It took Stefano Pioli three years to build the AC Milan side that won the Scudetto but seven games were enough for it to collapse, a report claims, after a series of events that started from the summer.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) writes how the structural failure actually starts last summer with a transfer market that fell in the middle of the change of ownership.
RedBird Capital officially completed their takeover on August 31, the last day of the summer mercato, which means that the entire window was managed by Elliott Management who of course were outgoing and thus were never likely to make a huge budget available.
The renewals of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara arrived on the day of the deadline of their previous contract, which wasted some time in the transfer market too, and then some of the questions from the directors were questionable.
A high-level centre-back was needed because Simon Kjaer is no longer young and was recovering from an injury that needed surgery and kept him out for 270 days out, while relying on Pierre Kalulu and Fikayo Tomori to keep up the same level of performance from the Scudetto season was perhaps unfair. That is why Sven Botman was targeted, but in the end he chose to accept the riches of Newcastle United.
A replacement was also needed for Franck Kessie who played a huge role in the league title win, with Renato Sanches and Enzo Fernandez targeted but again neither arrived. Instead it was Malick Thiaw and Aster Vranckx who came from the Bundesliga, though not as established players and needing time to integrate.
It is in attack that Maldini and Massara chose to allocate most of the budget, with €35m spent on Charles De Ketelaere who was and is considered an undoubted talent. Then, Divock Origi – Liverpool’s reserve – came to assist a 36-year-old Olivier Giroud and a 41-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic who is still not back to this day. Pioli needed much more help.
One hundred days after the Scudetto triumph at the Mapei Stadium thanks to an utterly dominant 3-0 win over Sassuolo, Milan returned to the same stadium and were forced to settle for a 0-0 draw with a confused performance that made it clear Pioli may struggle to maintain the hunger and ferocity of last season.
The defeat against Torino and the 0-0 draw in Cremonese also provoked warning signs, but there were results such as the derby win against Inter thanks to Giroud and Leao, the dominant 2-0 victory over Juve and the 4-1 against Monza that helped reach the World Cup break in second position, behind a Napoli side on record-breaking pace.
The squad then jetted off to Dubai and it is there things seemed to really unravel. Perhaps 10 days were too long, with the time zones, the long journeys even to reach the training facilities, and the friendlies against Arsenal and Liverpool – who were more ready due to their earlier return to action – that damaged confidence.
In the month of December, Milan also received the news that Mike Maignan would be out for several more weeks with his calf not healing well, all while the World Cup limited the squad available for training and sapped played like Theo Hernandez, Giroud and Leao of their energy.
Milan always seem to be fighting against the tide when it comes to renewals after the Donnarumma exit, captain Romagnoli leaving for another Serie A club, Calhanoglu crossing the city rivalry and the Kessie saga, and now the Leao shadow hangs over the management.
The paper asks: ‘What is Milan without Theo’s run, Giroud’s goals and Leao’s happiness? What does it become without the athletic condition to support the aggressive and intense game that has yielded a miraculous Scudetto?’
Competitive action then resumed in the new year with a 2-1 win against Salernitana that should have been a bigger margin and a 2-2 draw against Roma where the game was mostly in hand but featured a capitulation inside the final few minutes.
Then things really fell apart: five defeats in the last six games, 16 goals conceded, defeated in the Supercoppa, eliminated in the Coppa Italia and now in sixth place. Pioli tried to keep on top of things by sticking to the system and brand he knew, but it did not work.
Once it became clear the same approach that won the Scudetto was unable to protect a defence in disarray, he switched to a 3-5-2 to try be more compact, aiming to hit Inter on the break while counting on the Nerazzurri’s tiredness from the Coppa Italia.
It is a collapse that has been gradually occurring over months and has accelerated in the last four weeks, but now the whole Milan environment must rally around the coach and the team, or that top four goal could become a mirage in the distance.
