question of what could have been and a month before he turns 27 I highly doubt anything will change at this point. He could be a great sub for a rich team and I could also see him do well in Spain. I will miss him from time to time if he is sold but it seems like we have reached the end of the road.
“I believe he could have reached far higher levels with a different character and there lies a great disappointment as it will always leave a question of what could have been and a month before he turns 27 I highly doubt anything will change at this point. ”
Well… One thing WILL change. And soon enough. He’ll get slower. And we know what that means.
That will certainly leave him as a far more limited player when that happens.
How many players plays for 90minutes? How many times has Leao play for 90mins without been wrongly sub most times, A player that want to give his all but get sub can’t be judge based on that. when he complains the presses are there to escalate that. is Mbappe, “Vinicius Jr, Haaland,Kane, defending? or are made to be tracking back, is it soccer or track and field? then who is available to score, since their roles has been changed. Cut the guy some slacks
while i totally agree on management, I think Leao shouldn’t be in the mix of Milan failure and if he must be then the whole team is culpable with the larger share on tactics
“A player that want to give his all”
If you’re referring to Leao it’s probably the “swing and a miss!” of the year. 😂😂😂
swing and miss that singlehandedly guarantees 15points, If Leao is swing and miss what will you call a player that has been missing since december?
Reading comprehension isn’t really your strengths, now is it? 🤦♂️
You notice how he says Leao WANT to give his all but isn’t saying he is giving his all.
Olumighty knows Leao wants, needs and desires.
This season, Leão has attempted 56 dribbles and completed 24, a success rate of 42.86% across 27 appearances and 1,779 minutes in Serie A his lowest since joining Milan.
There’s blood in the water. All the milan big guns are coming out now and directly calling out furlani and Redbird. Its over for them. Now let’s see who comes in. Maybe just furlani goes first but I think Redbird will be looking for a way out over the next couple of years.
Get rid of Lazy Leao this summer before we can’t get any money for him.
My question is why are these guys blaming everyone but Allegri?
Is it some Italian conspiracy?
Nepotism?
Maybe a mixture of both or something bigger?
These same guys heavily criticised Fonseca and Conceicao because they are foreigners but the way they are shielding Allegri is too visible for some of us to see.
It’s a propaganda ongoing. We all know Leao’s shortcomings but this season you cannot blame Leao alone, all our attacking players have been abysmal, but the conspiracy to spread a narrative just to sheild Allegri will never allow them ask the critical questions:
1. What has led to the complete failure and non existence of our attacking department?
2. Why does the team always appear disjointed and confused and without cohesion as a team when playing?
3. So much emphasis has been made on the defensive unit, why does the defense still look disjointed?
The propaganda is to push the Furlani narrative rather than speaking the truth, Furlani did not setup the team to play low block defensive football, Furlani did not scrap the wingers and continues forcing them to be center forwards.
Despite his poor form, Leao still has the highest goal contribution in the team despite the injuries as well, these guys are just feeding on the emotions of the fans instead of having real talks, they know if they mention Leao, the fans will be engaged to vent their frustration there.
However, fortunately or unfortunately for Confalonieri, he is correct Leao is indeed a “fake champion” and that is why he’s still at Milan. If he were a real champion like we keep on criticising, top clubs like Barcelona would have taken him from us long ago. I hope he can truly go to a team that will allow focus on attacking rather than defending.
The question is:
1. Can Milan afford a 26 years old “real champion” left winger today? The answer is no.
Is it safe to say that Maldini got us a fake champion when there were real champions out there? Perhaps we need to begin to link Leao’s purchase and performance to Maldini who brought him, maybe when we deploy this approach, we see the merits of Leao.
But, I must also say, Leao has never said he’s a top player or a real champion, so maybe for people to always link him with such comparisons tells a story that perhaps there’s a champion in there.