Today is
the day. There have been a lot of benchmarks leading up to this new management
and new season and new Milan. But today is the day the team resume training at
Milanello. It’s known as Raduno, or rally, when the fans gather to watch the
first day of training for the team. The beginning of a new season, the most
highly anticipated season in years. It’s almost impossible not to dream of the
possibilities. But one thing is for certain: today marks a starting point for
the new Milan era.
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| Every dream has a starting point. Mine is learning how to say this guy's name properly. |
With so
many delays with the closing of the club, a lot of Milan fans played fantamercato and put together teams that
were absolutely ridiculous. We spoke of money as if it were going to be growing
on trees, and were blissfully oblivious to those FFP guidelines. But others of
us were more cautious, talking about money in terms of wisdom and experience
and building a team, not just buying players like Inter.
With six
new players signed before Raduno, I
think people on both sides of the discussion are thrilled. All of the fans I
have talked to feel the signings are quality and at reasonable prices,
absolutely upgrading the team. Maybe some fans won’t get their ultimate fantamercato team, but I don’t hear any
of them complaining. And maybe those of us who are naturally cautious haven’t
fully let go of our reservations… oh wait, I think maybe we have. These
signings are well thought out, well planned, well shopped, and well signed.
Maybe they won’t all work out (looking at you Borini,) but it’s difficult to argue
that Fassone & Mirabelli haven’t done their homework. On paper, this team
is really shaping up.
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| Finally he'll have the players to implement his vision for Milan |
Has
Montella slept at all since their shopping spree? I doubt it. How excited is he
to go to work today with all of these new players? He worked so hard and
withstood the pressure of the neverending sale of the club saga all last year.
He paid his dues, and now he is being repaid brilliantly. They are entrusting
him with real players who can actually implement his tactics and play well enough
to demonstrate his vision. Players with the talent and versatility for him to actually flex his tactical muscles. Sweet Poli will be at Bologna, running his little heart out
like a puppy dog, and we will have Musacchio, Rodriguez, Kessié, André Silva,
Borini, and Calhanoglu instead. No, I don’t think Montella has slept. Like a
kid on Christmas morning, he’s got to be so excited.
But what
about us fans? Have we slept? I know I haven’t. After years of being discounted
and disrespected, with signings that grew our wage bill and increased the
mocking of us from fans of other clubs, we are the envy of everyone now. All of
these great signings, all done with the respect for the fans in mind. That word
transparency that we all begged for as if asking for a miracle is now a
reality, and Fassone has made it very clear that they value the fans – both in
word and in deed. It’s hard not to get our hopes too high, but compared to how
we felt last year at this time, it feels like we won the lottery.
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| Restoring Milan fans' faith and dreams since April 2017 |
So much
excitement, and still so many unknowns. It’s still possible that this doesn’t
end the way we all want it to. But for the first time in more than ten years,
the possibility of it going exactly the way we want it to is finally pretty
realistic. How quickly Milan returns to a fraction of its glory and how many
trophies are in our future is something we can think about at the end of this season.
But with new players, plus the consistency of Montella and many of the players
staying on, today is certainly a starting point. The starting point where all
of our dreams finally have the possibility of becoming a reality.
This post inspired
by the music of Muse’s “New Kind of Kick”