The long-awaited, overspeculated, and definitely over hyped arrival of Paulo Fonseca raised a lot more questions than answers. From his delayed arrival, his unusual living situation, to the questions all Milan fans had from the moment his name was mentioned with the club: Is he actually the right man for this job? His debut friendly match, a 1-1 draw with SK Rapid Wien last Saturday, did not really answer any of those questions. (Well, other than what do players look like after they've returned to training and have done double training sessions for two weeks?) And worse still, there is the question about whether the club is even setting him up to succeed, as they have signed exactly one player so far, with less than a month left until Serie A kicks off. But the team leaves for their U.S. tour on Thursday, and from that point, it is a whirlwind until the season actually begins. So, while it feels a lot more like frustration than peacefulness for us fans, this is probably the last bit of summer calm before the storm.
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| Maybe Milan fans should demand a signs of life video of these three, with their lack of transfer activity. |
Paulo Fonseca literally moved into Milanello and immediately began serving as official tormentor to the Milan players, with double training sessions nearly every day. To be fair, he seems to like to keep the mood light, but also seems very hands on and explains a lot of things rather than allowing the players to just play and learn. He said he expects them to think and react – quickly – while conditioning them so hard, they can barely move. A dichotomy that theoretically should eventually pay dividends, but for right now makes it difficult for them to be successful at either task. Who knows, though, I have only seen minimal clips of such intensive sessions. The players definitely seem mentally energized and eager to please a new manager, which is the whole point of changing managers anyway.
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| Has Fonseca actually taken out all our players? |
Certainly, it is not as though he had any revolutionary ideas that surfaced on Saturday. We saw an exhausted version of the players we had in May, minus the international players, and with a number of young players sprinkled in for good measure. And while SK Rapid were further along in their preparations for the season, it seemed just as obvious as ever that what our defense really needed since certain players left was a new defensive midfielder, far more than they needed new tactics or even a new manager.
Then there is the transfer market. Our management's negotiation techniques seem to be putting in super low bids on players, going back and forth until other clubs completely outbid us, then missing out on the players altogether. (I can only assume they will use this to justify signing lower quality players for much less money at the last minute.) Report after report of haggling over reasonable prices of players we really want and more importantly desperately need, players who reportedly have agreed to terms with us, while our rivals are just signing reinforcements and clearing out their fringe players with no issues whatsoever makes it that much more frustrating. Not to mention that they still have not renewed Maignan or Theo Hernández, two players we absolutely cannot afford to lose. Or the fact that they went from refusing to sign any players over the age of 29 to signing a 31 year old player to a four year contract with an option for a fifth year, also on the highest wages of anyone in the team. Why should fans be satisfied with this gross incompetence?
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| Are they just waiting for reinforcements to magically appear? |
Tuesday, they finally started to clear out some players, as they sold Simić to Anderlecht for pennies and sent Luke Romero to Alavés on loan with option. But the club did not even bother to post those things on social media, something that is now standard transfer procedure, they just made quick press releases on their antiquated website. It's not just their inaction, it's their lack of clarity with the fans, the lack of respect they have for us and for our players that is insulting. I mean, they posted plenty about the event with Milan's new tequila partnership with Michael Jordan and Serena William's tequila brand (so much for Milan being a family club,) as well as continuing to post about the new Milan store in Milano, but nothing about our players.
It was difficult enough to be patient when we had a technical director who made clear, concise statements about the transfer market and had the pull of being a world-renowned player himself. But last year, after disrespectfully removing that Milan legend from the club, these narcissists went on a shopping spree to try to win fans over, quickly sealing the deal for many players to give the manager plenty of time to put his team together. It was they who gave us the expectation, and this year, not only are they not only not living up to it, but they are randomly sending a RedBird employee in front of the press to ramble ad nauseum without clarity because they are too cowardly to own up to their inactions themselves.
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| The Curva Sud may have waited all season to speak last year, but don't expect such patience again. |
So, while summer news has been relatively calm ahead of a very busy storm of a schedule for the players, the club, and hopefully our transfer market, the fans are not actually calm. The Curva Sud very notably protested the last four and a half matches of the season because they were unhappy with how things turned out after trusting last year's transfer market. They were absent (not boycotting, they wanted to point out) for Raduno two weeks ago, citing the lack of player signings. But players still haven't been signed, and they are still silent. Like last year, apparently, their rage will be delayed until an inappropriate time yet again. Or perhaps they will speak up sooner. Either way, their storm is coming.
Meanwhile, our new manager faces three tough friendlies against the reigning Premier League champions, Manchester City; our English feeder club, Chelsea; and the club holding the title of the most debt, Barcelona (but seriously, these are not joke teams.) And we did not look great against an Austrian side last week. Then Milan return to Italy just in time to try to retain the all-important Trofeo Silvio Berlusconi title, then our Serie A season kicks off against Torino. Jović was reported to be returning from vacation this week, and Fonseca reportedly will be getting the other international players back over the next two weeks as follows:
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| Pulisic and Musah coming back just in time for the U.S. tour is essential for marketing purposes. |
Sun. 28 July – Rafa Leão
Tues. 30 July – Noah Okafor
Fri. 2 August – Maignan and Theo Hernández
Sat. 3 August – Reijnders
Mon. 5 August – Álvaro Morata
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| Our singular signing thus far arrives 12 days before our first match of the season. |
This post inspired by the music of Depeche Mode's "Blasphemous Rumours"
Our next match is a Friendly
Reviewed by Elaine
on
6:00 AM
Rating:
