A few nights ago, I was watching Real Madrid play Deportivo, and I thought "man that team kicked us out of the Champions League only a few years ago". Since then they've gone downhill , been relegated to Liga Adelante and are now fighting to keep their place in the Primera division. The same can be said about Celta Vigo who were also once a team that regularly finished in the Top 4 and took part in the Champions League. Then there is Liverpool, who despite showing real improvement this season, have really struggled to regain their status as a top club as they once were. The examples are countless of how bad management, bankruptcy, and perhaps a little bit of bad luck can leave a football club , and it's fans in shambles.
My deepest fears is to witness the free-fall of Milan into a team that is no longer competitive , not only on the European scale, but also on the domestic front. Yes, my deepest fear is Milan turning into a Deportivo.
Granted, Milan have only played 7 games this season, but the fact is, all these 7 matches were winnable! We have not played against Juventus, Roma, Inter, Napoli, Lazio, Arsenal, or Barca. We have played against Anderlecht, Sampdoria, Udinese, Bologna, Cagliari, Parma, and Atalanta!
Recent performances have been slightly better than the initial horror shows exhibited at the start of the season, however, these performances are still far from convincing. We have teams like Zenit spending 100m Euros on transfers, Chelsea continuing to reinforce their squad, and PSG spending like money grow on trees, while Milan have sold their best players and have purchased the likes of Pazzini, Constant, and Traore, among others, who in their wildest dreams would have never thought of breaking into Milan's first team only a few years ago.
This brings me to the point of UEFA's FFP rules, which has been a constant excuse used by Berlusconi and Galliani for refraining from purchasing any top quality players. But then what is the point of meeting the UEFA FFP rules when the current team stands very little chance of qualifying for the Champions League? The idea is to build a financially viable, and competitive team, yet it seems that Milan management have overlooked the competitive aspect and are expecting average players to miraculously turn into skilled magicians on the field.
The problems at the club have been heavily directed towards Allegri for not utilizing the players at his disposal properly, and while I agree there are better coaches than Allegri out there, who could probably organize the team in a better way, and churn out a few results, it would be naive to think that changing the coach will suddenly make this Milan team a title contender. The problem lies with the management, starting from the board, and the president.
A common defense is that the president has done a lot for the club, yes, we have seen a lot of titles won under Berlusconi's watch, but we cannot continue to call on past achievements to justify recent failures. It only takes common sense to see that the senators will soon get old and need to be replaced by equally talented youngsters who can uphold the name of the club and continue it's legacy. It only takes common sense to see that other clubs who we previously out-earned in revenues have overtaken us by miles. It takes common sense to see that the San Siro is no longer a world-class stadium but more of a pre-historic landmark. A stadium that floods every time it rains, a stadium that has very little facilities. All these aspects add up to gigantic amounts of revenue that Milan have missed out on over the years. Revenues that would have helped rebuild the squad properly to ensure that the team remains at a competitive level.
Another aspect is the diabolical lack of wage structure. We have fringe players like Flamini and Mexes pocketing 4M Euros a year! While in Torino, Juventus legend Gigi Buffon who earns a little over 3M euros is one of the top earners of the club.
At the moment, I don't foresee any easy fixes, the best a Milanisti can hope for is some sort of plan to build a new stadium or renovate the SanSiro, develop youngsters, implement an appropriate wage structure based on achievements on the field, and attempt to increase commercial revenues.
Until then, we'll have to learn to enjoy mediocre football.
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