AC Milan’s only chance of a top four finish could well be if the courts decide to punish Juventus after they were beaten 2-0 by Spezia last night.
Calciomercato.com writes how the defeat is one of the lowest points in the season for Milan, who have played a lot of bad games this year, as Spezia won two months after their last victory which coincidentally came against Inter.
Pioli can point to the numerous key absences he had to deal with plus the fact morale has been damaged by the defeat to Inter and general poor form, but his management of the rotations must also be taken into account as well as a shocking record against the bottom-half teams.
Of course, Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara must come under scrutiny too because the squad does not seem anywhere near well enough equipped to fight on multiple fronts, with the lack of depth being exposed.
Milan have collected 10 points in seven games, winning only two. They seem tired, mentally shot and out of ideas. It has been a long season with a deep European run, yet one only has to glance over to Inter who seem fired up and are finishing the season in a very strong way.
Is this enough to send Milan into crisis? Probably not, but once again Pioli has not found the right measures to counter the opposing midfield with Spezia lining up in a 3-5-2 system to try and mimic what Inter did.
Now, it seems as though any hopes of overturning the deficit against Inter are a real long shot. Leao’s return should help, but it will need far more than that to pull off a miracle, while Champions League qualification for next season is currently a mirage too.
“Is this enough to send Milan into crisis? Probably not,”.
PROBABLY NOT?!?
We have been in crisis since January 1st.
Since January 1st ,
20 serie A games , only 7 wins.
Last 11 games only 3 wins.
We went from being 5 points behind Napoli after the salernitana game on Jan 4th to being 25 points behind Napoli (after they win today), and 5 points behind Lazio for the 4th spot. Yes Lazio have better goal difference since they wooped us 4-0, so we are actually 5 points behind them with only 9 available.
Is this Milan we are talking about, or Bologna?
Because those results won’t be considered a crises if it was Bologna’s results.
What happened to “Ac Milan is back”?
The great Milanista Genaro Gattuso resigned and refused to take any money from the club after he missed top 4 because of a single point.
Let’s see if the great Milanista Paolo Maldini will have the dignity to resign for missing top 4 and returning Milan back into the banter era, or he will just make Pioli pay for Maldini’s own mistakes and fire him.
ok so in your opinion from next season Milan will battle relegation because of missing champions league this season?
What kind of logic is tihs?
do you realise what crisis means?
Missing top 4 shouldnt deter us from our goals in the summer and if it does then we would’ve gone down next year anyway, this model is not sustainable.
Also stop blaming one or two people for everything because you don’t have the brain capacity to do anything else, hurling insults at Maldini and Pioli won’t magically fix everything
I realize everyone of his posts leads to blaming Maldini.
Well, they saved money, aren’t they? Red Bird & Elliott…
They released for free players like: Romagnoli, Kessie, Calhanoglu, Donnarumma, and bring the likes of Ballo Toure, Bakayoko, Vranckx, and Adli, to be a back up of some first-team leaders. In the short run, they saved some money in salary difference, between players who left and those that arrived, but in the longer run, they lost.
For the money they gave to Maldini who would bring better players ? Only mistake was De Ketelaere.
So you believe that Elliott, a bunch of bankers, decided that the way to save money is to release players, assets, worth almost 150 mil?
Does that make any sense to you?
If they wanted to save money they would have sold them and collect 150 mil, instead of losing them for free.
They didn’t release those players, Maldini messed up the negotiations and wasn’t capable of selling those players before they became free agents.
How long are people actually going to keep their head in the sand and refuse to accept the truth?
We couldn’t replace those players that left property because if you lose them for free instead of selling them you missing on the money from their transfer that will allow you to replace them.
Only at Milan is tolarrated to have a sporting director that can’t sell water to a thirsty man in the desert.
Dude, owners released the players not Maldini. They kept Romagnoli, Kessie, just to have stronger squad in last season, but they didn’t want to invest more money to keep them in this season.
They already decide before to release all players with bigger contracts, and stick with young cheap but unproven players.
And they will keep doing that, because in this season Pioli gained 100 million of euros just from champions league with players like Pobega and Vranckc in rotation.
So next time when you write about Maldini released the players remember who put salary cup.
I’ll tell this Mladini failed to bring De Keteleare and not Enzo from Benfica, but still we would have the same result at the end of year.
Owners does not give a fu*k about results. In next year Pioli will be coach, because he already gaind 100 million, and if you divide by 2 years, it is 50 million per year.
Cardinale don’t give a fuc* about champions league or europa league, he want positive balance sheets and Pioli is very cheap coach in terms of salary.
In next season Cardinale will tell that we lost 50 million, and he will approve 50 million for Maldini, but also he will tell Maldini that he needs to sell at least 50 million of assets…
We will se what kind of wizard Mladini is, but his abilities are completely limited because transfer market is spicy.
Milan will be weaker team next year, so in terms of that view does not need champions league next season.
WOW. What are you talking about?
Salary cap is for salaries. It doesn’t stops sales.
You can blame the owners for not wanting to overpay for those players to be resigned.
Why were they not sold is the issue here.
Did the owners put Salary cap on that too? 😳
If you have a house and your mortgage is becoming too expensive for you that you can’t pay it, you don’t wait on the bank to come and repossess your house, and throw you out on the street, but you sell your house, collect the difference in money from the equity in it and you go and move into a more affordable house.
This is 100 times written:
They kept players like Hakan, Romagnoli, Kessie, Donnarumma until last day of contract, just to have stronger squad. That squad won scudetto, make commercial revenue, bring back fans at San Siro and gained bigger revenue. They didn’t sell them, because revenue in last year of contract can’t be big, and you can’t find strong and cheap replacement for departure one.
Salary Cup is most important in terms of transfer player and players value, that’s why Leao got new contract. Leao could be sold now for at most 30 or 50 million in his last year of contract…
So if they sell Hakan, Kessie, Romagnoli etc in their last year of contract they would lose money, because team result would be worst, and less money from other sources would be gained, and income from players sold in last year would be like this structured:
Kessie maybe 10- 15 million, Hakan maybe 15 at most, Gianluigi also 15 or 20 and Romagnoli maybe 5 million.
In last season Milan gained 50 million in champions league only, so selling players like mentioned above for 50 million would be fluke, got it now ?
You do realize that if you sold Gigio, you could have signed Maignan and still have about 50 nil left.
Your explanation makes zero sense. We won scudetto without Hakan and Gigio, now imagine if Maldini was capable of selling them, he would have money to replace properly and still be left some money to buy other players.
Plus Hakan and Kessie were making around 2 mil a season at Milan. They weren’t on a high salary.
Your projections about how much money they would have been sold for are flawed.
Milan bought Maignan who was on the last year of his contract for 15 and at that time Gigio was a far bigger GK name than Maignan.
Dude, Maignan arrived in transaction like possible replacement just after Gigio left. So Gigio played all season long untill the end of the contract and make squad stronger, which affect better result and which gained more revenue. After they could extend his contract Maignan was bought like cheap version of Gigio.
The same applies for Kessie – Vranckx arrived. For Hakan they put bet on cheap Diaz. Romagnoli – Thiaw and Kalulu. Etc….
This is pattern in Milan and it will be until revenue increases year by year a lot, and that will take time, just dudes like you won’t realise
Wow , I hope you are not handling anyone else’s money or any kind of other valuable assets, because those poor people will be left with nothing following your logic about finances and financial planning.
Any player is replaceable if you sell him on time and properly invest that money.
Maldini makes zero planning, everything is reactionary,
that’s why so many players left on a free transfer.
And another fact that makes your explanation erroneous, is all those players that you say the owners released them to save money, Maldini was negotiating with them until the last day to resign them. So the plan wasn’t to release them as you say.
Maldini was just played by those players and their agents. Experienced and competent director doesn’t get played that easy.
Poli it was big interview with Gazidis also in SempreMilan where he told that they released players for free by purpose.
Of course they were negotiating untill last they of contract, but they never wanted to offer them anything more of they already put on table.
This is the way how club keeps the money with expidenture on salary Cup. But losing to gain more money with better pitch results.
Dude there’s no reasoning with him. He’s absolutely certain it’s all Maldini fault. There’s no other option.or explanation. No salary cap issue, no player running down their contract to get a bigger one, no agent asking big sign ons, no player power, no directive from owners, no budget limit, no asset preservation, no strategic restructuring, nope none of that. Just Maldini has free reign and unlimited resources
“They didn’t release those players, Maldini messed up the negotiations”
Someone’s on a witch hunt, lol. 😀 😀 😀
It is so dumb to think that Mladini is only one guy responsible for players arrivals and departures, without CEO’s, owner and etc….