Milan Obsession

It feels like Milan have been on their last chance for Champions League qualification for some time now. Indeed, we are not even the masters of our own fate, but must win both of our remaining matches and hope for the results of other teams to go our way. Despite the fact that Frosinone are already relegated, they will be playing for honor. Which is more than Milan has played for lately, so therefore still dangerous. Milan must end this match with three points if we even want to have a chance. This game is our penultimate chance.

Fans were so excited this year to welcome Maldini back into the club. Finally, we could sleep at night. He represents the best of Milan and the best of all of us, and we knew our club would be safe in his hands. Because if it weren’t, he would be honest and tell us. Just like he was brutally honest about what he thought should be done when he wasn’t at the club. And he was always right, too. The fact that Galliani never listened to him or brought him back was one of the most painful parts of being a Milan fan in the post-Maldini era. Yet Maldini coming back didn’t solve all of our problems overnight. One of the reasons being that the players and fans haven’t followed his example. It’s hard to have a Maldini-esque Milan when we are not all willing to be a little more like Maldini.

I wasn’t sure Milan would be up to the task given their performances the past two and a half months or so, but somehow, they put in about 30 improved minutes of football and that was enough to take home all three points from Florence today. Which was a miracle for fans and also for the fact that we have often struggled to win in their house. Because we have left our fate in the hands of other teams, it’s impossible to know if this was enough. But being arguably our toughest match of our final three, it is a big sigh of relief to get the win. In fact, it’s a bit of a miracle.

Remember that guy Montella? Spent a lot of time on his hair, matching his socks to his outfits, etc.? Probably spent as much of his time at Milan at Diesel getting all of his free clothes as he spent thinking about lineups? Yeah, that guy. Well he’s back at Fiorentina again, and still seems hurt about getting fired by Milan. So while Gattuso is just trying to save our season before he gets the axe, we’d better watch out for the pretty boy coach, because he wants revenge.

Milan can’t even celebrate a win anymore because we are unravelling so badly it doesn’t feel like a win. Of course we’ve still been mostly losing, but adding on a ridiculous amount of poor discipline on and off the pitch. With the same tired tactics leading to worse performances and results, it’s actually not that much of a surprise that Gattuso and the team just seem lost.

From soul-crushing performances and behavior that should be beneath even an Inter player, we managed to win this match in spite of ourselves. The game had everything vile about football: red cards, a player refusing to sub on and possibly cursing out their coach, and another probable season-ending injury that left another player leaving the San Siro on crutches. Did I mention we actually won? Yeah, that kind of got lost in all of the other stuff. Three very needed points that could not wash away the bitter taste in our mouths. Otherwise known as despicable Milan.

First, we plummeted from third place all the way down to seventh. Meanwhile, the performances plummeted even further. There were discipline problems, racial abuse, and injuries. Now, ritiro, the most useless “team building” (read: punishment) activity ever known to man. And in ritiro, Caldara ruptured his ACL and will be out again for another 5-6 months. As if that weren’t bad enough, we are facing an in-form Bologna that are determined to climb the table as much as possible in their last four games, coached by our former manager, Mihajlovic. Please, someone, just make it stop.

Milan are losing what we hoped was a strong grip on a return to Champions League for next year. Lost, too, are the hopes and dreams of Milanisti everywhere. But also completely lost is Gattuso. All along his journey as first team coach, he has struggled with tactics and systems and lineups. For a while, Milan survived on his grinta alone. The players swore their allegiance to him and their work ethic showed, even when the results didn’t come. But when the going got tough, he became more and more stubborn, until he lost not only matches, but also lost the team. In desperation, he’s thrown the whole team into ritiro… again. It’s so obvious that he’s simply losing it.

Everyone is talking about how Milan’s Champions League dreams are on life support. Or how Gattuso’s time is up. But last week, two of our best warriors were racially abused. Well for more than just once, actually. And after all of that abuse, the FIGC handed down a suspended sentence of only a partial stadium ban to Lazio. Meaning that if fans behave themselves for 12 months, nothing at all will happen to them. Nothing. In 2019, our players and team got fined a total of €86,000 for holding up an opposition player’s shirt, but fans racially abusing two human beings get nothing. It’s beyond disgusting. And, in Italy, racism rules again.