INZAGHI FACES A NIGHTMARE SEASON WITH AC MILAN

With their new manager Filippo Inzaghi at the helm, the Rossoneri have suffered two heavy defeats in a row this pre-season and it does not look as if things can improve once the real action in Serie A gets under way.

 

D. Ray Morton, 28th July 2014.

New Milan manager Filippo Inzaghi looks on in horror as his side are vanquished by Premier League champions Manchester City

Italian teams have a tendency not to take exhibitions very seriously but AC Milan's most recent appearances will certainly worry their newly-appointed manager Filippo Inzaghi. The seven-time European champions were dreadful in their 3-0 loss to Greek side Olympiakos three nights ago in Toronto and they were equally abject in their 5-1 loss to Manchester City yesterday in Pittsburgh. To say Inzaghi has a tough challenge ahead of him in the coming season would be a grand understatement.

A.C. Milan are not only in crisis, they are a club who have been slowly dying for several years now. Having dominated the European and Italian football scenes on and off again during the Silvio Berlusconi era, the club are now spiralling out of control, incapable of challenging even in a now weakened Italian top flight. Serie A used to be the strongest league in the world. It is now probably Europe's fourth league, arguably fifth with the English Premier League, Spain's Liga and Germany's Bundesliga comfortably ahead. French football is on the rise too purely down to the rich owners of Paris St. Germain and Monaco.

Looking through the Rossoneri squad right now is a pretty depressing experience. In the past, even in times when the club underachieved, there was still a lot of star power available. They could be accused of being a group of talented individuals and not a great team at times. Nowadays, they simply do not have great individuals and they certainly do not have a team that can trouble the likes of Juventus, Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina and local rivals Internazionale. They are a mere shell of their former selves.

There does not appear to be a strategy for rebuilding either. The club's ownership is deadlocked in a battle between Silvio Berlusconi's daughter, Barbara, and Adriano Galliani, the shady vice-president/CEO who has been at the club since 1986. Their plan this summer was to try and offload troublesome striker Mario Balotelli for as high a fee as possible based on having a good World Cup. Though "Super Mario" scored against England in Italy's first match, his miserable performances in the subsequent two games dropped his value if anything. It was rumoured that they would accept a bid as low as €20m which Arsenal thought about for a while before pulling the plug on what would be too risky a gamble.

Strange bedfellows: Adriano Galliani and Barbara Berlusconi are now running Milan but there is zero cohesion between them

 

Even in they did sell Balotelli, who would they replace him with? The San Siro, at least the red side of it, is not the most tempting destination for a top-class player these days. Milan finished eighth last season. A disaster but there is no improvement in sight. Manchester United, who had their own nightmare season last campaign, finishing outside of the European positions, are totally restructuring and improving. They have an exciting manager in Louis van Gaal, they have the financial means to sign big enough names and they are quietly optimistic about challenging for the title. Milan have no such aspirations.

They have a young, inexperienced manager, a weak squad and tonne of debt without owning a ground from which they can generate revenue. Their player roster looks like a "who's who" of failures between the pudgy central defensive pair of Adil Rami and Philippe Mexès, flops like Robinho and Keisuke Honda as well as old-timers like Michael Essien and Christian Abbiati who seems not to know when to retire.

Simply put, the whole thing is a mess and a shambles. They finished eighth last year and there is absolutely no indication that they can do better in 2014/15. Sorry, Pippo. You were a club legend as a player, just as your predecessor Clarence Seedorf had been, but now you will enter the meat grinder. Good luck.

AC MILAN THE LAUGHING STOCK OF JANUARY WINDOW

Already Serie A's big under-achievers this season, seven-time European champions A.C. Milan find themselves in ninth place with a horribly inconsistent record of seven wins, seven draws and seven defeats. Not only that, they face Diego Simeone's on-form Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last 16 later this month with little realistic chance of defeating the rampant Rojiblancos who find themselves valiantly battling Barcelona and Real Madrid for the La Liga crown. To make matters worse for Milan, their activity in this past transfer window can be seen by some of their fans as a cruel joke.

Clarence Seedorf, with no experience of management or coaching whatsoever, has taken over the managerial reigns at San Siro and has not got off to a great start. They were eliminated from the Coppa Italia by struggling Udinese and there doesn't seem to be any miraculous change in their league performances with results largely hindering on volatile Mario Balotelli's form up-front. They have brought in two new players to add to their rag-tag bunch of mismatched former stars. Michael Essien joins from Chelsea whilst bizarrely, they have also snapped up Q.P.R.'s Adel Taraabt on a six-month loan despite spending the first half of the season at Fulham on another loan, being his sometimes promising but typically inconsistent self.

Milan already have plenty of creaking, elderly former superstars - the likes of Robinho, Philippe Mexes and Kaka spring to mind - and Essien adds to this almost ironically. Here is a player who was once considered one of the best midfielders in the world some years back before being struck with several long term injuries that have left him a mere shadow of his former self. Jose Mourinho attempted to revive him last season by taking him to Real Madrid on loan where he did not impress. This season, Essien has not had games at Chelsea under the Portuguese so it's clear that even his good friend does not rate him anymore.

Taarabt joins in a loan deal that has raised many eyebrows. Having only started a handful of times for Fulham, the creative Moroccan midfielder is not expected to set the world alight in Italy. His career is littered with spells at various clubs where he never quite broke through because despite his technical ability, huge questions remain over his attitude and tactical discipline.

Milan are truly clutching at straws here. Money appears to be tight so the possibility of getting in legitimate world class players is not there but by bringing in the likes of worn-out Essien and perplexing Taarabt in the short term, Milan are setting themselves up for mid-table mediocrity. Perhaps they have expected this this season but not challenging for anything might open the door for developing young players they already have pinned down to longer-term contracts. Essien and Taarabt will interfere with the likes of Bryan Cristante, Stephan El Shaarawy and Riccardo Saponara's development, three young players they could actually nurture rather than catering for a has-been and a problem child. Rossoneri fans would love to be proven wrong but realistically, things appear grim for them at the moment.

D. Ray Morton, 1st February 2014.