Honor the Shirt

Mister Inzaghi was presented on Thursday at Casa Milan, and his press conference was like a salve to the soul for Milan fans. Amongst so many other things, he said, “My motto has always been 'Honor the shirt'. This has to be our motto now at Milan." Clearly, he hadn’t seen this season’s shirts, or he might have chosen a different motto. But his words and ideas and the respect he has for the club, management, the players, and the fans make him the ideal person to lead this Milan away from the past two years and back to success.

I cannot say enough how you should take the time to watch his press conference. I think I physically felt healing in my body watching him, hearing his voice, and listening to what it was that he was saying. It’s about an hour long, but you can skip the parts with Galliani and Barbara, they pretty much say the usual. If you don’t have an hour, there is a partial transcript here, it’s worth the read. One of my favorite quotes was about discipline, he said, “I can forgive a misplaced pass or a missed chance, but I won't forgive inappropriate and unprofessional behavior."

Casa Milan was turned into “Casa Milan Village” for the day, with lots of fun things to see and do for all ages. The players even got involved in the festivities, giving tours, serving drinks at the restaurant, etc. And of course, they signed tons of autographs.

Milan fans invade Casa Milan village for the team presentation

Your 2014-15 squad (before it has been fully Galliani-ed™)

"Wait are we the youth movement at Milan?"

Hmmm.... wonder why Niang and Gori got stuck with the kids?

Menez and Albertazzi help fans at Casa Milan

Captain Montolivo helps fans at Mondo Milan museum

Benedicic and Cristante give Mastour a haircut

Alex serves up drinks for customers

Pazzini represents on Radio Italia

Curva Sud was also at Casa Milan in full glory, which included a letter to Milan’s management: (via Rossoneriblog.com)

Always present but not silent

“We are now all set to usher in the new season, but also to make our voices heard,” the letter of the Milan Curva Sud reads.“In fact, we stand here to support the new coach Pippo Inzaghi and Milan’s new project, the Casa and everything that revolves around it, but we feel the obligation to have our say about the vicissitudes that have followed one another in the last few seasons and have led to the current decline and the failure to qualifying to any European competition next season.

“We thought we’d see something new but instead the early news talk of the usual meetings and deals with the same faces, Presidents of various clubs and agents. There is still talk about ‘parameter-zero’ and purchases of mediocre players that are only meant to enrich the pockets of the agents. We saw our Milan slowly losing the most precious pieces. We see a club with super-paid players that arrived on a free transfer and because of that we’re no longer able to free ourselves from them.

“We have an executive (referring to Galliani) who says the company has no money to spend on the transfer market and then ‘blackmails’ it, asking €60 million as severance package to leave. An executive who makes market moves such as Alessandro Matri – overpays and then has to get rid of him as soon as possible The same executive who took Seedorf hastily in January and then gave him a sack of money at the end of the season because of the huge contract that had been signed. This is just to mention some of the cases in recent years.

Curva Sud representing

“We are surprised that the President has yet to resolve the situation and the war that was created last season between those who want to bring change and innovation (Barbara Berlusconi) and those who want to continue to pursue their own interests (Adriano Galliani), continuing on a line that has brought us to the current situation.

“We are here today to support our colors and our shirts, but not forgetting some of what happened last year: one of the worst seasons on the Berlusconi era with a gap of 45 points from the first in the standings and the exclusion from European competitions. The final insult is the price of the season-tickets, which seems unjustified at the least. We look at these new evolutions doing what we do best  – support Milan at any cost. A year of anger. Return to be big. Return to be Milan.”

If you’ll recall, the day that Pippo retired, it was also the last game that many players played for Milan. Yet the Curva Sud only honored Pippo. He has a fantastic relationship with the fans, and is worshipped by the Curva. I expect that they will have his back no matter what this season, which is good news. We need as much solidarity as possible to get this club back on track.

Curva Sud in a demonstration of power

If none of the above have given you at least a little bit of hope, then maybe you will like the news about the presentation of four new players on Friday, also at Casa Milan: Alex, Menez, Agazzi, and Albertaazzi.

Alex taking questions at his presentation

Menez looking thrilled about wearing the yellow jersey at his presentation

 

Agazzi and Albertazzi at their presentation

The Douchebaggery Alert System™ is as low as it gets, and there is a hope for change, even if it is only a fool’s hope. The least we can do as fans is support Inzaghi in his motto, “Honor the shirt.”

This post inspired by the music of “Inno Milan”