A year older, a year unwiser as Berlusconi stands still

Milan and Leonardo have announced by mutual consent that the Brazilian coach will be leaving the San Siro following Sunday’s home game with Juventus.

The decision will bring an end to Leo’s 13 year association with the Rossoneri, split across terms as a player, sporting director and coach. The move had been mooted for a number of months now, with the tactician reportedly keen on a move back to Brazil, and his relationship with club president Silvio Berlusconi believed to be strained beyond repair. Under Leonardo Milan have comfortably finished third but have never really found themselves in genuine contention for the Scudetto, and as the season winds up, they must rebuild for next term knowing they are literally and metaphorically closer to the Champions League chasers than the champions.

Given the circumstances in which Leonardo arrived and his affiliation to the club, it has been a fairly unacrimonious split, probably the best for all concerned. Leo, similarly to the deposed Gianfranco Zola, is seen as one of Calcio’s nice guys and in a battle of longevity with Berlusconi, was never likely to outstay the Milan supremo. Having towed the party line for a season and assured another campaign in the Champions League, Leo can walk away with his head held high whereas Berlusconi, Galliani and co will be left to scratch theirs as to where to go from here.

Looking back on the 2009/10 campaign as a whole it’s been a pretty fruitless affair for il Diavolo. Barring a fine win in the Bernabeu, Milan have struggled to keep pace with Inter, have seen Roma surge past them as the Nerazzurri’s main challengers and were mauled by Manchester United in the knock-out stages of the Champions League. Normally, having lost the steadying influence of a manager that had been there for eight years, such failings wouldn’t necessarily call for much panic and a season of transition would be begrudgingly acceptable. However, and now none of Leonardo’s concern, is the lack of progress which Milan have made in the past twelve months.

Rewind twelve months ago, and with Carlo Ancelotti off to Chelsea, the club had an opportunity to freshen things up. Ancelotti had done as much as he could and with an old and lingering player pool, things needed freshening up. A decent start was made with the appointment of the bright, young and noble Leonardo but what since then? The squad remained virtually untouched albeit yet another year older and Leo was unable to coax much more out of them. Perhaps a slight on his managerial capabilities, but more so on the reluctance and naivety of the board to adequately reinforce. So, a year down the line and a sense of de ja vu must be sweeping the corridors of the Giuseppe Meazza. Inter are about to be crowned champions and Milan can do little but sit back and admire. Nothing won and nothing gained. It has been a wasted year for Milan, something Berlusconi must consider when he decides who next to chop in his myopic game of blame.

Leonardo’s swansong will be at home against Juventus in a fixture which reinforces what an anti-climax this term has been for both sides. When the league schedule was released prior to the start of the season, there was a belief in each camp that this match-up could potentially be a winner-takes-it-all Scudetto showdown. A microcosm of the pair’s stuttering season is in their respective forms tripping into the match. Milan have won one of the last five, Juventus, two. The fact that this game represents little more than a footnote to games being played in Bergamo, Verona, Genoa and Siena, shows just how far the mighty have fallen. To possibly quote a line from a hierarchal source at either Milan or Juve from this time last season, ‘there’s always next year.’

That is likely to be a sentiment echoed by Claudio Ranieri on Monday morning if as expected, Inter clinch their fifth successive title by avoiding defeat at already relegated Siena. It has been a brave and bold push by il Lupi, but one which may essentially prove too much. Nevertheless, Milan and Juve may wish to take note.
Really the only other two games of importance is to settle the battle for fourth place, with Sampdoria in the box seat. Palermo will fancy knocking over Atalanta meaning the Blucerchiati must negotiate the visit of Napoli to the Luigi Ferraris. In another season of highs and lows, peaks and troughs and under and over achievement, will we have one more twist to the plot? Who will be consoling themselves that there’s always next year?