Welcome to the most disastrous Milan of the last 25 years Professor Seedorf! You have announced that you want to bring this team back to its former glory and "open a new cycle". Vast program, as De Gaulle said to the one who set out to eliminate fools and imbeciles.
His arrival is surrounded by a certain skepticism, partly because Milan fans have always been too critical with their number 10s: they dared to criticize Rivera and boo Rui Costa, before muttering too often during some of his last matches for the Rossoneri . But above all because there is a widespread feeling that the problems to be solved in today's Milan go well beyond the skills of a coach.
To start a new cycle, it is first of all necessary to make sense of an increasingly messy business management. You have been a professor on the field for your way of playing, made up of velvety touches, tactical wisdom and directives given to teammates; and what's more, you studied business disciplines and management techniques with Bocconi professors. Her experience on the field and in her classroom show her all too clearly that the current structure of Milan collides with the elementary principles of good corporate management.
A couple of months ago, Guido Rivolta, (also an avid AC Milan fan and also belonging to the category of someone who has been tempered by two relegations) wrote on this site that Barbara Berlusconi was damn right to point the finger at the Galliani-Allegri duo. But Allegri's dismissal does not appear to be an adequate solution to the seriousness of the problems reported. The clash was resolved with a compromise worthy of the worst policy of broad agreements (it must have had an echo in Brazil too) and led to a diarchy between the young scion and the old manager that does not bode well.
Companies with two managing directors are fatally destined to stall when any dissent on relevant decisions emerges, as demonstrated by many company cases being discussed at Bocconi. And today's Berlusconi appears too distracted by his political and judicial misfortunes to bring order to a quarrelsome top management.
Not only. Barbara left Galliani with competence over the aspects that she criticized most fiercely, i.e. the technical ones. And as if that were not enough, it is not clear whether Galliani, who had announced the typical resignations of politicians, i.e. those that expire like yogurt within 48 hours, will remain or not. And in the second case, if he really should be awarded a stellar liquidation, such as the one mentioned (50 million is the most accredited estimate).
But if so, what the hell is written in that contract, since not even the most overpaid bankers have obtained such figures? Alessandro Profumo received 40 million and was covered in criticism precisely because of the contrast with the two-three annuities of remuneration that are normally paid to an outgoing managing director. But the liquidation that would be due to Galliani breaks all bank records. It's not a golden parachute: it's the entire Folgore Division. And it is further proof that there is something obscure in today's management of Milan that casts sinister shadows on his future work.
You will also have learned from Bocconi professors that a multi-year strategic plan is needed to start a "new cycle". In recent times Milan has not only sailed on sight, announcing goals in the worst form of politics (the Champions League area is the football equivalent of the "reforms the country needs") but has strung together a monstrous series of technical errors and managerial, because he spent a very bad budget that the Fininvest crisis has continually reduced.
He let Pirlo, the best midfielder of the last generation, leave to focus on players like Van Bommel, however expensive and much less decisive. He bought Matri, a player whose fame does not extend beyond Bellinzona, at the same price at which Juventus bought Tevez, of international caliber and with a very different performance. He has guaranteed big salaries to defenders like Mexès and Zapata who feel almost contractually committed to committing three fatal errors per game. He continued to say that he intended to focus on young players, but only a splendid goal at San Siro averted the danger of seeing the talented Cristante leave. And so on, listing in a series that has no precedents in the history of Milan or, to be more precise, requires us to go back to the times in which Egidio Calloni and Luther Blisset alternated, that is, when Milan sadly headed towards collapse due to the choices villains of the leaders of the time.
Faced with such a bleak picture, there is a strong suspicion that the sad epilogue of the old cycle that took place in Sassuolo is not the result of purely technical errors and even less the fault of Allegri alone, but reflects the profound evils of a corporate management that is the faithful mirror of Berlusconi's descending parable.
In order to "open a new cycle", dear Clarence, you will have to fight against all of this, which means interpreting your role like the English, who not by chance call the coach manager. That is, he will have to tactfully retire Galliani, allow Barbara to occupy the limelight of corporate power at least formally and call her father-master into question as little as possible. If you succeed in all this, I am ready to propose you to my old faculty of Political Sciences for an honorary degree in diplomacy which will add another reason to your title of professor. Obviously that's what we Milan fans hope for, but it won't be easy at all. Welcome then dear Clarence, but above all best wishes.
