Journalist accuses Milan management of ‘looking more at the budget than the needs of the squad’ | OneFootball

The well-known journalist Franco Ordine has hit out at AC Milan’s management for their oversight in the ‘technical programming of the season’.

There is no hiding that Milan have suffered a slowdown since they won 10 of their first 11 games to begin the 2021-22 Serie A campaign. This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) actually took a look at the reasons that Milan have had a decline in performances and results, which is seen through the worrying data when comparing rounds 1-11 to rounds 12-22.

The most recent defeat was a damaging one against Spezia and even though it was overshadowed by refereeing controversy, it must also be noted that it was a big missed opportunity to get three more points and jump above rivals Inter.

Ordine wrote a column for Il Giornale which was published in today’s edition of the newspaper and he picked apart some of the gaps that have been made obvious by the lack of planning done ahead of and during a crucial season.

“Behind the errors recognised by Pioli, there are others that belong to the technical programming of the season. Kessie and Bennacer left in January for the African Cup of Nations as was known and it was decided that the Tonali-Bakayoko couple would be enough to make up for the absences, without considering that a disqualification or a positivity could have jeopardised the set-up of the department,” he began (via MilanNews).

“It just so happened that the disqualification of Tonali saw the need to deploy Krunic in that role. In defence the painful Kjaer knockout took place in early December and since then almost 50 days have passed during which no negotiations have been concluded to ensure Pioli the central defender promised by Paolo Maldini immediately before Genoa.

“Of course, no one could have imagined that in mid-January Tomori would undergo surgery due to a meniscus injury, thus accentuating the need for a reinforcement in that department since in the meantime Romagnoli has become positive.

“Finally, it may be that following the performance of the strange Kalulu-Gabbia couple in the Roma and Venezia games, some optimistic evaluation has been made. And here too Milan has sinned a lot, looking more at the budget than at the actual needs of the squad.

“Now, perhaps, under the emotional push, some reinforcement will arrive but as usual it will be too late. Everyone knew, since the summer, that the famous asymmetrical second round schedule would see Milan face Roma, Juve and Inter in sequence between January and February. Having underestimated the danger is the original sin of this season.”

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