Napoli-Milan Preview: A Date With Destiny

With nine matches left, people have left Milan for dead. The table shows that we are in ninth place, but upon closer observation, we are only two points from seventh, four points from sixth, and six points from fourth place. Sure, that dream hinges on other teams dropping points. It also requires a near perfect finish to our season, which starts Sunday, with a trip to Napoli. The same team we unnecessarily dropped three points to in October because of injuries, suspensions, and a manager's fetish for benching our best player. And this Napoli is struggling to maintain form and fight for the Scudetto, despite not having played in Europe. As always, it will be an epic battle at the Maradona, and our team is unlikely to get any support at all from fans. But it is the first match of the rest of our season – a date with destiny.

Will they take control of their own fate?

Sérgio Conceição: Tenacious Warrior

Winning requires incredible discipline and mentality. The ability to inspire others to win requires even more, it requires leadership, charisma, character, empathy, and confidence and belief that are unshakable when everything is stacked against you. It also requires an incredible work ethic and attention to detail. As someone whose origins meant the odds were stacked against him, Sérgio Conceição somehow developed all of these qualities and then some. He won as a player, he has an unbelievable winning record as a manager, and off the pitch, he is devoted to his family and his religion and the people he loves in this life. He played football at the highest level, now manages football at the highest level, and works tirelessly to be successful in both his professional life and his personal life. He is a tenacious warrior.

He will fight to the end for Milan, and the players are responding.

Milan 2, Como 1: The Comeback Kings

Milan have been called a lot of things this season, but since Conceição arrived, names with the word "comeback" in them are starting to stick. After winning 3-2 last week having been down 2-0 against Lecce, this week, it was Como's turn. Milan turned this one around to win 2-1. Again. Conceição has already won 10 matches in all competitions since he arrived at Milan, and of those 10 wins, six were comeback wins. Hopefully, after the international break, they'll learn how to win games from the first minute. But until then, they are being touted as Serie A's comeback kings.

Bringing Milan back into the match over and over again.

Milan-Como Preview: Cutrone's Homecoming

For those who have followed Milan for more than six or eight years, you may remember a promising young player from our youth system called Patrick Cutrone. After promoting to the first team, he made 90 appearances and scored 27 goals for Milan. In 2019, he was sold to Wolverhampton because he was not in the plans of one Marco Giampaolo. But he was one of those Milan nel cuore players that just hurt to see go, and it was clearly hard for him, too. His career also suffered, and after relatively unsuccessful loan spells in Serie A, in 2022, he came home... to Como, his hometown. On Saturday evening, he will return to the San Siro as their captain, with probably only one familiar face, Matteo Gabbia, in the Milan squad. Milan are just one point from eighth and two points from seventh, so need every single point they can get. Even if that means they have to spoil Cutrone's homecoming.

Cutrone is more than welcome to come home, but Milan may spoil his homecoming.

Who Is Actually Running Milan?

Ever since Gerry Cardinale purchased AC Milan, the entire club's management has been in a constant state of change, with questions recurring as to what his goals even are as an owner. First, Gazidis left and Furlani was appointed CEO, then he infamously had Maldini fired. After a bunch of gaslighting and nonsense about "working groups" and not having people in specific positions as before, they restored an identical management hierarchy. When that was clearly unsuccessful, they asked Ibrahimović to join RedBird as an Operating Partner and Senior Advisor to Milan, a position with duties and powers that have never been clarified. It has never been clear who is making the sporting decisions in this inexperienced group of egotistical directors. Now, with additional changes to the sporting sector on the horizon, more than ever, everyone is questioning, "Who is actually running Milan?"

One or more of these men is supposedly running Milan, but who?

Lecce 2, Milan 3: Not the Journey, But the Destination

People talk about how "It's not the journey, but the destination." And I can only assume that Milan took that as a personal challenge at the Via del Mare on Saturday. Because the journey was like having your heart ripped out of your chest, stomped on, run through a meat grinder, then forcefully reformed, shoved back into your chest cavity, and finally haphazardly reattached at full time. (Obviously, I watched the whole thing, how could I not?) After going down 2-nil to the 16th place team, an own goal, a penalty, and finally a goal from the run of play dragged us back to get the 3-2 win over Lecce. Kind of like everything going on at the club right now, it was painful as hell, but eventually we got the three points. After three brutal consecutive losses, finally, at least it was not the journey, but the destination.

It took until he 81st minute, but we got there.

Lecce-Milan Preview: Things Can Get Worse

Some nightmares never cease to haunt you, and that is how I feel about Lecce's manager, Marco Giampaolo. He created the model for what this management should have done after they hired the wrong manager last summer, which is obviously to sack him in early October and hire a much better manager to right the ship. Ironically, this season, he was hired by Lecce in November to be that better manager for them after Luca Gotti was not working out. For Milan, where pundits have crucified Conceição after a  whirlwind 17 matches in just two months, Giampaolo is a reminder that things can get worse.

The man has seen an entire season in just two months.

Podcast • Crisis Intervention Training

This is a really tough time to be a Milan fan. With the effects of poor management decisions growing exponentially, and the fans getting angrier and angrier, it is difficult to remain calm when results are poor. Like crashing out of the Champions League. Or losing our game in hand, effectively ending our chances for Champions League qualification for next year. Or losing to Lazio at home after going down to ten men. Thankfully, my fellow Milanista Søren was willing to join me to help process some of the things happening at the club and provide some crisis intervention training for our fellow Milan fans.

Milan is in full crisis mode.

Milan 1, Lazio 2: Blackout

Watching dreams die is so painful. Watching them die in those horrific "Welcome to Dreamland" kits is so very much worse. But when it's your team, your dreams, it hurts on a level that people who are not supporters do not understand. When there are other things contributing to the loss of all you dreamed of, such as past managers, referees, poor management, or even other fans directly impacting results, it can feel like the whole world is against you and your beloved Milan. And it can get worse, too, because both the Primavera and Milan Futuro teams lost on the same day as Milan's stoppage time 1-2 loss to Lazio as we were on ten men. Sunday was a total blackout.

The players are the first to hurt by results like this.

Milan-Lazio Preview: Defiance

Sunday night's clash at the San Siro is significant in multiple ways. First, obviously, Milan are desperate for points, and taking them from a team above them is even more important. Second, to defy all the talk from the unhinged Italian media so the team can have a peaceful week to train for once. But also, if you'll recall, our match away to Lazio was the first time He Who Shall Not Be Named benched Theo and Leão. Then, after scoring the goal to salvage the point, in an act that was seen as defiant, they did not join the team for a one minute water break, aka Waterbreakgate.™It still freaks me out how fans and the toxic Italian media will still talk about that one minute of hydration, but no one talks about the two points dropped because of the arrogant manager, who is no longer at the club. This match is a chance for the team to set the record straight by exceeding expectations, another type of defiance.

The best act of defiance is to show your best self.