Milan Futuro are in danger of making their first season a very forgettable one, after falling to yet another baffling defeat yesterday.
La Gazzetta dello Sport write how Milan lose games that they should win, are condemned by absurd red card and mentally are never ready. However, this is not referring to Sergio Conceiçao’s Milan for once, but rather the second team coached by Daniele Bonera, though for how long we don’t know.
Bonera has the same problems as the first team and his target is more of a grave one: avoiding relegation. The Futuro are third-last, only three points ahead of last place Legnago, and at the moment they would have to play in the relegation play-offs.
To avoid them, they would have to overhaul an eight-point gap in the last 10 games and it is unimaginable at present. Milan won in February against SPAL, then got zero points versus Lucchese, Pianese and Pescara. If they also lost in Legnago on Sunday, the possibility of direct relegation would be concrete.
The original sin dates back to the summer, when Milan Futuro was created. Zlatan Ibrahimovic chose not to give the bench to his former friend Ignazio Abate, who twice got to the UEFA Youth League Final Four with a group similar to the one that would play in Serie C today.
Ibrahimovic decided to hire Jovan Kirovski as sporting director and Daniele Bonera as coach. Kirovski had never built a team in Italy, Bonera had never coached. Just over six months later, Abate is second in the standings with Ternana and Milan are a real mess.
They would almost certainly have changed coach too, if the club had reached an agreement with Alberto Bollini who instead did not leave his post as Italy U19s boss. They added Mauro Tassotti to Bonera’s staff, the historic assistant to Carlo Ancelotti and others.
Admittedly, the team from August team no longer exists for Bonera. The first league game lineup included Alex Jimenez, Kevin Zeroli, Hugo Cuenca, Lapo Nava, Chaka Traore and Mattia Liberali, all of whom have either left, are in the first team or are no longer part of the team regularly.
The last few hours have added some very worrying details. Milan Futuro lost 3-2 in a match that they were winning 2-1 against Pescara and Bonera stated: “We learned yesterday after the first team match that Camarda and Bartesaghi would be with us. We had prepared the match with other players, I’m sorry for the guys who didn’t start from the beginning.”
Managing players between the first and second teams is a historic difficulty – Juventus 2018-19, in their first year of existence, experienced very similar problems – but Bonera describes a situation that probably hurts everyone.
Camarda, Torriani and Bartesaghi were sent to play in Serie C in Busto Arsizio 16 hours after the end of a Serie A match played in Turin. Of course, they can give a big hand to the Futuro, and Camarda scored a great goal, yet the planning and short-notice changes are far from ideal.
Bartesaghi meanwhile was sent off for two absolutely avoidable yellow cards. One was for protesting and the other for a foul on the sideline, in a non-dangerous situation. He joins a list of red cards including Fode Ballo Touré and Antonio Gala at bad moments.
