Hell Hath No Fury

Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,

Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.

            --William Congreve, in The Mourning Bride, 1697

William Congreve coined that term before Milan even existed, and probably only shortly before the scourge of a man called Adriano Galliani started raising hell with his shortsighted and expensive transfer ways. So poor Congreve had no idea what kind of fury could be unleashed from a woman who loved a club so much that was held hostage by such a horrible CEO like Galliani. Clearly Galliani doesn’t either, because he’d think twice before unleashing his crippling free transfers and loan deals with mediocre players that we “can’t free ourselves from,” as the Curva so poignantly put it in June. Truly, hell hath no fury like a Milanista scorned.

Dr. Gallianistein strikes again

I don’t even know where to begin. Well actually, I do. Let’s start with the Goalkeepers, something I’ve talked a bit about this summer on the podcasts and more. For the past couple of years, I have advocated that we pick up a solid 27-ish year-old keeper to bridge the gap between Gabriel and Abbiati. Before that, actually, we should have never bought Gabriel, we should have stepped up to the plate for Perin. Or maybe Bardi or Scuffet. But whatever. So now Galliani buys Agazzi, because he was on a free transfer. I mean they waited for him. Acted like we’d signed the next Buffon. But Agazzi is terrible. Amelia was better.

So then Galliani uses his elite contacts to bring in Diego Lopez, pushed out at Real Madrid for a… wait for it…. really good 27 year-old, sending the 32 year-old to us on an infamous free transfer. Which translates into high wages. And a four year contract. Four years. That’s an awfully long time to hold onto a keeper if he drops in form. And his wages are nearly twice that of Abbiati’s, even though no one is delusional enough to believe that he is twice as good. But he also made the fourth keeper on the roster for Milan, thanks to Amelia’s contract running out and Bologna snatching up Coppola, who had been offered a one year contract renewal at Milan. Which means that Gabriel, our keeper of the future, was finally loaned at the last minute to Carpi in Serie B, who also have four keepers. So our future in goal is competing for playing time with three other keepers in Serie B. Bravo, Galliani. You’re a freaking genius.

The curse of the Brazilian third kit... your ticket out of Milan

Which brings us to the defense. We have ten defenders. Ten defenders. Of those, one, De Sciglio is possibly going to become the quality of defender we need. The rest are mediocre at best, and as much as we might like the heart or specific skills of any of them, none of them would have been allowed on the pitch with Milan’s defense of the past. Albertazzi was won in a blind auction when resolving the co-ownerships in June. Alex was brought in on a Galliani special (free transfer,) but was described as “slow” by his former SD, Leonardo. Rami took a pay cut to fund his transfer, because Milan apparently didn’t want him quite badly enough to spend an extra €500.000 in transfer fees. But he’s got his own limitations, too, and is prone to outbursts that usually send him to a new club. With the exit of Constant, we upgraded ever so slightly to Armero to the tune of €500.000, or one Rami paycut. So after spending €5.3m on our defense, it is not €5.3m better, and we still have ten defenders. One more than we started with.

One more… why is that? Well Zaccardo was set to go back to Parma as part of the deal to bring in Biabiany for our midfield. In fact, Biabiany had taken his medicals and Milan had even sent out a picture of him wearing a Milan jersey and scarf when news hit that the deal was off because Zaccardo couldn’t agree to terms with his former club. You know, the club whose poor 4.5 year contract was transferred over when we handed them Strasser and Mesbah for the then 31 year-old? He’s done this before, too. Like the party crasher that never leaves. But I can’t blame him as much as I blame Galliani in the first place. His adherence to the “commitment to youth”  and “shorter contracts” policies that he shoved down our throats has been appalling.

Looks likes a homeless person, but treats transfers as if he's a primadonna

So in the midfield, Biabiany was in Milano, and was a Milan player briefly before Zaccardo’s primadonna move, so Galliani struck quickly and instead brought in Bonaventura, stealing him away from beneath Inter’s nose. While I feel absolutely horrible for Biabiany, it feels kinda good to have done that to Inter. But we paid more for Bonaventura, €7m by the end of things compared to €4m + Zaccardo for Biabiany, and are stuck with an extra player until at least January, too (thanks, Zaccardo.) Making Poli permanent was a great move, but renewing Muntari’s contract and giving him a raise was absolutely not. Also, keeping Essien, who never should have come, but was a panic buy from Galliani once again instead of trusting in our youth (like Cristante.)

We added the young van Ginkel on loan from Chelsea without option to buy, but sold Cristante, at his own request. He cited too many players in the squad (thanks, Galliani,) and not enough playing time (thanks, Galliani’s ex-girlfriend Allegri.) Not sure if this was a wise move for him and would have loved to have seen him stay, but once again, Galliani’s lack of planning for the future sees us lose another Milan youth prospect. Plus van Ginkel won't be here past June. And of course, the best triumph of the mercato probably had very little to do with Galliani, it was De Jong’s decision to stay.

Look at the happiness you stole from him, Zaccardo (no this was not photoshopped)

In attack, we lost Balotelli and brought in Torres, an older, less complete striker. This is a massive downgrade. Like if you asked your parents for an iPhone, and they finally bought you an original iPhone now, Galliani gleefully pointed out that he had saved the club €37m because he wanted to sign Torres in 2007, but he cost too much. But while Torres may prove slightly more useful than a first generation iPhone, he’s also six years older than the striker he replaced, and with a lot fewer features.

Don’t forget that we still owe Manchester City €12m for Balotelli, so it’s not like we made the €20m that Liverpool paid us for him. And keep in mind that we still owe a goodly part of the €11m over four years we agreed to for Matri, even if he’s on loan. And Galliani also failed to get Robinho off the books yet again as well. Despite what you think of his abilities, the experience of Kaka will be missed, too. So while Galliani pats himself on the back, even praises his genius, the hard-earned money we fans spend on the club is still being squandered on his horrible transfer deals.

"C'mon, Galliani, sign me for a third time. I triple-dog-dare you."

Which brings me to the part that infuriates me the most. Some argue that our squad was improved, and certainly it’s down to “only” 28 players. That was good. I also think that the chemistry of the squad is improved, which may prove very important in the long run. But Galliani has thwarted our rebuilding process yet again with his free transfers, loan deals, and excessive wages and contract lengths. Again, he let two important younger players go in Cristante and Balotelli, and mostly signed players past their prime, mainly on long contracts so we will once again have trouble freeing ourselves of them. He says he wants to get back to Champions League, but doesn’t even bring in players worthy of Europa League, and lets our true future slip away.

People say things are different, that we can’t afford to buy the players that we did in the past. And why is that, exactly? Because Galliani kept the players of the past too long. He prided himself so much on bringing in so many players on free transfers, that he failed to see the long-term effects their inflated wages would bring to the club. That is why we are here now. Because of the habits that started back in the good times. The winning days didn’t last, but the effects of his habits surely did. And the financial strain that his miserly ways caused, too. He was penny wise and dollar foolish then, and even though that was hidden by trophies, it has caught up to the club now, and we are still paying for it. And he is still behaving so irresponsibly.

Bad transfer habits are just like riding a bicycle... you never forget how

If your house burned to the ground, would you rebuild it using old materials? Would you broker deals to borrow materials or beg for people to give you whatever low quality and surplus materials they had lying around for free? Would you buy materials on a payment plan when you actually had the money to buy them now and cheaper with cash? Of course you wouldn’t. But that is how Galliani rolls. And that is why he is lucky I live so far away from him, because I am so angry right now, I don’t even know what would happen if I saw him in real life. I am sick to death of him ruining our club. And even though on the surface, many people are pleased with this mercato, it will come back to haunt us. And Milan deserves better. We as fans deserve better. I deserve better. Hell hath no fury, indeed.

This post inspired by the music of Rammstein