'A breath of oxygen' - How Massimiliano Allegri is resuscitating AC Milan after year to forget for Serie A giants
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Updated 04/08/2025 at 18:16 GMT+1
A little over two months ago, a toxic atmosphere engulfed AC Milan as the club lost a cup final, failed to qualify for Europe and faced fierce fan protests. But Massimiliano Allegri's return to San Siro as head coach, where he has been joined by Luka Modric, has brought a fresh air of optimism to the club. Alasdair Mackenzie explains how the mood is changing in Milan ahead of the new campaign.
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If a photo could sum up AC Milan’s end to the 2024/25 season, it was one snapped on the final day.
As the mid-table Rossoneri filed onto the San Siro pitch for a near-meaningless game against relegated Monza, they were met by a creative choreography that packed a punch.
In the Curva Sud, where the Milan Ultras groups sit, hundreds of fans had arranged themselves to spell out the message ‘Go Home’.
It was aimed at the club’s American owner, Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital, and came after 5,000 fans had already emphasised the point at the club’s Casa Milan headquarters ahead of kick-off.
Frustration boiled over at the tail end of a disastrous season where two coaches, Paulo Fonseca and Sergio Conceicao, tried and failed to get a tune out of an expensively assembled yet infuriatingly inconsistent squad.
Milan finished eighth in Serie A, their worst placing in a decade, and failed to qualify for European football in the process. To make matters worse, a Coppa Italia final defeat to Bologna left a bitter taste, leaving January’s Supercoppa Italiana triumph as the only silver lining from a bad year.
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General view inside the stadium as fans of AC Milan protest by sitting in an arrangement to spell out "go home" in the stands during the Serie A match between AC Milan and AC Monza
Image credit: Getty Images
Things looked rather bleak for one of European football’s most illustrious and successful clubs. However, two-and-a-half months later, there is an air of optimism creeping back in again.
Milan have not stood still. Far from it. Sweeping changes throughout the club have them heading towards the new Serie A season looking ready to press the reset button.
'Everything has changed' under Allegri
Milan’s first move was to appoint former Lazio sporting director Igli Tare to oversee a summer transfer window and have a say in the hiring of a new coach.
The chosen one was former Rossoneri coach Massimiliano Allegri, who led a star-studded side to the Scudetto during his first spell with the club in 2011 but had been out of the game for a year after exiting Juventus last summer.
Few current coaches have greater knowledge or experience of Serie A than Allegri, a four-time winner of the coach of the year who added five more league titles to his CV during his time in Turin, and he has seemingly won his players over before they have kicked a competitive ball.
Christian Pulisic praised him for "knowing how to talk to players" and "giving Milan defensive solidity," while boyhood fan Matteo Gabbia, who idolised Allegri’s first Rossoneri side as a child, described his arrival as being like "a breath of oxygen to the team after a difficult year".
Mercurial winger Rafael Leao, whose rollercoaster form and oft-questioned attitude led to him being dropped at times last term, was relieved by the change of atmosphere too.
"Compared to the past, everything has changed. I feel like this year Milan will be a team," Leao said. "We have important players who can make the difference, but above all there is a great team spirit."
A 4-2 win over Liverpool in Hong Kong during pre-season, coming between a 1-0 loss to Arsenal and 9-0 thrashing of Perth Glory, gave supporters some encouragement as Allegri worked on a variety of ideas and formations.
But it is not just fresh tactics that are coming soon to San Siro, new faces are too following a busy summer of transfer activity under new sporting director Tare.
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Modric the mentor
After the misery of last season, Milan were quick to start clearing the decks. Tijjani Reijnders, arguably their brightest spark in a dark year, was sold to Manchester City ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup in a bumper deal.
Theo Hernandez followed, joining former Inter boss Simone Inzaghi at Al Hilal, while squad players like Emerson Royal and Luka Jovic departed and Joao Felix, Kyle Walker, Tammy Abraham and Riccardo Sottil returned to their parent clubs after loans.
Space cleared, the rebuild began. Samuele Ricci, a 23-year-old Italy international playmaker, arrived from Torino for €23 million and Pervis Estupinan became Hernandez’s anointed successor when he joined from Brighton & Hove Albion for €17m (fees from Transfermarkt).
But without doubt, the signing of Luka Modric stole the show. The Ballon d’Or winner and Real Madrid legend was presented as a Milan player on Monday after signing as a free agent at the expiry of his contract in Spain.
While the Croatian legend’s arrival will excite many, it also set some eyes rolling from those assuming the soon-to-be 40-year-old’s capture was yet another example of Italian clubs shopping for older players.
However, Modric is the outlier in this squad. Allegri and Tare have built a team in which the Croatian will be something of a mentor.
He is the only outfield player in the squad over the age of 30, and has 10 years on the next oldest, Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Most of these players will have grown up watching Modric and dreaming about the chance to play alongside him.
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Luka Modric of AC Milan speaks with the media
Image credit: Getty Images
Modric immediately showed the kind of standards he is used to and will continue to demand at his presentation.
"We remember Milan as one of the best teams in the world. We must not be content just with a mediocre season or qualifying for the Champions League," Modric said.
"That is my vision of Milan, but we must also be humble, work hard to get the team back to the highest level. I am very competitive and I want to bring this to the team.
"The minimum objective is to qualify for the Champions League, but Milan must also fight to win trophies. It is my objective, and must be for anyone who works at Milan."
Loftus-Cheek embraces 'healthy competition'
Loftus-Cheek was one of the most outspoken advocates of his new boss Allegri, branding him a "great coach and fantastic person" in a recent interview.
The former Chelsea midfielder, much like his fellow Englishman Fikayo Tomori, will be hoping to rediscover his best form under Allegri after an injury-plagued season where he missed almost half of Milan’s league games.
He has so far looked to be one of the chief beneficiaries of the coaching change, starting every pre-season game and finding the net against Liverpool.
"He has created healthy competition among the players," Loftus-Cheek said of Allegri.
"Everyone wants a place on the pitch and we all feel like we can get one if we train and play well. He knows how to create a nice atmosphere, which creates a great team."
Things seem to be coming together nicely for Milan, who are still being linked with several players in the transfer window.
Strikers have been the hottest talking point, among them Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic and Rasmus Hojlund of Manchester United, while the pursuit of Club Brugge midfielder Ardon Jashari has been a summer-long saga.
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For now, the quietly encouraging progress continues. The final stops on Milan’s globe-trotting pre-season tour are Dublin and London, where they face Leeds United and Chelsea respectively on back-to-back days this weekend.
For Allegri, the priority is getting his players to show their true selves again.
"I am particularly satisfied with the attitude of the squad," he said after Thursday's 9-0 win in Perth.
"This is a group of great players and in football you can have years when things don’t go well. But they don’t lose their value as footballers if one year doesn’t go as hoped."
It is a heartening message for a club and a fanbase that needed one.
After the bitterness of May’s failures on the pitch and the toxic atmosphere of the protests off them, Allegri appears to be restoring some faith in the future.
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