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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| "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.
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| 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