The Rumour Commode XLI: Ragnarok

[MilanBG]

Pioli has broken another record this season- breaking milanisti spirits

never seen such a massive withdrawal even in banter era

He did break me. Not long ago a loss in any game was leading to me being grumpy for days. Yesterday we lost another CL semi-final against our biggest rival and I really don't care. Nothing.
I just want this season to end and see him kicked out.

 

[Ash-ish]

I just want us to backdoor into cl. i remember how much I rejoiced when we qualified for cl after 6 years.

 

[brk]

One of the reasons I was so confident going into the season is that I expected growth and frankly a step up across the board from all of our young players that had just won the Scudetto.

That just didn’t happen. Almost across the board we stagnated or regressed.

Was it just a terrible job by Pioli? Was it due to the pressure of being champions? Were the squad’s weaknesses exposed with the loss of Kessie and poor transfer market? Yes, I think is the answer.

I believed in the squad and Pioli until the bitter end. I had watched this squad win under extreme pressure 2 seasons in a row… I kept waiting for the run to start… in a way, just like Pioli, who I think believed eventually “his boys” would put it all together and go on the type of run we’ve seen the last 3 seasons. It never happened.

We all came into the season hoping for a lot better.

I think it's a mix of a lot of different factors.

We didn't make a short term upgrade in the quality of the squad and went for more cost cutting and gradual player development. We won't really feel the results of these sorts of decisions until a few years down the line.

There was a sudden expectation that we had to win. For a young squad that was lacking a leader like Ibra, this was probably way too much pressure.

Unhealthy dependence on Giroud and few match winners. This made us play as individuals more and more, as Pioli stopped trying to develop his system but went for his 'guarantees' even when things were clearly failing.

Major tactical and strategic errors in key games. The Inter games throughout the season come to mind, as well as the sudden and extreme rotation around the CL games. The January insistence on 424 when confidence was shot.

--

I think if I had to pick one overall theme for why things went wrong it would be that Pioli wanted to win this season more than he wanted to develop his side for future long term success. This is why i'm most disappointed in him. It's the reason why he stopped playing his youngsters at the first sign of error, and why he only used them in the first place when there was a crisis. He wanted to win again, he got greedy after the scudetto and felt like he and his team were better than everyone else. It's why he suddenly started being arrogant in press conferences with his 'certo' responses and lack of self reflection when things weren't working. He wanted to win and didn't understand why doing what he did last season wasn't working anymore.

Last season teams did not fear us. They didn't really know who Leao was until the last two months of the season. We had Ibra who could help us steamroll low blocks. Kessie was an option that allowed us to rotate Tonali and Bennacer, and with Krunic we played 3 midfielders and that helped us balance out our extremes in other areas. This season he believed we were so good we could play 424 and it took the worst month in AC Milan history for him to reassess. This isn't the Pioli that we knew before, the one that was leading a team of youngsters uphill. It was a smirking know it all sitting on his throne, not understanding why the likes of Cremonese and Spezia aren't bowing down to his glory.

 

[brk]

I just want us to backdoor into cl. i remember how much I rejoiced when we qualified for cl after 6 years.

I'm hopeful. In all likelihood they will reconfirm the initial recommendation of 9 points in a few days. If that happens we have a path. Beat Samp and Verona, draw with Juve.

 

[MilanFan89]

Pioli can stick his stupid 4231 into his ass.

This tactic wont work for weeks, and he still keeps playing the same stupid formation over and over again.

Why not try something new ? Like 3412 or 442. We had nothing too lose

 

[brk]

Time for the usual long term view:

Inter are ahead of us in terms of squad development and are an expensively built team. Most of them are very experience or in their prime. They're at their peak. We are nowhere near it yet, most of our squad is under 24 and we locked them all down until 2027 at least. They've also build their team by literally mortgaging their future. Even after getting to the CL final they'll still have to get major profit from players sales to avoid catastrophe. We will end the season with a profit without selling anyone.

What this means is that we can gradually do stuff like pay Leao 7m and eventually pay Maignan 5m to keep this squad intact and get better with more time and upgrades. Roma got to the CL semi final a few years ago and then sold off their best players. This is the difference and why I keep saying we'll be a CL contender in a few years. The squad will keep getting better every season because it was built to last.

Could we have made short term bets to win again this season? Sure. In hindsight there were a few bad bets. Origi over Dybala is a clear mistake. Betting on Giroud and Ibra as primary CF options was a mistake. Confirming Florenzi was a mistake. Botman was a mistake. I won't judge the youngsters since they clearly need time to grow, but we could have had much more input from the older, expensive players. These are all all errors that affected this season, and it sucks. As long as we make the CL we won't really suffer too much, though. No matter the investment last summer I don't think anyone would have stopped Napoli, and we made it to the CL semi final so I doubt anyone would have expected a better run in the CL in any case. You win some bets and you lose some, and we lost quite a few this time.

I think the big question this summer is what to do about Pioli. I personally think his time should be up. We've stagnated tactically, and we haven't seen any good development this year from the youngsters and arguably a few of them regressed badly. We are great at times off the ball but on it we look lost and depend on individuals. This isn't how a system team is supposed to work, and the only way to overperform your spending is by having a system based approach. I clearly think De Zerbi is the best option for us for a number of reasons. I can also see Maldini keeping faith with Pioli for another season if we make the CL.

There's going to be a lot of turnover this summer. There's going to be at least 9 or 10 players leaving, and most of them need to be replaced by much better players. We can afford the upgrade now, and it would be shocking if we don't spend this time. A superstar CF is the absolute minimum, and we need to finally relegate Giroud to being our plan B. Having someone like Osimhen up front would have made this an entirely different season.

I was hoping for an easy this season but I have to admit that the early scudetto raised my expectations too much. I fell under the same trap the players and Pioli fell into. All I can hope for now is that this season ends up being a very important lesson to everyone in the club, on how to manage expectations and what it takes to win and keep winning.

Maldini keeps reminding us of the plan. We want to win and we need a team of superstars to do that. We can't buy a team of superstars like the top sides in Europe, but we can develop a team of superstars. We're on our way to doing that.

 

[Kuroha]

As you probably know, I am pretty skeptical of Italian bureaucracy and the judicial system, but the chances of Juve losing points are actually quite high.

So, after the "fludetto" from last season, we'll get "flUCL" for next season

 

[Kuroha]

Time for the usual long term view:

Inter are ahead of us in terms of squad development and are an expensively built team. Most of them are very experience or in their prime. They're at their peak. We are nowhere near it yet, most of our squad is under 24 and we locked them all down until 2027 at least. They've also build their team by literally mortgaging their future. Even after getting to the CL final they'll still have to get major profit from players sales to avoid catastrophe. We will end the season with a profit without selling anyone.

What this means is that we can gradually do stuff like pay Leao 7m and eventually pay Maignan 5m to keep this squad intact and get better with more time and upgrades. Roma got to the CL semi final a few years ago and then sold off their best players. This is the difference and why I keep saying we'll be a CL contender in a few years. The squad will keep getting better every season because it was built to last.

Could we have made short term bets to win again this season? Sure. In hindsight there were a few bad bets. Origi over Dybala is a clear mistake. Betting on Giroud and Ibra as primary CF options was a mistake. Confirming Florenzi was a mistake. Botman was a mistake. I won't judge the youngsters since they clearly need time to grow, but we could have had much more input from the older, expensive players. These are all all errors that affected this season, and it sucks. As long as we make the CL we won't really suffer too much, though. No matter the investment last summer I don't think anyone would have stopped Napoli, and we made it to the CL semi final so I doubt anyone would have expected a better run in the CL in any case. You win some bets and you lose some, and we lost quite a few this time.

I think the big question this summer is what to do about Pioli. I personally think his time should be up. We've stagnated tactically, and we haven't seen any good development this year from the youngsters and arguably a few of them regressed badly. We are great at times off the ball but on it we look lost and depend on individuals. This isn't how a system team is supposed to work, and the only way to overperform your spending is by having a system based approach. I clearly think De Zerbi is the best option for us for a number of reasons. I can also see Maldini keeping faith with Pioli for another season if we make the CL.

There's going to be a lot of turnover this summer. There's going to be at least 9 or 10 players leaving, and most of them need to be replaced by much better players. We can afford the upgrade now, and it would be shocking if we don't spend this time. A superstar CF is the absolute minimum, and we need to finally relegate Giroud to being our plan B. Having someone like Osimhen up front would have made this an entirely different season.

I was hoping for an easy this season but I have to admit that the early scudetto raised my expectations too much. I fell under the same trap the players and Pioli fell into. All I can hope for now is that this season ends up being a very important lesson to everyone in the club, on how to manage expectations and what it takes to win and keep winning.

Maldini keeps reminding us of the plan. We want to win and we need a team of superstars to do that. We can't buy a team of superstars like the top sides in Europe, but we can develop a team of superstars. We're on our way to doing that.

I swear Maldini is keeping RnB's tab on his browser

 

[Ash-ish]

I'm hopeful. In all likelihood they will reconfirm the initial recommendation of 9 points in a few days. If that happens we have a path. Beat Samp and Verona, draw with Juve.

Yo our coach and sporting director are on meth. Let spirit of Cesare guide us from valhalla

 

[MilanFan89]

I would play like this. With this team we might had a chance
Against 3 at the back teams, you will want 2 strikers up front, because with 1 you’re always on an island, and force to play crosses or long balls.
Inters defence was very solid because of this shit with 1 slow striker

They always had an advantage.
Messias marked by Di Marco
Leao marked big by Dumfries and their midfielder
Midget Diaz was easily marked by their other midfielder
And Giroud alone upfront against their 3 tall defenders
Lol

 

[MilanFan89]

I swear Maldini is keeping RnB's tab on his browser

Hes talking about the “project” for years now

 

[Allan_Sombrero]

If true that's the last two CL matches he has been acting like a little bitch.

He can't accept the fact he's not good enough for this club

 

[MilanBG]

I'm hopeful. In all likelihood they will reconfirm the initial recommendation of 9 points in a few days. If that happens we have a path. Beat Samp and Verona, draw with Juve.

There was a report saying that the deduction will 'as much as needed' so ladri don't end up in top 4. The idea is to make them suffer, not just take a random number of points from them.

Of course it could always be speaking out of the ass by some journalist wannabe

 

[Ash-ish]

There was a report saying that the deduction will 'as much as needed' so ladri don't end up in top 4. The idea is to make them suffer, not just take a random number of points from them.

Of course it could always be speaking out of the ass by some journalist wannabe

Thank you daddy

 

[Hitchens]

Time for the usual long term view:

Inter are ahead of us in terms of squad development and are an expensively built team. Most of them are very experience or in their prime. They're at their peak. We are nowhere near it yet, most of our squad is under 24 and we locked them all down until 2027 at least. They've also build their team by literally mortgaging their future. Even after getting to the CL final they'll still have to get major profit from players sales to avoid catastrophe. We will end the season with a profit without selling anyone.

What this means is that we can gradually do stuff like pay Leao 7m and eventually pay Maignan 5m to keep this squad intact and get better with more time and upgrades. Roma got to the CL semi final a few years ago and then sold off their best players. This is the difference and why I keep saying we'll be a CL contender in a few years. The squad will keep getting better every season because it was built to last.

Could we have made short term bets to win again this season? Sure. In hindsight there were a few bad bets. Origi over Dybala is a clear mistake. Betting on Giroud and Ibra as primary CF options was a mistake. Confirming Florenzi was a mistake. Botman was a mistake. I won't judge the youngsters since they clearly need time to grow, but we could have had much more input from the older, expensive players. These are all all errors that affected this season, and it sucks. As long as we make the CL we won't really suffer too much, though. No matter the investment last summer I don't think anyone would have stopped Napoli, and we made it to the CL semi final so I doubt anyone would have expected a better run in the CL in any case. You win some bets and you lose some, and we lost quite a few this time.

I think the big question this summer is what to do about Pioli. I personally think his time should be up. We've stagnated tactically, and we haven't seen any good development this year from the youngsters and arguably a few of them regressed badly. We are great at times off the ball but on it we look lost and depend on individuals. This isn't how a system team is supposed to work, and the only way to overperform your spending is by having a system based approach. I clearly think De Zerbi is the best option for us for a number of reasons. I can also see Maldini keeping faith with Pioli for another season if we make the CL.

There's going to be a lot of turnover this summer. There's going to be at least 9 or 10 players leaving, and most of them need to be replaced by much better players. We can afford the upgrade now, and it would be shocking if we don't spend this time. A superstar CF is the absolute minimum, and we need to finally relegate Giroud to being our plan B. Having someone like Osimhen up front would have made this an entirely different season.

I was hoping for an easy this season but I have to admit that the early scudetto raised my expectations too much. I fell under the same trap the players and Pioli fell into. All I can hope for now is that this season ends up being a very important lesson to everyone in the club, on how to manage expectations and what it takes to win and keep winning.

Maldini keeps reminding us of the plan. We want to win and we need a team of superstars to do that. We can't buy a team of superstars like the top sides in Europe, but we can develop a team of superstars. We're on our way to doing that.

The healing begins <3

 

[Mario]

I want to know why Salaemakers who is very good on the ball and moving it wasn’t on yesterday but Messias was… has anyone seen the Zlatan quote from Pioli?

Embarrassing

 

[CDK]

Time for the usual long term view:

Inter are ahead of us in terms of squad development and are an expensively built team. Most of them are very experience or in their prime. They're at their peak. We are nowhere near it yet, most of our squad is under 24 and we locked them all down until 2027 at least. They've also build their team by literally mortgaging their future. Even after getting to the CL final they'll still have to get major profit from players sales to avoid catastrophe. We will end the season with a profit without selling anyone.

What this means is that we can gradually do stuff like pay Leao 7m and eventually pay Maignan 5m to keep this squad intact and get better with more time and upgrades. Roma got to the CL semi final a few years ago and then sold off their best players. This is the difference and why I keep saying we'll be a CL contender in a few years. The squad will keep getting better every season because it was built to last.

Could we have made short term bets to win again this season? Sure. In hindsight there were a few bad bets. Origi over Dybala is a clear mistake. Betting on Giroud and Ibra as primary CF options was a mistake. Confirming Florenzi was a mistake. Botman was a mistake. I won't judge the youngsters since they clearly need time to grow, but we could have had much more input from the older, expensive players. These are all all errors that affected this season, and it sucks. As long as we make the CL we won't really suffer too much, though. No matter the investment last summer I don't think anyone would have stopped Napoli, and we made it to the CL semi final so I doubt anyone would have expected a better run in the CL in any case. You win some bets and you lose some, and we lost quite a few this time.

I think the big question this summer is what to do about Pioli. I personally think his time should be up. We've stagnated tactically, and we haven't seen any good development this year from the youngsters and arguably a few of them regressed badly. We are great at times off the ball but on it we look lost and depend on individuals. This isn't how a system team is supposed to work, and the only way to overperform your spending is by having a system based approach. I clearly think De Zerbi is the best option for us for a number of reasons. I can also see Maldini keeping faith with Pioli for another season if we make the CL.

There's going to be a lot of turnover this summer. There's going to be at least 9 or 10 players leaving, and most of them need to be replaced by much better players. We can afford the upgrade now, and it would be shocking if we don't spend this time. A superstar CF is the absolute minimum, and we need to finally relegate Giroud to being our plan B. Having someone like Osimhen up front would have made this an entirely different season.

I was hoping for an easy this season but I have to admit that the early scudetto raised my expectations too much. I fell under the same trap the players and Pioli fell into. All I can hope for now is that this season ends up being a very important lesson to everyone in the club, on how to manage expectations and what it takes to win and keep winning.

Maldini keeps reminding us of the plan. We want to win and we need a team of superstars to do that. We can't buy a team of superstars like the top sides in Europe, but we can develop a team of superstars. We're on our way to doing that.

Agree on De Zerbi. My biggest disapointment this season is not so much the poor results, but the unattractive way of playing.
Boring and predictable. Defensive game plans, offensive random tactics just based on some genious touches from Leao and Theo.
And yes, we miss a CF, yes, we have no Squad depth. But I saw this season a lot of teams with less quality, playing with more balance.
Watched the game of Brighton @ Arsenal.
A tactical masterclass. Taking the risk to play just man on man in defense, pressing high and keeping the field wide. Nobody played that way at the Emirates this year and it worked.
De Zerbi (or any other offensive oriented coach), you’re welcome.


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk

 

[Nalim]

I want to know why Salaemakers who is very good on the ball and moving it wasn’t on yesterday but Messias was… has anyone seen the Zlatan quote from Pioli?

Embarrassing

And why is he never deployed as the #10 despite continuously looking his best when he´s drifting into that space? I honestly think Saele 10 and Diaz RW would´ve made a difference last night but Pioli refuses to listen to me when I bring this shit up.

 

[bullard]

1 day later and it still hurts. The most disappointing season since I am a Milan fan was the year that was fully coached by Gattuso, we won our last match, was at 68 points, but merda and Atalanta also won, so they were on 69. I felt heartbroken after that. We were a good team, probably the strongest since the Allegri days, gave it our all, but still managed to come short by just a tiny bit. We deserved to qualify to CL that season.

The current season is very different for me. Sucks to say but we don't deserve anything. We are breaking negative record after negative record, eliminated from Coppa Italia in 120 minutes against a 10 man Torino side. Getting slapped by merda in the supercup. Having the worst january in the clubs history. Having the worst january in all top5 leagues this season. Putting on performances on the pitch that are makes Allegri jihadball look good. Averaging 1,74 points per game, which I think it is the worst from a scudetto winner. Losing points in embarassing fashion against even the smallest sides.

The worst thing is that now our only hope is a Juve point deduction, but even if they get -9 points, it is still not a guarantee that we can qualify. The thing is that in our current state, I can imagine us playing in conference league next season more possible than in the CL. Sorry for the negative post, but I feel really let down and a bit betrayed by our team.

 

[MilanFan89]

Uefa cup is not that bad to play in with this current team
There are pretty strong teams in there

 

[bullard]

Also as much as I love Giroud, the biggest priority in the summer (after a new coach) is to have a new starting CF. In 2023 calendar year, he has in 25 games 4 goals 2 assists. The drop of quality in his latest half season compared to the previous 1,5 years are truly visible, and it is impacting our team in a highly negative way. Considering how static he is, how he limits our playstyle by not being able to get behind the opponents defensive line, this output is woeful, so next season we should only rely on him as a sub.

 

[pippofan]

Actually Di Marco has 6 goals and 9 assists this season compared to Theo with 4 goals and 5 assists despite playing 600 minutes more than Di Marco.

You can ignore the stats, facts and figures and say Theo is better which is fair ( I would say that too) but my point is it’s a fair case to make even if the stats favor Di Marco because Theo plays as LB not LWB but it’s not because this season Theo has scored or assisted more than him.

Our fans need to snap out of this inexplicable delusion fast

We either overrate our players or don't watch other teams enough.

 

[Hitchens]

- We are playing a truly abominable league campaign.
- It is a great achievement to have reached the CL semi.
- With the exception of the Inter semis Padre managed knockout stages very well within our strengths.
- Padre has been found out completely in Serie A.
- Our squad is not strong enough.
- Failure is an important catalyst for future success.
- We might still make CL through both play or a court decision.
- Coach change or not, the future is still bright.

8 things that are simultaenously true.

 

[ChinaMilan]

I just want us to backdoor into cl. i remember how much I rejoiced when we qualified for cl after 6 years.

I can't believe i'm saying this but i'm cheering for Juventus to win the EL, it is the only way Italian federation will deduct enough points to riot them out of the CL 4th place and add us.

 

[Pippo]

We either overrate our players or don't watch other teams enough.

I'm sorry, but I completely disagree with this take. Their position greatly matters.

If you can't see that Theo is a vastly superior player I don't know what to tell you. As someone who watches a lot of Serie A and other leagues matches, it's not even close.

Sent from my SM-G998W using Tapatalk

 

[Milan10]

Time for the usual long term view:

Inter are ahead of us in terms of squad development and are an expensively built team. Most of them are very experience or in their prime. They're at their peak. We are nowhere near it yet, most of our squad is under 24 and we locked them all down until 2027 at least. They've also build their team by literally mortgaging their future. Even after getting to the CL final they'll still have to get major profit from players sales to avoid catastrophe. We will end the season with a profit without selling anyone.

What this means is that we can gradually do stuff like pay Leao 7m and eventually pay Maignan 5m to keep this squad intact and get better with more time and upgrades. Roma got to the CL semi final a few years ago and then sold off their best players. This is the difference and why I keep saying we'll be a CL contender in a few years. The squad will keep getting better every season because it was built to last.

Could we have made short term bets to win again this season? Sure. In hindsight there were a few bad bets. Origi over Dybala is a clear mistake. Betting on Giroud and Ibra as primary CF options was a mistake. Confirming Florenzi was a mistake. Botman was a mistake. I won't judge the youngsters since they clearly need time to grow, but we could have had much more input from the older, expensive players. These are all all errors that affected this season, and it sucks. As long as we make the CL we won't really suffer too much, though. No matter the investment last summer I don't think anyone would have stopped Napoli, and we made it to the CL semi final so I doubt anyone would have expected a better run in the CL in any case. You win some bets and you lose some, and we lost quite a few this time.

I think the big question this summer is what to do about Pioli. I personally think his time should be up. We've stagnated tactically, and we haven't seen any good development this year from the youngsters and arguably a few of them regressed badly. We are great at times off the ball but on it we look lost and depend on individuals. This isn't how a system team is supposed to work, and the only way to overperform your spending is by having a system based approach. I clearly think De Zerbi is the best option for us for a number of reasons. I can also see Maldini keeping faith with Pioli for another season if we make the CL.

There's going to be a lot of turnover this summer. There's going to be at least 9 or 10 players leaving, and most of them need to be replaced by much better players. We can afford the upgrade now, and it would be shocking if we don't spend this time. A superstar CF is the absolute minimum, and we need to finally relegate Giroud to being our plan B. Having someone like Osimhen up front would have made this an entirely different season.

I was hoping for an easy this season but I have to admit that the early scudetto raised my expectations too much. I fell under the same trap the players and Pioli fell into. All I can hope for now is that this season ends up being a very important lesson to everyone in the club, on how to manage expectations and what it takes to win and keep winning.

Maldini keeps reminding us of the plan. We want to win and we need a team of superstars to do that. We can't buy a team of superstars like the top sides in Europe, but we can develop a team of superstars. We're on our way to doing that.

I agree with everything you said.

Qualifying for the CL will make the bitter pill that was this season much easier to swallow. I don’t know what Maldini will do with Pioli if we qualify. I assume he will stay unless he has lost the team.

I am scared to consider what will happen if we fail to qualify.

 

[Pigeon]

We either overrate our players or don't watch other teams enough.

why not both?

 

[pippofan]

Nobody knows how and when Juve will be penalised. Everybody is talking about -9 pts, but it can also be -6 or -3? I also read somewhere the penalty may also be imposed for the next season.

I have acquired some accounting knowledge with the FFP staff, and now I need to get myself familiarized with the Italian judicial system.

Supposedly on May 22 the Court will meet again and decide the punishment.

 

[Fusiproe12]

We weren't able to afford fucking Sportiello during january mercato.

What kind of players should we expect from our society during summer? Other random amigos from Colombia like Vasquez?

 

[CDarius]

Time for the usual long term view:

Inter are ahead of us in terms of squad development and are an expensively built team. Most of them are very experience or in their prime. They're at their peak. We are nowhere near it yet, most of our squad is under 24 and we locked them all down until 2027 at least. They've also build their team by literally mortgaging their future. Even after getting to the CL final they'll still have to get major profit from players sales to avoid catastrophe. We will end the season with a profit without selling anyone.

What this means is that we can gradually do stuff like pay Leao 7m and eventually pay Maignan 5m to keep this squad intact and get better with more time and upgrades. Roma got to the CL semi final a few years ago and then sold off their best players. This is the difference and why I keep saying we'll be a CL contender in a few years. The squad will keep getting better every season because it was built to last.

Could we have made short term bets to win again this season? Sure. In hindsight there were a few bad bets. Origi over Dybala is a clear mistake. Betting on Giroud and Ibra as primary CF options was a mistake. Confirming Florenzi was a mistake. Botman was a mistake. I won't judge the youngsters since they clearly need time to grow, but we could have had much more input from the older, expensive players. These are all all errors that affected this season, and it sucks. As long as we make the CL we won't really suffer too much, though. No matter the investment last summer I don't think anyone would have stopped Napoli, and we made it to the CL semi final so I doubt anyone would have expected a better run in the CL in any case. You win some bets and you lose some, and we lost quite a few this time.

I think the big question this summer is what to do about Pioli. I personally think his time should be up. We've stagnated tactically, and we haven't seen any good development this year from the youngsters and arguably a few of them regressed badly. We are great at times off the ball but on it we look lost and depend on individuals. This isn't how a system team is supposed to work, and the only way to overperform your spending is by having a system based approach. I clearly think De Zerbi is the best option for us for a number of reasons. I can also see Maldini keeping faith with Pioli for another season if we make the CL.

There's going to be a lot of turnover this summer. There's going to be at least 9 or 10 players leaving, and most of them need to be replaced by much better players. We can afford the upgrade now, and it would be shocking if we don't spend this time. A superstar CF is the absolute minimum, and we need to finally relegate Giroud to being our plan B. Having someone like Osimhen up front would have made this an entirely different season.

I was hoping for an easy this season but I have to admit that the early scudetto raised my expectations too much. I fell under the same trap the players and Pioli fell into. All I can hope for now is that this season ends up being a very important lesson to everyone in the club, on how to manage expectations and what it takes to win and keep winning.

Maldini keeps reminding us of the plan. We want to win and we need a team of superstars to do that. We can't buy a team of superstars like the top sides in Europe, but we can develop a team of superstars. We're on our way to doing that.

I agree with 99.9% of this. My only issue is that maybe i get attached a lot to some players/coaches and i still dont think Pioli is the problem. Sure since January it has been really dissapointing but stuff like this happens to every team. There are 2 reasons im saying this..one is that maybe we will get De Zerbi or Guardiola or whoever..but what if they flop? What if their systems will ruin all of our past 2.5 years work? Even if we get De Zerbi it still dosent guarantee a scudetto or a CL place. The second thing is that well like it or not Pioli really over achieved. You cant deny that..we have some amazing players in Mike, Tomori, Theo, Sandro, Isma, Kessie(last season), Leao and Giroud(ill put him on this list for his experience) but other than that...we are miles away from teams like RMA, City and even inter that yesterday brought players like Brozovic, Lukaku and Gosens from the bench. If 3 yrs ago when Pioli signed someone would told us that this guy will get us a scudetto and a CL semi-final with players like Calabria, Messias, Saelemaekers, Diaz, Tatarusanu and even Gabbia on the team we would say that you are delusional. It may not be our ONLY problem but is our BIGGEST PROBLEM ..which is squad depth and superstars players level...

Lets take the first 11
Mike-WC
Calabria-Not bad, not good...still not first XI starting material for Milan (should be a squad player max)
Thiaw/Kalulu-Really good..could develop well next to an experienced CB
Tomori-Ups and downs ..but still a really good CB wheter you like it or not
Kjaer-Experience wise..amazing but its time to let go..i would get another experienced CB instead of him that has fresh legs and more minutes in him
Theo-WC
Tonali-Not his best season but he has room to improve but still WC potential
Krunic-I love him but he should be only a rotation player
Messias-He should be 4th option on the wing at max...i get the fairytale but its time to let go
Brahim- This is strange..he has games and games..idk how to feel about him, i love him but maybe as a rotation on that RM/RW only. No more CAM or stupid stuff
Leao-WC
Giroud-Squad player max

I can add Bennacer here next to Tonali aswell. And thats pretty much it..Ok we can say CDK and even though i dont rate him i will stop being so hard on him and see how he does next season..maybe he can do a Tonali. Same goes with Adli. Origi is another player that maybe with a full training camp next summer can be a good rotation player. Other than that..the rest is absolute junk. And we have to play 3 competitions Serie A, Coppa and UCL..we NEED A LOT OF PLAYERS