Many fans have spoken of their disgust for the way that
Milan has treated its legends in recent years. From pushing them out, not even
calling them before announcing they wouldn’t be renewed or giving the captain’s
armband away, to pushing them into retirement and hiring them as a coach only
to fire them or to give them a squad that no one could coach. To say nothing of
the fact that so few even work for the club, they are treated like strangers in
their own family. For a club that is known for its family-like relationships,
it’s almost criminal that so many legends have become Milan martyrs.
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| Don't mess with our heroes |
People make mistakes, I get it. But making the same mistakes
again and again is unforgiveable. Particularly when it comes to the people who
sweat blood to fill your trophy room. In fact this may be the one point that
nearly all fans agree upon: Milan has treated it’s legends horribly.
Going back to the summer of 2012, not only were so many
players pushed out, because the club was so terrible, they didn’t get a chance
to say goodbye to the fans, many of them having been at the club for so many
years. The next year, they announced in the media that Ambrosini was not going
to be renewed, but failed to inform him of this fact before they announced it.
Furthermore, the captain’s armband, which was supposed to have been given to
Abbiati, was given to Montolivo instead, another announcement made before
consulting Abbiati ahead of time.
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| A simple phone call for those who sweat blood for you... is that too much to ask? |
We all know that Seedorf gave up his playing career
midseason and rushed to heed the call of Galliani to take over as coach when
Allegri was fired. Insert politics and
behind-the-scenes-who-knows-what-happened, and despite having the best record
of any coach for the past two years, he gets sacked. But they did learn
something from this: they gave him too high of a salary. So then they pulled
Inzaghi into the mess, giving him a much lower salary, more player turnover,
and lower quality players, too. And now he’s been sacked after being basically
a placeholder while they hire an ex-Inter player and coach and offer him
players worth tens of millions in transfer fees.
You can argue about a lot of things, you can defend various
moves management have made in regards to spending or not, free transfers, etc.
But it is nearly impossible to defend the douchebaggery that they have been
handing down to our legends. Particularly the common courtesies of a simple
phone call, etc. I have no idea why management have lost sight of one of the
trademark parts of Milan class, but they have. And while us fans have suffered
watching it happen, it’s our Milan legends who have become Milan martyrs.
This
post inspired by the music of Muse’s “Psycho"