Eight years ago, a full Olympic Stadium in Athens fell silent.
Andrea Pirlo is over the ball waiting for the referee’s whistle. The ball is struck and deflected into the goal. The AC Milan fans erupt. Filippo Inzaghi peels away, celebrating in his usual, passionate style. His touch has given Milan the lead in the 2007 Champions League final against Liverpool.
Late in the second half, Inzaghi rounded Pepe Reina, sealing a 7th Champions League crown for Milan. Inzaghi was substituted before the final whistle, to a standing ovation from the Milan faithful. A man of the match performance in the final came just one year after Inzaghi had helped Italy win the World Cup in Germany. Inzaghi was a hero.
Fast forward to the start of this season. It is July and Milan fans are gathering outside the club’s headquarters, where they will welcome their hero. Inzaghi is presented as Milan’s new manager. There are scenes of joy that have not been witnessed at Milan since the side last won Serie A in 2011. A wave of enthusiasm grips the Rossoneri faithful.
Early results were encouraging. Milan won its first two games of the Serie A season, including a memorable 5-4 triumph at Parma. By the end of November, Milan had only lost two games in Serie A, one at home to champions Juventus and the other to a resurgent Palermo side.
It was January that would prove to be the turning point, however. Home defeats against lowly Sassuolo and Atalanta were followed up by back-to-back losses against Lazio in Serie A and the Coppa Italia. The exciting football of the early part of the season had disappeared. Ex-manager Giovanni Trapattoni claimed that there was a “fear” within the Milan team. He was right.
Milan is currently on a run of three successive defeats. The first was a 2-1 loss at Udinese. Following the game, the club announced that the team had gone into a “ritro” which could last until the end of the season. Players were confined to the club’s headquarters and forced to sleep there.
“The attitude today was wrong… we have hit rock bottom,” Inzaghi said.
The length of the retreat, the club said in the aftermath of the game, would be determined by how well the players played in the upcoming matches.
Just four days later, Milan put in yet another abject performance. The 3-1 home defeat to Genoa was another low point in a terrible season for Inzaghi. He had Jeremy Menez, one of his best players, sent off. Worse than the dismal showing on the pitch was the scenes in the stands of the San Siro.
The official attendance for the game against Genoa, including all season ticket holders, was 25,000. With many Milan fans showing their displeasure with recent events at the club by staying away from the stadium, it is unlikely that more than 15,000 were in attendance. In recent years, attendances at the San Siro have been low but this was unheard of for a Serie A fixture.
Those who did go made their views clear. On the Curva Sud at San Siro, hundreds of Milan supporters formed a word from where they were tightly stood on the terrace. It spelt out “BASTA” – enough. Although some of the anger was directed towards those in charge of the club, recent poor results saw Inzaghi bear the brunt of the fury of the Milan faithful.
Milan’s most recent defeat was another miserable affair. Defender Mattia De Sciglio conceded a penalty just 42 seconds into its trip to Napoli. The Italian international was shown a straight red card, the fastest dismissal in Italian top flight history. Diego Lopez, who has been Milan’s standout player in a dreadful season, saved the resulting penalty. In the second half, however, Napoli ran riot. Three goals in six minutes left Milan shell shocked in a game that it never looked like winning.
After the match, Inzaghi stated that he could not fault the players. Yet they have to take some of the blame. Milan have the third highest wage bill in Serie A, yet they are currently 10th in the league, with no sign of recovering from its slump in form.
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Inzaghi was expected to bring European football and the good times back to the San Siro. With no prospect of European football and with 43 points to his side’s name with just four games to go, Inzaghi is on the verge of presiding over the worst season for Milan in living memory.
It is highly likely that Inzaghi will remain coach for a second campaign at Milan but his legacy at the great club is already tarnished.
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