Milan Obsession

As if anyone needed more reasons to hate Inter… they are a plague to society, and their fans have the IQ of a rock. Wait, I’m sorry, rocks, I didn’t mean to insult you. If it’s not wiretapping, matchfixing, and taking down a whole league, then it’s racism. So it shouldn’t really surprise that they are quickly developing a reputation for sexism, too. Just one more reason to hate Inter.

Amidst all of the angst and concern that we as Milan fans suffer like the worst kind of PTSD, today’s La Gazzetta dello Sport shed some light on something really amazing that is happening at Milan: our wage bill is shrinking. Quickly. Meanwhile, it seems like our squad has improved a lot in quality, even if it is still very young in comparison. Even if we don’t find the immediate success on the pitch that we seek, this news is some of the best news we’ve had in a long time and points to a lot of hope for our future.

Players will often talk about how no matter how much they love the club they play for, there is no higher honor than playing for their country. Which is great for fans when they support the same club and national team that player plays for. But players can get injured on national team duty, or come back late or tired and not be available for their next club match. And that is the trouble with International Breaks.

Some people don’t have any idea why I hate Inter so much. It goes well beyond sport, it’s not just a cross-town rivalry for me. Most people don’t seem to know or remember the events of 2006 and the scandal known as Calciopoli. Fewer people know Inter’s role in this scandal, let alone how they benefited from it. So with the Derby on the horizon, this podcast is all about why I hate Inter.

After Romelu Lukaku was horrifically racially abused on Sunday by Cagliari fans, I wanted to use the only tool I know of that could possibly impact the situation - or at least other people – writing. But then I realized that I already have written about this problem. So many times. And nothing changes. It keeps happening. It’s like an infinite loop of racism and hypocrisy in Serie A.

Milan managed to take all three points from a subdued Brescia today to reward the 56,000 fans who showed up to the San Siro. But to hear Giampaolo tell it, it was a complete disaster. Nay, Paqueta is too Brazilian. And he’ll start whomever he wants up front. The guy sounds more like the grumpy old man telling you to get off of his lawn. Maybe he was just cranky from wearing the suit. And he is crazy stubborn about doing things his way, at the cost of actually lining up the best team and winning in the best possible way. So I’ve developed a plan: have the media tell him the opposite of what is working. Then he’ll stubbornly do the right thing, just to spite them. It’s reverse psychology.

Saturday is the big day that many have seen coming since Brescia won promotion at the end of last season: it’s Donnarumma vs. Donnarumma. Alfredo Donnarumma was the capocannoniere last season in Serie B, and Gigio Donnarumma is Milan’s starting goalkeeper. It’s David vs. Goliath, the shooter vs. the shotblocker. And the strangest thing is that Milan might not be favorites to win.

After all of the excitement of summer and the optimism surrounding an apparently solid mercato, Milan fell flat on their face in their opening match of the season. There are plenty of questions about the mercato, the coach, the system, the players, and more. So we had plenty to discuss, even if the news wasn’t good.

Marco Giampaolo was a coach with ideas, they said. He would play his typical 4-3-1-2. During the summer, we saw such improvement in play, even if the results didn’t quite come. Then came the friendly with Cesena last week, and we were unable to put the game away against a Serie C side. That was worrying, but surely it was just a fluke. However against Udinese, we saw that it wasn’t a fluke at all. In fact, it seemed that Giampaolo had no ideas.