By Petar Todorovski
When Massimiliano Allegri arrived at San Siro it was a little bit of surprise, as Rossonerri fans have been used to cheer famous coaches with a lot of success behind them. The former Cagliari coach had won the Coach of the Season Award with the little club from Sardinia, but that was one level below what Milan fans were expecting.
When Milan had recorded only one victory in first four matches, loosing from newcomer Cesena in the process, things looked even worse. New acquisition Zlatan Ibrahimovic was just starting to show his qualities, while superstar Ronaldinho was just a shadow of what he had shown over the past several seasons.
That was the time when Massimiliano Allegri proved that he could be good enough to manage Milan. After the 2-0 loss in Madrid against Real, they almost won the match in Milan. Late strike by substitute Pedro Leon left them with only one point by that game. However, that moment was milestone for them. The team started playing more confident. Zlatan Ibrahimovic turned himself into powerful scoring machine, defense was more compact and most important of all Allegri moves – Ronaldinho spent his time on the bench.
The Brazilian protested for his team mates’ way of playing, saying that they play as they want to, forgetting that he was the one who was destroying Rossonerri play. It did not take too long and Allegri sat him on the bench, before letting him go back to Brazil in winter transfer period. The coach was brave enough to oppose to one of the world’s greatest superstar, and it paid off – team chemistry was excellent and the team began winning with lot of ease.
The second part of the season was not so good, regarding the results, but Milan took advantage over the fact that Serie A team had awful transfer policy last summer and all of them played worse than before. Juventus was struggling in mid-table, Roma experienced the same scenario, while Inter lost the spirit that Jose Mourinho took away with him to Madrid. However, they managed to win the Serie A.
Now it seems that thing are not going to be different next season. Milan looks like the only team that knows how the winning team should look like. They already boosted the defense with Philippe Mexes and Taye Taiwo, signed permanent deal with pacey midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng, and brought flair in midfield with Mark van Bommel (Gattuso fail to provide it lately, except unnecessary nervousness).
Unlike them, Juventus keeps buying lot of players for few positions, Roma keeps not buying quality players, and Inter needs major renovation and maybe better coach. It seems that the inexperienced coach brought exactly what a great club like Milan needed, while others fail to provide that. The only probable assumption is – Massimiliano Allegri starts new era of domination in Italian football.
