Serie A: Massimiliano Allegri deserves credit for doing more with less at AC Milan

Massimiliano Allegri, who lost his best defender, Thiago Silva, and his best striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, in the summer transfer window, has overseen quite a revival since a poor start to the AC Milan campaign, writes Ian Hawkey.

Despite a very strong run, AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri constantly fields questions about his future, a subject on which the Milan president Silvio Berlusconi talks frequently, often mentioningShow more

Several times over the last few weeks, Massimiliano Allegri, the head coach of AC Milan, must have cast an envious eye across the city and wondered if it might not be easier working for the kind of president Inter Milan have.

Massimo Moratti, the chief at Inter, may have a notoriously trigger-happy record over the last 20 years, but his repeated declarations of faith in young Andrea Stramaccioni, even as Inter fall away from contention from a place in Europe next season, seem earnest.

Inter lost for the fourth time in five league matches last weekend, and host Lazio tonight in eighth place. AC Milan, meanwhile, have since the new year compiled a points total only one shy of that of Juventus, and could by Wednesday could be within touching distance of securing their place in a Champions League play-off.

Allegri, who lost his best defender, Thiago Silva, and his best striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, in the summer transfer window, has overseen quite a revival since a poor start to the campaign.

Yet he constantly fields questions about his future, a subject on which the Milan president Silvio Berlusconi talks frequently, often mentioning the names of possible successors.

Allegri would not be the first Milan coach to feel undermined, nor the first to feel undervalued. But Milan, whose squad needed rejuvenating at precisely the time their budget was strained, may care to think carefully about what Allegri has done for them and how likely it is they would attract the services of anybody better.

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