Now that the 2023-24 season can be consigned to the history books, evaluations can begin after what was a very mixed campaign for AC Milan.
Milan ended up in second place this season in the league but they were a long way behind rivals Inter who won the league in the derby, while they were beaten in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals, exited the Champions League in the groups and lost in the Europa League quarter-finals to Roma.
This morning’s edition of Corriere della Sera (via Radio Rossonera) judged each Serie A club for their season by parameterising expectations, merits and demerits. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was a negative score for the Rossoneri given the aforementioned.
The season is worth a score of 5.5 out of 10 for the journalists Alessandro Bocci and Paolo Tomaselli, who provided the following assessment.
“Second place does not alleviate the disappointment of a season that cost Pioli the bench. Never in the running for the Scudetto and immediately out of the Champions League, he paid for the elimination in the Europa League quarter-finals and repeated defeats (6) in derbies. The defence was bad, 11th-best in Serie A.”
The Rossoneri are at the same level as Lazio , while further down they only see Salernitana, Sassuolo (3), Napoli (4) and Frosinone (5). Roma, Juventus and Udinese got a 6, while a 6.5 went to Monza, Empoli and Torino.
A 7 was given to Genoa, Cagliari and Lecce, a 7.5 for Fiorentina and even an 8 for Verona. The highest ratings were for Bologna (9), Atalanta and Inter (9.5).
Fair assessment. We did better last season (UCL). We were 20 points behind leaders last season compared to 19 this season. $120 million wasted.
Fair assessment. We did better last season (UCL). We were 20 points behind leaders last season compared to 19 this season. No improvement. We got lucky to be 2nd because of Piolis experience and poor performance from competitors in SerieA. $120 million invested in attack, where as we never fulfilled our mid field positions (Tonali and Kessi). Let’s see how Mr. Furlani handles the mercato this season. I am quite sure we will be getting mid tier players. Forget about Zirkse and Sesko (even though we have the money)
I’m not even so disappointed with that second place in Serie A as with the results in European competitions! What bothers me in the league is the huge point difference between us and Inter and of course, the number of conceded goals we got even from some teams that should be far below our rank! The Champions League group was difficult, and that can be an alibi for us to be relegated, but I expected much more from participating in the European League. I was even more sorry when I saw what Atalanta managed to do. The season is not a disaster, but it is one to quickly forget.
Inter had the same rating (9.5) as Atalanta. They were second in the CL group (behind Real Sociedad), and got eliminated right after that. If anything, our European progress was better than Inter, despite being eliminated by Roma.
I don’t see how the fact that they won Serie A makes them get the same grade as Atalanta who qualified for CL and also won Europa League with less than half of Inter’s budget.
Also let’s not forget that Inter pays 30-40 million MORE in salaries than Milan. Roma and Juventus also have significantly higher salaries than Milan and still got higher ratings, Roma failed to qualify for CL and Juventus that came behind Milan with no mid-week games.
The point of this sport is not to win by going bankrupt. Mourinho said it best for italian journalists “intellectual prositution”
You made alot of valid points