Surprising comments from AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani that Massimiliano Allegri’s job is still safe regardless of the result from this weekend’s clash against Lazio. I saw surprising because at what point does Allegri’s job become in jeopardy?
Under Allegri, Milan have lost four of their first seven league games this season and are 11th in the table with seven points. Milan are already a massive 12 points behind joint leaders Juventus and Napoli and depending how results go this weekend, that gap could stretch to 15 points.
But that doesn’t concern Galliani who said:
“Allegri’s last game for the club won’t be against Lazio in Rome or against Malaga (in the Champions League in midweek), or against Genoa at the San Siro (the following weekend),” Galliani said on the club’s official website.
“The club will continue with the coach that has put the most points on the table in Italian football for the past two-and-a-half years.
“Inter (Milan) ended last season with 22 points less than Milan and no one mentions that. The same is true for Juventus two seasons ago.”
What Galliani fails to mention their is that Juventus replaced their coach after finishing 22 points behind Milan, while Inter have had a revolving manager door in recent years.
The massive challenge that Allegri has is that this summer Milan let most of its high paid veterans go and then sold Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva to Paris St-Germain. Those moves were made with Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations in mind, as the team got younger and cheaper. The challenge for Allegri is that Milan still need to massive cash inflows that Champions League football brings. Finishing outside the top three will cause further financial chaos at the San Siro.
Which is why is Milan continue to stay around 10 points out of third place, and that final Champions League spot, that Milan will make a managerial change as they simply cannot afford not to be in the Champions League next season.
