‘Many tears’ – Sky journalist recalls emotion day at Milanello for Pioli, Kjaer and Giroud | OneFootball

Yesterday marked the final pre-game training session of the Stefano Pioli era at AC Milan, and a journalist has revealed how emotional it was at Milanello.

Milan announced yesterday morning that Pioli will leave the club at the end of the current season, following a tenure of nearly five years at the club. The game against Salernitana will be his last with the club, therefore.

However, it is not just the head coach who will get a send off from the fans because Olivier Giroud and Simon Kjaer are among those who are also confirmed to be leaving the club.

It marks the end of an era, and the Curva Sud have even announced that they will only protest for the first half of the game so that they can pay their tributes to those departing in the second half.

Peppe Di Stefano spoke live on Sky from the training ground about how the day went, and his words were relayed by MilanNews.

“Today was the day of goodbyes, of emotion. Many tears that Simon Kjaer, Olivier Giroud and above all Stefano Pioli shed because he leaves Milan,” he said.

“It is not specified whether it is a mutual termination, which is not in fact technically a sacking. They said goodbye, and then we will see what will happen in the next few days regarding the new coach of Milan, and we have said that the chosen one for some time is Paulo Fonseca.

“Stefano Pioli today gathered all the Milanello employees, doctors, cooks, warehouse workers, physiotherapists, maintenance workers, players, all on the sidelines before the coach, between a few smiles and a few tears he said thank you, because clearly the upgrade was Milan did it with him and he did it together with Milan.

“He had never won and he did it well, he had never won the Scudetto and he did it with Milan, he brought Milan back to the Champions League for four consecutive years, and they were clearly moving moments.

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“Among other things, today was his last day at Milanello. As we anticipated in recent days he will not go to Australia, Daniele Bonera will be coach for that very brief experience. He also greeted Giroud as well as Stefano Pioli.

“They stopped here outside Milanello because then sometimes the fire of the fans, often, in the most complicated moments, who do they blame? The lightning rod, which was Stefano Pioli.

“But they acclaimed him here today and they will do so again tomorrow at San Siro because inevitably the balance remains more positive than ever compared to what he has done in recent years. Together with Maldini and Massara, the managers who chose him together with Bonan.

“He took Milan between sixth and seventh place and still brought them back to the Champions League for four consecutive seasons, once winning the Scudetto. So we have to give credit to what he did. Now the cycle was probably over, and everyone noticed it, Milan and the coach himself noticed it.”