Allegri had a decent start to his managerial career, getting Cagliari into the top half of Serie A, winning the Albo Panchina d'Oro (basically the Serie A manager of the year award). There are plenty of managers in England who we've seen have success in getting a relegation threatened club to mid-table, but struggle when given a bigger job with more expectation, see Francis and Hoddle at Spurs, and more recently Hodgson at Liverpool. You could even argue that Lambert at Villa, or even Moyes at Man Utd, fall into this category. The likes of Rodgers at Liverpool or Redknapp at Tottenham, are rare. But Allegri was given his big break, at AC Milan, and that's where I'd like to judge him.
His first season was ok. He signed Robinho, Boateng, Van Bommel, Cassano and of course, Ibrahimovic, and led a Milan to the Serie A title after Inter collapsed when Mourinho left. They flopped in the Champions League however, with their only victories in the entire competition being two wins over Auxerre in the group stages, which got them through to the second round to play us. At the San Siro, Bale was injured and Modric was only fit enough for a second half substitute appearance, yet he still lost at home to a team that had Wilson Palacios and Peter Crouch starting and went out. They went out of the Coppa Italia to Palermo in the semi-finals, after drawing the home leg and losing the away leg.
In the summer of 2011, Andrea Pirlo, one of the best midfielders of his generation, rejected a new contract offer and left on a free to join Juventus. Why on earth would a club legend walk out and join a rival like that having just won the league? Here's why:
Pirlo, 32, told today’s La Gazzetta dello Sport. "But the real reason behind why I left Milan was because Allegri wanted to use Ambrosini and Van Bommel in front of the defence. So that meant that I had to change position on the pitch. So I said ‘No, thanks’ to Milan, and chose Juve. Milan decided that I was no longer useful to them. I understood that immediately during our meeting. Allegri wanted to use other players in my position "
An utterly ridiculous decision in my book, evidenced by the fact that Pirlo has now inspired Juve to two out of two league titles with a third on the way, including one of them going the full season unbeaten.
How did Milan's defence of their title go? They started slowly, but picked up some good form between October and March, by which point they led Juve by 4 points. But, they ended up dropping some careless points and were knocked off the top of the table after losing at home to Fiorentina who were in 17th place at the time, as Juventus overtook them in the final straight. Sounds familiar doesn't it? It should be noted in that season, that other than an away win against Udinese, they didn't beat anyone in the top 6, that same win was also the only away game against a top 6 side they didn't lose that season. They also lost home and away in the derby against Inter. Winning the big games is absolutely crucial at the top level, it's ultimately the reason the likes of Sherwood and Jol failed at Spurs. Obviously these games are the hardest, but it's the best managers who find a way to raise their team's game and tactically outsmart their opponents, and those managers are the ones who win the six pointers, finish above rivals in the league, win trophies.
They dingdonged on Arsenal in the Champions League when they were at their lowest, 4-0 in the home leg. Job done. No team in the Champions League has ever thrown away a four goal first leg lead. But they almost did, with Van Persie missing a sitter to make it 4-4. Nobody expected them to beat Barcelona the following season, but looking at what happened against Arsenal the previous year, you can see a pattern emerge when you see them getting spanked in the return leg and becoming the first team in CL history to throw away a two goal first leg lead without conceding an away goal.
A lot of people have said there was no way he could be expected to challenge effectively after the board sold some of his best players in Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva. That may be true. So let's have a look at his tactical work. This author sums it all up better than I can:
http://www.football-analysis.com/ma...-at-the-milan-manager-tactics-this-season123/
In summary, adapted to get an effective, but unspectacular formation after some early season wobbles. Dull style of football. Tactical stubbornness. Needing a certain type of player to make the system work, yet persists with the system when nobody in that mould is available. AVB all over again. I don't expect our manager to make us magically the best team in the country, but
I do expect the team to be entertaining to watch. If I'm going to spend all this money on watching Spurs, I want to enjoy myself, not bore the opposition to death and grind out results.
So, poor football, poor tactics, poor results, chokes in the big games, excuses aplenty. At least his players like him right? Oh no, he's quite publicly fallen out with the likes of Seedorf, Pato, Flamini, Nesta, Inzaghi, Robinho, Cassano and Pirlo. As well as his tactics, they've criticised his fitness training work. And on top of all of this, he's a foreigner coming to the Premier League, with no grasp of our language, our culture, our style of play. This would be a dreadful appointment, everything we don't want.
Levy's appointments thus far have read:
Hoddle - Club legend that plays attractive football to win the fans over after years of negative football under a man we hated for his Arsenal connections
Pleat - Stop gap until the proper manager came in
Santini - Highly rated emerging manager with a big reputation for the work he'd done with Lyon and the French national team, much bigger name than anyone thought we'd get
Jol - Stepped up from the role as assistant after making a name for himself in Holland
Ramos - Widely rated as one of the most promising young managers in Europe, having won back to back European trophies and getting Sevilla to challenge for the title
Redknapp - Was there to get out out of the relegation scrap and to man manage a talented but under performing squad
AVB - This was a big gamble after what happened with Chelsea, but there was at least logic in looking at a young, multi-lingual continental coach that had had previous success and could have put the failures he'd had in the previous job down to mitigating circumstances.
Sherwood - Stop gap.
Allegri? Complete nonsense. I'd honestly rather have Pulis.
