The fall-out after AC Milan’s draw against Lazio last night continues, specifically related to the Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao cooling break ‘saga’ that has developed.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Theo and Leao will not be fined by Milan for what happened shortly after the winger scored the equaliser, when the left-sided duo stayed on the far side of the field rather than joining Paulo Fonseca and their team-mates for a discussion during the cooling break.
The international break comes at the right time for Milan as a whole. It should serve to cool things down and perhaps bring back some calm, because if there had been the match with Venezia on the horizon – or worse, the derby with Inter – the week would have been very tense.
Theo and Leao have obviously been called up by their national teams. France will play in Paris and Lyon against Italy and Belgium, while Portugal will play in Lisbon against Croatia and Scotland. No travel, only Nations League games at home.
The pair will take a break, tell their team-mates what is happening at Milan and will return to Milanello in two weeks. Fonseca will have to decide whether to send them onto the pitch from the start against Venezia and obviously it is impossible to say now who will play. Logic says that they will be there.
The scene was something never seen before: two teams around the coaches, two players who chose to stay on the other side of the pitch. The problem exists and will have to be managed during this break and after, in the week that will feature Milan-Liverpool in the Champions League and the derby versus Inter.
It is also important to consider that everything was seen live by Gerry Cardinale in Rome. The founder of RedBird was in the stands at the Stadio Olimpico yesterday. He did not meet the team but the CEO Giorgio Furlani told the players before the match that Cardinale would be in the stands to support them.
The balance between Fonseca and the two stars needs to be recalibrated. He spoke with Theo during the week but another conversation comes to mind, the one from the summer between the coach and Leao.
Before the European Championship, Fonseca went to Portugal’s training camp in Lisbon to speak directly with Rafa, and he didn’t do it with other players. This is also why yesterday’s episode, after the first exclusion, is very striking.
Nobody are above the club. And I’m not a big Fonseca fan.
You mean Jerry?
Sorry, I forgot you are more a fan of Jerry than ACM. My bad:)
The fvck he is not.
Why would the club fine Theo and Leao? Doesn’t makes any sense lol.
Yes. Leao and theo are our stars. They can do whatever they like.
You should write something better than this. Or better take a nap its Sunday.
Agree
Looking at both of players never acted this way on their tenure on Milan before, it’s safe to say that Fonseca already lost the locker room on match day #3.
No it is not safe to say. You think fonseca lost the 11 players that started? How does that work? He gives them gametime and they sabotage him so leao and theo will get gametime?
Of course not all of ‘em. It’s enough to see couple of your biggest stars in team don’t have any respect for you that you can’t handle the locker room well. Have you ever seen Leao and Theo do such thing to their past coach? Club and nation level. Having this kinf of group in group kind of thing never does anything good.
Hell even Fonseca never look that confidence in the bench. Small gestures say everything.
I didn’t see anything at all. I don’t they intentionally did that because they don’t like the coach..
Besides pioli wanted to be everyones friend. He didn’t have the guts to bench players. And that spoiling is what can get us issues down the road
Cmon guys its a sucking from tomb! Stop it! They didnt come because they just received their instructions 2 min prior! End of the incident because there never was one. Thats why they aint fined.
Exactly.
Pioli had made plenty of i*iotic decisions with his lineups (never benching both on purpose by the way) and the pair never stood alone on the sidelines, even when we were getting smashed by other teams…
optics.
It may be nothing. But it’s the optics that worry.
I think both will leave after this season because they can see Milan is not ambitious enough to build a winning team. There is a “restart” at Milan ever 2 years because the management is trash. We won the Scudetto with Massara and Maldini and after that we started signing worse players for less money and you get what you get. Leao was almost 40M, Theo 25M etc. Now we won’t give 20M for Samardzic and it takes 2 months to offer that money for Fofana. Ridiculous, everyone should not be fired but leave themselves and be embarrased how bad they are at their jobs. Meanwhile Inter got Taremi and Zielinski for 0. And Juventus brought in Douglas Luiz and Koopmeiners (just to name the biggest). Inter got better players for 0 than Milan for 40M. How bad can you be?
If something is much cheaper than something else it is probably s**t. We got a bunch of that in the team now. From last season and new additions. Only Morata is a good signing for that money, and Pavlovic might be but he will make mistakes that directly cost goals 100%.
Please igor keep it down about pav. He is great defender, his tackles is monstrous.
Management is wise, their scout is accurate, great buy.
Great article,i agree at every word with you.
More or less what I said yesterday…there are some players that had a strong bond with Maldini because he was there for them and they trust him that wants to bild a team to go for the trophies.They are not against fonseca but against this trash management that brings clowns like musah,chukuzela,teranciano,emerson…snd get rid of tonali,benaccer,kalullu,salamandra…they are not idiots to understand what is actuslly happening at this club and what is the policy,to make some mfs like jerry and ibrahimovic even richer…
Fonseca needs to go. He has already lost the respect of his players.
2 way need at this situation: first Fonseca( even i not think he is good for us) need move them both from first 11 before they public apologise to team, and second choice is sack couch because players not respect him.
If nothing will do then will be problem more and more and at the end only losers we fans. Players have salary and couch too and who think about us fans. I will not go at any game before not see everything is great at club.My time and my money not lose at this anymore.
Great pippo, you have principle.
Nothing new. They are feeling left out, like scolded children. My daughter does that sometimes, and waits for me to draw her near. Discipline is a part of life. You get this everywhere you go. Sometimes, players get booed by their own fans for not doing well, or the opposing fans for one thing or the other. Do they leave the club just because of that? It’s all a part of the game. If we get serious, and work together, the result will come, as it did with the our second goal.
Something seems very wrong the players body language was terrible and fonseca seemed the odd one out as if he was somewhere he sould not be.
The owners have brought it on them self’s and sadly it’s the people who work hard and fork out to watch this rubbish who will suffer.
I watched burnley v Blackburn rovers yesterday dinner and the standard of that match vs lazio milan was far better sadly and as an Ac milan fan of over 30 years that really p*sses me off.
The whole reason website such as this and others along with podcasts is not because Ac milan are an ordinary team it’s because we used to be a very special team full of ambition in sports science coaching scouting both home and abroad metal health coaches doctors sporting directors with knowledge of Europe and further afield now however we have none of it.😧😯
Man, this is going to be difficult.
Regardless of the undeniable fact that Theo and Leao are our best players by a comfortable margin, that does not give them the right to disrespect their teammates, the coach and the club by being lazy during games and Fonseca was justified by not starting them during yesterday’s game.
The problem though is by subbing them in when we were losing, he kind of gave them justifications for their attitudes and their behaviour clearly show their is currently tensions between them, Fonseca and the management.
With the lack of good subs for any of them (particularly Theo) this situation can go in either:
-a/ Leao and Theo will never start or never play for the club until they admit they shouldn’t behave the way they did, but it cames at a big cost since we can’t win without them (we barely win even with them !!)
-b/ The management and the coach will favour the results and both players will regain their starting places and can act all mighty and be lazy as much as they want.
Both a-/ and b-/ are bad and I’m sure which scenario is worse for us.
In any case, regardless of whom you think is in the wrong or right here, september barely started and we can confidently say that Fonseca has already lost the locker room. Also to fight for the title we need something like 90 points (since 2020/21, with the exception of 2021/22, the champions always won by more than 90 points) and we didn’t manage a single win in 3 games against cannon fodders like Torino, Parma and Lazio.
The idea that they are “lazy” is the problem here (no, just tired after the Euro and late start to the pre-season for them, and unmotivated due to the unfair criticism). They got scapegoat by misguided fans and journalists and our supposedly professional head coach bought into it and exercised petty revenge against our best players, predictably alienating them. They are our best players, and Fonseca has already lost the locker room. They will eventually leave Milan and the misguided critics who keep whining that they are “lazy” will regret their wishes, given that we can’t win without them.
Sorry but these are not excuses.
Tired after the Euro ? Reijnders played at the same Euro and was also eliminated. Do they have a reason to be more tired than Reijnders ? Theo was walking less than 20 minutes in against Parma, how can he be already tired after 10 minutes.
Late to start the preseason ? So did Reijnders, Pavlovic, Morata,…
Unmotivated ? How is that an excuse ? They’re professionels paid in millions of dollars, Leao is the highest earner and Theo is vice captain and wants 8M€ a year. They have the duty to play as well as they can.
In any case, with these tensions between them, Fonseca and the management, I don’t see this going well. If this continues, we will probably be eliminated early in the UCL and won’t make it to the top 4, Fonseca won’t finish the season, Theo won’t renew and Leao will probably also leave.
Exactly. There are no excuses – no matter how hard Luigi will try to make them up.
Something is very wrong with this entire situation and as for the team there body language was awful and fonseca looked like someone who wasn’t welcome.
The management have brought this on by themselves and it’s the people who go out work hard who will continue to pay the price for this rubbish.
Yesterday afternoon I watched burnley vs Blackburn rovers and the standard vs lazio milan was far better and that’s a first division match in the UK and for someone such as myself who has supported Ac milan for over 30 and watched serie over that period it really saddened me.
The whole reason this website and others as well as ALL the podcast with regards to Ac milan is because we are NO ORDINARY CLUB it’s because we were a truly GREAT CLUB that led the way in sports science coaching scouting both home and abroad mental health coaches doctors sporting directors with knowledge of Europe and further afield and last but by no means least AMBITION TO BE THE BEST now however we have none of it.😧😯.
Ot is all good and under control, do not be scared and doubt that for a second. Real Madrid is not doing much better at this stage. Last season we started very strong but Inter won.
wait everyone is mad because they didn’t go over to hear the clown coaching the team after coming in just 2 minutes ago.
What the hell is wrong with Milan fans now?!!
It would be better if Theo and Leão issue an apology. These young players can’t afford to be so naive, especially considering their prime may only last three years at most.
Pioli was everybody’s buddy.
I dont know why everyone mad about this . Both already hear instruction 2 minute ago before enter the field as sub. Thats why club dont need to fined them. It is the club fault not buying LB for theo competitor but keep stacked RB ( wasted 15m euro just for emerson , we can use that money 15m euro to buy LB and use kalulu,calabria,jimenez as RB ) . Bench theo forever??? And you want to play who ? Only theo natural LB in this squad . Playing terraciano,saladmaker out position as LB are worst decision, next play jimenez as LB ??
The common denominator so far has been Fonseca and the decision to appoint him. It’s 3 games in, yes, BUT the team is making the same elementary mistakes at the back after crosses from our right 3 games straight. And Fonseca hasn’t made any basic adjustments to fix it.
The break may or may not fix anything as 3 weeks hasn’t been enough to at least bandage the problem.
We get smashed by Liverpool, then again by Inter, who by the way routed a good Atalanta side and won’t have any problem adding to our misery.
And then we have to make a hard decision. Hopefully Ibra won’t be on vacation for THAT.
I’ll support the management when they get things right, but I will criticize them for stu*id s]-[it, like the call for Fonseca and $15mil mistake that was Emerson …
Even the big bos cardinale is watching at olimpico, but the great director ibra is on vacation 🤣🤣🤣
“And then we have to make a hard decision. Hopefully Ibra won’t be on vacation for THAT.”
Good one acm 🤣🤣,… ✈️✈️ On vacation