Serie A remains in gloom

After 4 consecutive seasons in the Champions League, AC Milan will be absent from the continent's number 1 arena next season as they fell too deeply last season.

AC Milan (right) and Juventus both declined - Photo: Reuters

Don't be surprised if that defeat becomes the milestone that opens a sad era for AC Milan, like the haunting 2010s they experienced.

AC Milan fall back into the dark period

In 2011, AC Milan won their 18th Serie A title in history with a superb Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the squad and legendary players Pirlo, Gattuso, Seedorf… who were still in their prime. But just over a year later, they fell into a serious crisis.

Throughout the 2013-2014 to 2019-2020 seasons, AC Milan failed to make it into the top 4 of Serie A. It was not until the early 2020s that the red and black striped team recovered.

But all Rossoneri fans are aware that this is only a temporary struggle. In the arena that AC Milan is most proud of - the Champions League - they are still just an old symbol. The San Siro team is second in the list of the greatest teams in the history of this tournament with 7 championships, but the last time they reached the final was 18 years ago.

Last season, AC Milan failed to even make it to the round of 16, and the team that beat them was tiny Feyenoord from the Netherlands. And in Serie A, AC Milan dropped to 8th place.

The transfer policy of the Italian giants has long been a problem that has frustrated fans. AC Milan spends a lot of money, but always brings in players who are considered "rejected" from other teams such as Emerson Royal, Abraham, Felix, Morata, Walker...

It was clearly AC Milan's way of trying to maintain its reputation as a big club - with a roster of superstars, but with too many risks. The results showed that among the names mentioned above, almost none of them really shined.

This summer, the situation at San Siro has become even more bleak. The team has successively pushed out Reijnders, Theo Hernandez and Kalulu - three truly quality players, still in their prime, and rolled out the red carpet to invite Luka Modric - who is almost 40 years old.

The funny thing is that AC Milan fans have stopped being dissatisfied with the team. Two months ago, many Milan fans supported Reijnders to leave the team and move to Man City because they thought he deserved a better team than the current AC Milan.

Juventus and Inter Milan are not doing much better.

Not as miserable as AC Milan, Juventus had a strong breakthrough at the end of last season to rise to 4th place, thereby winning a ticket to the Champions League next season. But their situation is actually not much brighter than AC Milan.

Last summer, the "Old Lady of Turin" poured more than 200 million euros into the transfer market. In Serie A, that was an investment aimed at winning the championship, not the top 4 race.

Juventus have been left financially strapped this summer by a series of transfer failures, and like AC Milan, they have been forced to look to free agents like Jonathan David rather than young, sought-after stars.

Looking at the two most traditional teams in the league, Italian football fans have reason to worry. Inter Milan - the strongest team in Italy for the past 5 years - is also not financially abundant.

Despite continuous success in both domestic and continental competitions (reaching the Champions League final twice in the last 3 seasons), Inter Milan's finances remain bleak due to problems at the top. As a result, after many consecutive years of success, their squad is increasingly falling apart.

The decline of Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan is an opportunity for the remaining strong teams of Serie A to rise. But if we look at the whole picture, Serie A is increasingly lacking the giants who can bring Italian football back to its past glory.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/serie-a-van-chim-trong-u-am-20250721090552748.htm