Saturday’s game comes on the back of a loss on Wednesday
that was a pill apparently too hard to swallow for Milan fans. Like adding
insult to injury, we are going to Roma to play at the Olimpico, two things that
are always difficult to do even with a successful team. Roma’s fans have also
struggled to deal with their team’s failings this year, at one point bringing 50
kilos (110 lbs.) of carrots to their training ground and calling their players
rabbits (cowards.) But at least they spent their money and bought carrots,
which are actually edible and show some concern for the health of their players.
Milan fans just verbally assault their players and spew ridiculous dribble on
social media, blaming
everyone and everything they can for the loss as if we were top of the
league and this loss came out of nowhere. Acting entitled to a victory when
nothing at all pointed to the expectation of a better performance. Personally,
I’d rather have the carrots. And at least Roma spent lots of money to build
this team and were doing really well before they tanked, whereas Milan have
been inconsistent for years now with lots of problems both financially and from
management. So after a week that has been tough for everyone, Milan are being
thrown to the wolves.
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| Wolves are more humane than Milan or its fans |
Rudi Garcia was thrown to the wolves when he was hired at
Roma, and has enjoyed some big successes, but is very much under fire for a
very underperforming team now. His club have spent so much money to build a
team capable of winning the Scudetto, and yet they languish now in fifth place
with 33 points. They were also sent crashing out of the Coppa Italia at the
hands of Serie B side Spezia in December on penalties. Ouch. Still, at least
through Saturday, he is at the helm, with Roma’s management continuing to have
faith in him and publicly confirming him (what would that be like?)
That may not last long, though, with results like they had
on Wednesday vs. Chievo, when Roma went up 2-0 and ended up drawing to the
lower table side 3-3. For that match in Verona, Garcia lined up Szczesny;
Rüdiger, Digne, Maicon, Monolas; Falqué, Vainqueur, Florenzi; Salah, Gervinho,
and Sadiq. Unfortunately, Salah was injured in that match and is in question
for tomorrow as is De Rossi still in doubt for fitness. Then Garcia has a
laundry list of confirmed injured players, including Keita, Sakih Ucan, Abdullahi
Nura, Ponce, Nainggolan, Capradossi, and Strootman. Last but not least, Dzeko earned
himself a multiple match ban in their match vs. Genoa before the break for
abusing a referee and was unsuccessful in his attempts to have that ban
reversed, so will miss our match as well. There is one bright spot for the home side in that Totti is rumored to be returning from injury, but the wolves will certainly be crippled by missing so many players.
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| At least his management have the balls to make a public statement of support for him |
I doubt Milan fans are taking any comfort in any of that,
because they’re too busy completely losing it on social media and destroying
what was left of Milan class in the process. They are too busy speculating on
Mihajlovic’ future, since the club can’t possibly do the right thing and
confirm him or sack him, to know that he is still missing Balotelli, Lopez, and
Menez for fitness reasons, but should have a full squad otherwise. After criticizing
abusing their own players and feeling sorry for themselves instead of watching
the match on Wednesday with an open mind, it’s hard to imagine Roma’s wolves
being worse than Milan’s own fans. Pretty sure our players are more than
anxious to face whatever result on the pitch rather than be emotionally
bludgeoned… again. By their “supporters.”
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| At least Roma fans actually put some effort and creativity into their insults |
I watched Roma’s fans melt down this season as their team,
which was built to win, just choked time and time again, thinking I was happy
not to be a Roma fan, they seemed so terrible. Little did I know that my fellow
Milan fans would lower the bar so much when it came to fan douchebaggery, I
would rather literally be thrown to actual wolves than be associated with some
of these people on social media, it is mortifying. I don’t know what our
chances are of actually winning or maybe getting the draw in Rome, but I am
sure that no matter what the result, Milan fans will humiliate the crest even
more. We all hurt. We’re all tired of hurting. We all want things to change,
but not for the worse. Not at the expense of the class Milan fans used to be
known for. Here’s a hint: before you say something on social media, think WWMD?
(What Would Maldini Do?) I know it’s probably hard to remember, but try. Our
class is all we have left as fans, and if you give that away because of our
suffering, then they have really won. It’s bad enough that everyone and
everything else at the club has been thrown to the wolves.
This post inspired by the music of
NIN’s “Mr. Self Destruct”
Roma vs. Milan
Saturday, January 9 • 20:45 CET (2:45pm EST)
This match will be shown LIVE on RAI in the U.S.