Theo Hernandez says Milan forced him to leave with dire ultimatum: “I deserved better”

He hides behind all the Maldini talk instead of taking some accountability himself.
Still says that the cooling break that broke that team and ruined the season was blown out of proportion. That moment should have been the last time you played for Milan if Milan actually had a proper management and leadership, not 8 monts later. He did that because he was benched for being trash, and with that move as a one of the captains on the team he undermined the coach, but apparently he had great relationships with the coaches.
He even says that Leao’s head sometimes is in the wrong place, while his own head was rarely in the right place.
Calls himself the Best left back in serie A and Europe but he wasn’t wanted by anyone in Europe. Thats probably someone else fault too.
Calling himself a defender is the biggest insult to anyone that ever played a defender especially at Milan and Italy.

I am grateful to Theo for the awesome years, for the Scudetto, for the UCL semifinals, and for indeed being the best Serie A left back for a while. He is also the defender with the most goals scored for AC Milan, even above his idol (and our idol) Paolo Maldini, and that’s not small potatoes, and that even qualifies him as one of the club’s legends. If you are the highest scorer for the entire history of the club in your position, you do qualify as a legendary player. “Theão” were an amazing pair that terrorized the opponents and helped the team score multiple goals, earn multiple points, and earn a domestic championship. That part can’t be denied or forgotten. Anyone who denies that is not a worthy Milanista.

I also think that our HORRIBLE current management / owner ran him to the ground by never providing a deputy for him and by playing him every game, even when he was out of shape after international tournaments. He did decline as a footballer but the management has some responsibility for this. I’m afraid the same will happen to Alexis Saelemaekers who is also getting exhausted for playing every game and not having a suitable deputy. Anyway, Theo was an awesome player that did decline athletically due to years of being overextended (among other reasons I will mention next).

The management is also guilty of not paying Theo enough when he was indeed the best Serie A LB and arguably one of the best in the world, as evidenced by his starting position for France’s National Team which was and is one of the best national teams in the world. That is the very definition of world class – being a starter for a top national team, and being the best in his position for one of the top three leagues in Europe. Theo actually accepted a renewal for relatively little money at the time when he was in his prime and could have left for a bigger salary elsewhere. He chose to stay and that was a true Milanista’s move.

However, I am not grateful for his lack of accountability for the huge mistakes he made himself.

Just saying a probably not heartfelt “sorry” is not enough to pardon him for his mistakes. The red cards out of poor discipline (a chronic problem for him) were extremely damaging, especially the Feyenoord one. Theo failed his teammates numerous times by collecting silly yellow cards (often due to dissent and to being immaturely hot-headed), thus being suspended and leaving the teammates short-handed (again, in part due to the managers never providing to him a suitable backup; but there is no doubt that Theo was guilty too).

The cooling break saga can’t be discounted by just saying that it was blown out of proportion. No, it was extremely unprofessional and disrespectful to the coach AND the teammates. Theo’s disrespect of not one, but two head coaches, did spoil the environment at the club, ruined the sense of family that existed at the time of the Scudetto, and is partially responsible for some of the failures the team experienced.

No player is bigger than the club and all players need to respect the club and this storied jersey, even when the managers are trash. Playing for AC Milan is a privilege and unprofessional behavior towards the club is not acceptable even when the player doing it is one who clearly also contributed to the club’s success, and even when the player is being treated poorly by the management. That’s no excuse for disrespecting the club.

He compares his situation to Maignan, but even though Maignan is very enraged at how he was treated badly by the management, Maignan never acted less than professionally while on the pitch or in his relationship to the head coach and the teammates. Maignan is a classy gentleman and extremely professional. Theo unfortunately is not. So comparing his situation with Maignan’s is actually an insult to Maignan.

Also, at one point it was clear that Theo was not happy about playing for Milan and was making no effort to play well or to train professionally. His defensive failures are a direct consequence of his poor attitude in terms of remaining in shape and training hard to achieve that.

While Theo was instrumental for some of the club’s successes, he was also clearly detrimental to the club in his last couple of years, both for being hotheaded and leaving his teammates short-handed, and for having attitude problems that disrespected the club, the teammates, and the head coaches.

So, anytime a rational fan thinks about Theo Hernandez, there will be a mixed picture: some great memories and gratitude, some indignation for how the club treated him, but also rage at how he became detrimental and disrespectful to this storied club and ultimately kind of deserved the rebuke from the managers, pushing him out.

Like others said, it is not for nothing that no European club wanted to hire him at the end of his Milan tenure, and he had to go to a Mickey Mouse league at age 26. Players can be very good as footballers, but if they are poisonous to the locker room, decent clubs will not want to hire them.

The true is that while Theo was an awesome footballer who did deserve more consideration during his golden years, he also shot himself in the foot and ultimately deserved to be pushed out.

It is disheartening that Theo hasn’t learned from his own mistakes and still tries to display a rosy image of his own self, which unfortunately just doesn’t correspond with reality.

My advice for him would be: “Say that you deserved better, but only FOR A WHILE; also say that later you didn’t deserve better; you actually deserved to be pushed out.”

I would forgive Theo a lot more if instead of his self-serving words, I heard this from him:

“Yes, I miss Milan, will always be a Milanista, and I think I did contribute for a while; I think I had a time when I was the best LB in the league, and I do think that FOR A WHILE the management treated me poorly and I deserved better, BUT then I also turned bad, both personally and athletically, and from that point on, I made bad mistakes and ultimately deserved to be rebuked and pushed out. I am not the only person guilty of what happened but I also do recognize that I was indeed guilty of unprofessional behavior and lack of effort with my own athletic form, letting down my teammates, and then unfortunately I became detrimental to the club and the coaches in multiple ways. I love the club and I wish I had acted more professionally and more respectfully to this storied jersey. I’m happy for my contributions when everything was going well, but unhappy for my failures when things turned bad, which happened also due to my own shortcomings as a man and as a player.”

In summary – Theo was a gifted footballer and we are thankful for his good years, but he is also a flawed and immature man. It is disheartening that he hasn’t really learned from his own mistakes. His legacy at Milan is a mixed bag.