Who is really to blame?
I have 
done some thinking. Well, quite a bit in fact since I haven't been able to write, and the main question that has stuck in my head is; Who is really to blame for Milan's faults? Now it is so easy to point the figure at Leonardo, as he is young, inexperienced and has basically a handful (if that) of decent players at his disposal. And lets face it he has more players that are closer to his age than under the age of thirty.
Yes, part of the blame can be put on Leonardo but he cannot be made out to be the sole scapegoat in this crumbling rossonero side. Blame, if not the majority of it, has to go to management. Galliani and co. have done nothing to improve this Milan side since their 2007 Champions League victory in Athens.
That Champions League campaign alone, despite the win, saw Milan struggle and it was only in the latter half of the year did Ancelotti manage to reawaken his side with the return of Pippo Inzaghi from injury. However, Pippo is three years older and three times more susceptible to injury, there is no way he can carry this team on his shoulders for a whole season.
Returning to Gallaini and Braida; their transfer policy in recent years has been shocking to say the least. Seeing them get rid of the likes of Gilardino and Gourcuff and bringing in players like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Shevchenko to solve problems was never going to work. The only decent signing has been Pato and even he has been struggling to set the stage alight this season.
Leonardo has not been able to get the best out of Pato and has left questions about whether or not he will be able to. Leaving no surprise as to why 'the duck' could possibly want to rekindle his partnership with Ancelotti, as it seems that only Carletto holds the power to get the best out of this young Brazilian.
Which leads me to my next thought. If Leonardo is struggling with Pato- who knows how the team works, knows the players and the different environments in Italy- how does anyone expect him to bring the best out of Huntelaar who spent most of last year warming the Real Madrid bench? The Dutchman's confidence level undoubtedly took a knock and it will most likely take an even bigger knock as he struggles to score in a team that can barely provide him and Pato with a decent ball!
Now the latter problem does relate to the coach but it doesn't have to. Leo is still using the same system as his predecessor and it's the same team as last year except for the addition of Storari and Huntelaar; ironically the goalkeeper being Leonardo's best player this season. But there should be no excuse as to why the players are failing to score and letting in goals like it's going out of fashion. No excuse what so ever.
Personally, and I think most can agree, Leonardo was not the right man for the job and in actual fact isn't even qualified to coach a team in Serie A. This again goes back to my point about the poor management of the club. Milan should have hired a proper, qualified and experienced coach. There is no reason why Milan couldn't have got a proper coach to begin with as the likes of Edy Reja, Walter Mazzarri, Claudio Ranieri and probably for a few brief hours Walter Zenga were without jobs. While Luciano Spalletti was looking ever so close to being shown the door by the Sensi's too.
This just goes to show that
fewer people have the desire to work and be associated with this club, as their fading reputation precedes them. Milan are no longer able to tempt the big names to the club, leaving them stuck with the same team just a year older.
Even if this is the case and Leonardo was the only option, Ancelotti and Galliani knew that his time had come to an end and that they had to call in someone new. They knew for at least a month before Carlo's departure that Leo would be named the new coach so why did Milan not make him Ancelotti's understudy?
There has been no sign that Leonardo sat in on training camps, worked on tactics with Ancelotti or anything coach like and this is where I believe Milan went wrong. To throw Leo in to the deep-end with no armbands to help him float has brought this team down by itself and this is management's problem. Despite the lack of new faces to the team the current team is still capable of producing results, yet they are not, and that is the reason why.
I believe it's time, not only for a team change, but a management change starting with Galliani and Braida and quite possibly even Berlusconi whose political career has put his Milan priorities to a stand still.
done some thinking. Well, quite a bit in fact since I haven't been able to write, and the main question that has stuck in my head is; Who is really to blame for Milan's faults? Now it is so easy to point the figure at Leonardo, as he is young, inexperienced and has basically a handful (if that) of decent players at his disposal. And lets face it he has more players that are closer to his age than under the age of thirty.Yes, part of the blame can be put on Leonardo but he cannot be made out to be the sole scapegoat in this crumbling rossonero side. Blame, if not the majority of it, has to go to management. Galliani and co. have done nothing to improve this Milan side since their 2007 Champions League victory in Athens.
That Champions League campaign alone, despite the win, saw Milan struggle and it was only in the latter half of the year did Ancelotti manage to reawaken his side with the return of Pippo Inzaghi from injury. However, Pippo is three years older and three times more susceptible to injury, there is no way he can carry this team on his shoulders for a whole season.
Returning to Gallaini and Braida; their transfer policy in recent years has been shocking to say the least. Seeing them get rid of the likes of Gilardino and Gourcuff and bringing in players like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Shevchenko to solve problems was never going to work. The only decent signing has been Pato and even he has been struggling to set the stage alight this season.
Leonardo has not been able to get the best out of Pato and has left questions about whether or not he will be able to. Leaving no surprise as to why 'the duck' could possibly want to rekindle his partnership with Ancelotti, as it seems that only Carletto holds the power to get the best out of this young Brazilian.
Which leads me to my next thought. If Leonardo is struggling with Pato- who knows how the team works, knows the players and the different environments in Italy- how does anyone expect him to bring the best out of Huntelaar who spent most of last year warming the Real Madrid bench? The Dutchman's confidence level undoubtedly took a knock and it will most likely take an even bigger knock as he struggles to score in a team that can barely provide him and Pato with a decent ball!
Now the latter problem does relate to the coach but it doesn't have to. Leo is still using the same system as his predecessor and it's the same team as last year except for the addition of Storari and Huntelaar; ironically the goalkeeper being Leonardo's best player this season. But there should be no excuse as to why the players are failing to score and letting in goals like it's going out of fashion. No excuse what so ever.
Personally, and I think most can agree, Leonardo was not the right man for the job and in actual fact isn't even qualified to coach a team in Serie A. This again goes back to my point about the poor management of the club. Milan should have hired a proper, qualified and experienced coach. There is no reason why Milan couldn't have got a proper coach to begin with as the likes of Edy Reja, Walter Mazzarri, Claudio Ranieri and probably for a few brief hours Walter Zenga were without jobs. While Luciano Spalletti was looking ever so close to being shown the door by the Sensi's too.
This just goes to show that
fewer people have the desire to work and be associated with this club, as their fading reputation precedes them. Milan are no longer able to tempt the big names to the club, leaving them stuck with the same team just a year older. Even if this is the case and Leonardo was the only option, Ancelotti and Galliani knew that his time had come to an end and that they had to call in someone new. They knew for at least a month before Carlo's departure that Leo would be named the new coach so why did Milan not make him Ancelotti's understudy?
There has been no sign that Leonardo sat in on training camps, worked on tactics with Ancelotti or anything coach like and this is where I believe Milan went wrong. To throw Leo in to the deep-end with no armbands to help him float has brought this team down by itself and this is management's problem. Despite the lack of new faces to the team the current team is still capable of producing results, yet they are not, and that is the reason why.
I believe it's time, not only for a team change, but a management change starting with Galliani and Braida and quite possibly even Berlusconi whose political career has put his Milan priorities to a stand still.
Comments
It has left Milan looking to find stars early in their careers (eg Pato) or discarded by others (Huntelaar) or big names on the way down (Beckham, Dinho).
A great Coach might be able to cobble that into a competitive team but one making his Serie A debut was always going to have a hard task.
I read recently that tentative approaches have been made to bring Adriano back to Italy in red and black. That really would be a sign of how desperate things have got.