Silvio Berlusconi has said he doesn’t understand why Suso and Bonaventura are not always playing and commented on the decision to give the captain’s armband to ex-Juve man Leo Bonucci.
Several months have passed since Silvio Berlusconi officially left Milan, selling the club to Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux, led by current President Yonghong Li.
A lot has happened since then: 11 players joined Milan as the Rossoneri had their most expensive transfer window in history and coach Vincenzo Montella is still working on getting the pieces together, amid displeasure and criticism from fans and ex-legends as the results and style of play have both been unconvincing.
“Milan is a piece of my heart and my life. I would like at least that the team gets on fine. This is my regret, my sorrow,” Berlusconi, who was the Milan owner for over 30 years (from 1986 to 2017), is quoted as saying on the online version of the Milan-based newspaper il Corriere della Sera.
Things are being done very differently now than they were during the Berlusconi years, especially the last few: Marco Fassone and Massimiliano Mirabelli are acting with transparency (as opposed to Adriano Galliani refusing to answer questions during shareholders meetings) and the coach is enjoying the absolute support of the club, despite early difficulties to achieve the desired results.
The summer made the fans dream again but Berlusconi, even from afar, can’t help but criticize. “I did not understand the [Milan] transfer market,” he reportedly told Corriere.it. “There has never been a change of 11 players in a team. With all that money, you could not buy a top player?”
Arrigo Sacchi revealed that he told Berlusconi to appoint Maurizio Sarri (who has turned Napoli into a monster in Serie A) instead of Sinisa Mihajlovic in the 2015 summer, but Silvio hesitated and refused it. Miha was eventually fired mid-season, replaced by Primavera boss Cristian Brocchi, now the assistant manager at Jiangsu Suning. Brocchi then decided to leave and Milan appointed Montella, despite the desire of Berlusconi, who was recovering from a heart surgery at the time.
“I wanted Brocchi to stay on the bench. But I was in a hospital bed, between life and death. And they told me Montella,” Berlusconi apparently said, without forgetting a comment on tactics: “Explain how can Suso and Bonaventura often finish on the bench, they are the two more technically gifted players. And how can you always do the same old game on the wings, with the same old crosses to the area.
“Mah [used in Italian to express perplexity]… To get the goal you should instead exploit the qualities of these two. I gave Montella advice and he answered: ‘Yes President, but I do the formation’.” The former Italy Prime Minister also believes making summer-signing Leonardo Bonucci captain was a mistake: “The captain’s armband was given to a player who was the Juventus symbol for years.
“There is Montolivo, the armband was entrusted to him.” Berlusconi said he’d only sell to someone who can take them back to the top. But in his eyes, the start of the Chinese Milan is not good.
Comment:He didn’t say anything about sarri.
everything u said I agree with u but given d captain to bonucci wasn’t a bad call
4-2-3-1
The team needs time , we bought players who are all amazingly potential players . The only transfer that i disagree is Kalinic .
yes, the team needs time, but with a Cosistent starting XI.
Borini????
for 2 million he has not been bad…
We are not interested in your favor for players is montilvo fit to be captain he does not play like one all our signings are amazing players
With due respect berlu, pls be silent for you have done your part: the good and the bad.
You where autonomous in your own decisions. do arrigo told you of sarri? yes I can remember it well, we linked with him to replace inzaghi but you refuse. even dorff you sacked who was better.
I recall and appreciate all your glory with milan. you play a big that make milan be what the are.
Now is li milan, pls let them play their role for all have good plan as you, thanks.
Well said. Also pushing our legends away through galliani was a very big mess!
Berlu should be silent while you can talk?
Berlu should be silent and this man should talk.
Your Berlus is messing things around and makes confusion. This talk can’t help the team. He has made Milan what this team deserves but also brake it while ago.
He is right about Bonucci. Say what you want about Berlu, no other president knows football as well as he does.
Thats why milan became a mess like this
That’s why we were so succesful for 25 years yes. Four years doesnt eradicate 25 previously succesful years. 25 > 4.
my friend all that 25yrs work down the drain coz of those 4yrs.
If you work hard through out your life and achieve everything it would take one bad moment to spoil everything you earned.
@milan121 These new kids on the block have been fans for only 4yr or since July
4231 …… Suso, Bonna, hakan, Silva
They all can play together.
Therese is no identiy with 352, and evert team trashes is anyways, that backline is to slow, or they make stupide mistakes.
Donna
Conti-ramagnoli-bonucci-rodrigez
Kessie-biglia
Suso-hakan-bonnaventura
Silva
Why cant The best players play… Why must adapt to bonucci? He is not The strongest om that team.
Can u please send this stop Montella, cos i believe this is the Best Formation that suit Us.
@sufferingmilansupporter nice formation, but i Will put musacchio in place of romagnoli. He has been a disaster.. Mr Berlusconi please keep shut! If u hadn’t signed a bunch of hopeless players during your time, the new management wouldn’t need to sign 11 new players. You loser
If it had been Berluconis money he would have bought 11 Strikers only Insisting the midfield was fine !
i think what this team lacks is not quality but psycological cos I remember the team that won barcelona (milan 2–0barcà),the consisted of:–
ABBIATI
ABATE. MEXES. C.ZAPATA. CONSTANT
AMBROSINI. R MONTOLIVO. MUNTARI
K BOATENG. PAZZINI. EL SHAARAWY
THE QUALITIES OF THIS PLAYERS ARE NOT BETTER THAN THAT OF THE PLAYERS WE HAVE IN MILAN TODAY…BUT THE TODAY MILAN LACKS CONFIDENCE AND FEAR THEIR OPPONENT NO MATTER THE CLUB
I beg to disagree with u mr president,if the solution was this easy, u would have left a better team and coach. We are starting a new phase with new players, please let us let us make the mistakes that will make us a stronger team. When u took over, I don’t think u hit the ground running, but u got it right in the long run. So please understand that nothing good comes easy.Thank u for all d fond memories u gave us,Weah,Sheva,Kaka,Maldini,nesta and the endless list.We will always rememeber and celebrate u.
For now, all we need is montella getting sacked, hire LVG, beating Inter, and pray that we can finish above them on table. Otherwise, I can’t handle humiliation I would receive because I have brag all summer about how good we are
Don’t be a hater , let’s wait for the Inter game , if we lose than we can start questioning Montella’s exit
Respect you a lot Berlusconi because you did a lot for this club, but I think this management is far better than your latter part management style. You were only bringing us scrap players on free transfers. This players worth more than the ones Galliani was bringing. So they only need time. Bonucci is now a Milan player, so he deserve all due respect. He is not our problem. Is collective.
The best formation is 4-4-2 or 3-4-3
3-4-3 definitely
He was our hero and still hero,he tried his part and still telling the present administrators their mistakes because he realised his own and speaking from experience, none of we fans love Milan better than him,Milan was his investment then nobody will love to see his property sinking in the ocean why on earth would a coach left his 2 best last season footballers on bench,sarri did bench insigne,Conte didn’t bench hazard,pogba always play for man u etc but our own coach bench bona and Suso,both former captain and his assistant always on bench feature complete new footballer instead of… Read more »
Well said
It’s easy now for him to judge
He’s a fan now. He has all the right to judge just like us.
He’s a fan of himself you mean
Even though he likes the spotlight, but he’s not completely wrong.
He is wrong
11 new players was needed to replace the dead wood acquired by berusconi and galliani
Exactly
If not for Berlusconi, u won’t be supporting Milan today.. .u can’t live Milan more than Berlusconi. He has his faults but never did he do anything against Milan. Even in selling Milan, he put a clause dat d new mgmt must invest in New players at least 100m for 3mercatos… It also takes a lot of love n guts for a man to sell his most prized possession to improve d possession.. .he realized he couldn’t finance d club on his own and had to sell to people he felt had d money to take Milan to greater heights,… Read more »
He’s not completely wrong though as 2 players(Borini,A. Donnarumma) were not needed we also should have planned the acquisitions better now. If we were to play a 3-5-2 we should have signed better CM who can create play and not rely only on Regista to do that as Hakan is a No.10 mostly operating in pocket spaces. Which leaves us with a CM a Fabregas/Modric-esque type of CM who can create in our final third. Instead we used our last transfer Kitty on Kalinic. I still wonder, we played with 4-3-3 all season last year and also in pre-season. Was… Read more »
Montella had to switch from his favored 4-3-3 when we signed Bonucci.
With Bonucci Milan now had a problem as they now needed to find room for him after signing Musacchio to partner with Romagnoli.
The bizarre thing is that signing Bonucci was Montella’s idea since they both have the same agent.
That’s why I will keep saying that Montella is clueless. He sabotaged himself and the team with that stupid decision.
We could have used the money spent on Bonucci on another winger or midfield player. Smh
Precisely my point. He must be held accountable for our shortcomings
BERLUSCONI: TOP PLAYERS? agree ofc but… MILAN needed this … Milan needed 11 players at least (not Borini or Dollarumma) Milan didn’t have CB… (we had Paletta, Zapata, Romagnoli, and Gustavo Gomez) now we have Bonucci /Musacchio they are not playing well but they are definitely better than the others… WE JUST NEED A DECENT MANAGER… TOP MANAGER. didn’t have a RB… now we have Conti unfortunatly he’s injured. WE didn’t have a LB… now we have one of the best… Ricardo Rodriguez Midfield last season? horrible… simply horrible…Mortolivo Pasalic….Kucka I was expecting at least one big name for midfield… Read more »
I know he was signed because of his money-thirsty brother. But he is just quantity not quality and Borini ! I just laugh when I hear his name.
Did you even see Borini play in the last match? I laugh when fans like you speak up !
So what Borini did? did we won the match? did he score, assist?
Borini’s crosses were more like a shot that ended up as a cross. It was a desperate attempt. Not something we should praise. Another run he made, which he took one to many touch and got easily stopped by Manolas. Other than that, he didn’t do anything note worthy.
One match doesn’t make up for the rest of the matches he performed badly at.
Bayern just brought back Jupp out of retirement. Still hoping we could bring back Carletto.
Conte is more likely. Ancelotti will either go to Chelsea or PSG which is more likely than Milan.
Conte uses a 3-4-3 at Chelsea which is more suitable for the players at Milan.
Just look at how good Borini was against Roma? Much better than Calabria and Abate.
But then I fear we won’t be competitive in the UCL with Conte as he is more focused Domestically. Remember Juve before Allegri came there.
Van Gaal is there without club, I think he is the best solution until end of this season, then bring back Ancelotti for next season
Our goal should always be UCL . It’s always been the Milan way.
please let’s be fair and sincere BORINI is not a bad player ,we condemn him too much…in the Roma game that we lost he played real good,had we won that match he wud have been mentioned as one of the MVP,he may not be the scoring type but he is good in team work ,please give him some credit and am sure borini wud have been praised had the whole team played well
I agree. He is better than Poli and Montolivo combined.
We should seriously lay off him. If Milan use a 3-4-3 then Borini would do well.
Is it a must we use 3412 formation ,what happened to 433 that gave us trophy last season wit loaned players
He was alright kind of surprising in fact. Just not reliable.
berlusconi made is point n he made 80percent fact here. we wasted moni buying mediocre players in d market we don’t Av quality players n complete starting eleven.dey is no enthusiasm in d team.
no doubt, Don Berconi is best president ever…
trophys, many great signings, but in last 10years he destroy himself…
he release Pirlo in favor Monty,
montrous sell out but no proper replecement (Sheva, Kaka, Ibra, Silva), he keep Monty, Bonera, Mexes, Pato, Pazzini, Matri while release Papas, Astori, Acerbi, Darmian, SES & Auba for peanuts, he chose the formation & players (Carleto’s Dream Team can do lot better & more trophy if he get more freedom)…
yup, Don Berconi knew football but it was too much…
thanks Mr. Ex-President & goodbye,
please don’t say more any nonsense please…
forget d mercato, management,the players or the trash talks of all these outsiders that failed during their own atempt that caused dis chaos, forget quality too; hw many point has madrid n chelsea in d same 7 games, this milan team hav sumfin bigger than quality n that is yung prospects dat are ready to gve their all but they dnt have a COACH n its limiting them all n dis z milans only problem, we dnt hav a coach,even if we luckly win inter monella is nt a milan quality, get a beta coach n we wil see hw… Read more »
sorry bro i disagree with it is this same montella that use shitty squard to beat juve and both league and the cup this same montella bring us back to europe maybe montella is not the problem maybe time is the problem what am saying here is we need time let us all support him please forza milan.
Don Berlusconi said d real truth, we need a formation dat can accommodate our strike force, it’s definitely not 352..montella looks like a stubborn student.. .all d big teams abandoned 352 becos of its susceptibility to counter attacks n u see small teams rubbish u. Juve abandoned d system when Dey couldn’t even win in d group stage of d UCL, even wenger abandoned d system for UCL, y is montella sticking to disrupt destructive route? I don’t want to comment on d Mercato becos it’s done but we can make d best use of what we have 4231 or… Read more »
sorry bro i disagree with you it is this same montella that use shitty squard to beat juve and both league and the cup this same montella brougth us back to europe maybe montella is not the problem maybe time is the problem what am saying here is we need time let us all support him please forza milan.
I agree with the suso-Bonaventura stuff. We should play 343 it is the best formation for now. It favors everybody
I will never forget you for what you did for milan in your first 25 years.
But I will also never forgive you for what you did to milan in your last 5 years.
It will be a very difficult journey to get to the top because we slept for last few years.
As for the coach, get Conte this season or the next season.
am really surprise at most comments here ,as many here who claim to be coaches better than montella ,I remember wen montella played 4-3-3 most people abused and suggested 3-5-2 to be the best ,and just result is not coming same set of people are calling for his sack,let’s be patient with this management ,it took Napoli and juventus yrs to blend together
Thanks for selling the club to this fake Chinese without proper capital
Lol
Politikus!!
He’s right about Bonucci. He was let go by Juventus because he was a head case. We not only paid good money for him, but made him captain immediately. Let him work to be captain.
Andre Silva scores again. Beast.
Silva my man, the next big thing in football, hope Montella doesn`t destroy the kid
I said it before and i say again. We can NOT start a new era as long as montella is coach. WHY? Montella is the last piece of that CANCER of B&G era.
Montella is part of the old infected era. And thas why the virus is spread into the team.
Dear Mr President,
As a fellow Milan fan who has the interest of Milan at heart, I strongly believe you have made these comments in a very wrong time (Pre derby when Milan need strong mental support) even though you made some valid points.
You remain our beloved President forever but please do respect the new owners as they equally respect you.