Milan recently made it official that Massimiliano Allegri will stay on as coach and although some fans of the rossoneri don’t like the decision, it is the right move for the club.
Let’s look at the 2012-13 Serie A season that was for Milan – how it began, how it progressed and how it finished.
Last summer, Milan had major work to do to cut their wage structure. They were in full-on re-build mode. Milan could no longer justify keeping Zlatan Ibrahimovic on with his massive wage demands so off he went to PSG, and Thiago Silva along with him. Also gone were Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf, Alessandro Nesta, Mark van Bommel, and Antonio Cassano.
Milan paid roughly €160 million in wages during the 2011-12 campaign, and it cut that to just over €100M at the start of this season. This meant Milan went into this past season with an entirely new starting 11. Allegri made a decision that the club would start to develop some of its promising academy players. Stephen El Shaarawy and Mattia De Sciglio were given full-time starting positions right from Week 1. It paid off in a big way as both players grew leaps and bounds over the course of the campaign. However, Milan struggled mightily, and sat in 12th place after 13 weeks.
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One of the general misconceptions about Milan’s season is that they were saved by the transfer of Mario Balotelli at the end of January. Without a doubt, Super Mario was integral in Milan moving its way up the table to an eventual third place finish. But the climb began much earlier than that. A 1-0 win over Juventus on Nov. 25 started a streak of four straight victories and the rossoneri would only lose two games throughout the rest of the Serie A season.
It was around this same time that Allegri made the switch from his trusty 4-3-1-2 formation to a 4-3-3. Overall, it was a better fit for the team and its current players. Kevin Prince Boateng was failing to impress as the man behind the two strikers. He was moved to the right wing of attack, and Riccardo Montolivo became the creator to feed the strikers from midfield.
Montolivo was a revelation at the regista position, and was certainly one of the major factors in Milan’s turnaround. Giampaolo Pazzini started to find his form as the central striker, a role which suits him best, and El Shaarawy continued to be the standout performer of the bunch, scoring goals on an almost weekly basis it seemed.
Milan’s new formation pushed them up the table enough that it made sense to splurge on Balotelli in the transfer market. At the time of his purchase, Milan climbed to fifth in the table. By the end of Balotelli’s third game with the rossoneri, Milan was in third place, a position they would not relinquish.
The arrival of Balotelli was essential, though as it also coincided with the slowing down of El Shaarawy. The 20-year old had yet to play a full season in Serie A and was certainly suffering from fatigue. Balotelli overshadowed the dip in form from El Shaarawy, scoring 12 goals in total for Milan.
Allegri had very little to work with to start the season, and it took him time to work out the kinks with his new squad. Eventually he figured it out, and if you extrapolate Milan’s final half of the season into a full year, they would have been right there with table-toppers Juventus.
The speculation about Milan not keeping Allegri was baffling to me, as not only did he achieve the goals that were set out for him to start the season, but he also was the one entrusted with this rebuilding process. Did owner Silvio Berlusconi forget that this was a year in which Milan did not expect to win the title? That this was a year for Milan to develop youth, which Allegri did, and somehow still qualified for Champions League while the club sells off its two best players to cut costs?
Allegri has also built a rapport with the young players he has brought through, with some of them claiming he was to be a father-like figure. Switching out Allegri at this point would have been detrimental to the development and the continued re-build of this squad.
Although it took them way too long to do so, Milan made the right decision to keep Allegri. The consistency at manager already puts them a leg up on teams such as Inter Milan, Napoli, and Roma who are all starting anew. With Allegri at the helm, Milan will be Juventus’ biggest challenger next season.
Dan Riccio is the host of the European Football Weekly podcast on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. Listen to the podcast HERE and follow Dan on Twitter.