Meltdown in Milan could cost manager Max Allegri his job

AC Milan manager is on the hot seat as club hovers just three points above relegation, writes Ian Hawkey

A win on Wednesday night over Barcelona will certainly help coach Massimiliano Allegri keep his job at Milan after a shaky start to the season. Max Rossi / Reuters

The Gazzetta dello Sport described the scenario as “chaos”.

In case anybody thought the most-respected chroniclers of Italian football might be exaggerating, they could check with the Corriere della Sera, a newspaper familiar with the often-chaotic events of the Italian parliament.

They agreed. What is happening at AC Milan is, definitely, “chaos”.

Saturday’s 2-0 loss at home to Fiorentina left Milan in the bottom half of Serie A, 19 points behind the leaders, Roma, and 16 off the top three, the zone for qualifying for the Uefa Champions League.

Milan are far closer to relegation territory, just three points clear.

Though it is only November, and it should be remembered that Milan were in a similar domestic predicament this time last year – they recovered to finish third – it is crisis time for a club of their dimensions and ambitions.

Crisis talks among the club’s executives have taken place. No secret about that.

Barbara Berlusconi, daughter of the Milan president Silvio Berlusconi and an influential director at the club, has called for a “change in philosophy”.

When her comments were interpreted by an Italian news agency as a push to remove long-serving vice-president Adriano Galliani, a media meltdown ensued.

Galliani has long been the most vocal defender of coach Max Allegri. An assumption that Allegri’s days are numbered has intensified.

Whatever the power struggle in the boardroom, there seems a high chance that Milan’s next two fixtures, at Barcelona on Wednesday night and at bottom-of-the-table Chievo after that, will decide Allegri’s immediate future.

Beyond that, there is executive-level concern, shared by supporters who have displayed banners questioning recruitment failings, that the club’s transfer strategy is haphazard, compared with the Serie A pacemakers.

Milan earned over €60 million (Dh297.1m) from selling Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Kevin-Prince Boateng, mainstays of Allegri’s 2011 scudetto side. As for the reinvestment, comparisons have stung.

Roma parlayed income from the sale of Pablo Osvaldo, Marquinhos and Erik Lamela into the likes of Gervinho, Kevin Strootman and Mehdi Benatia. Napoli’s yield from Edinson Cavani’s €65m departure was spent on Gonzalo Higuain and Jose Callejon, among others.

Milan, meanwhile, are promising fans sound captures come January, when France defender Adil Rami, from Valencia, and Japan midfielder Keisuke Honda, from CSKA Moscow, should join.

Whether or not Allegri will be giving them instructions orders is another issue.