Alphabet Challenge | Part 35, Club 18 | Mahtal’s Fourth Italian Club

It was a case of one year and out as Trebor Mahtal celebrated his 70th birthday by winning the Slovenian league and cup double with NK Olimpija Ljubljana. The Zambian wrapped up the 13th league and 13th cup of his 30-year career and went in hunt of his 18th club to begin the task of ticking the 16th team off his Alphabet Challenge.

A few interesting opportunities were available immediately before one very big job popped up, but it took a while for clubs to offer interviews. He eventually attended an interview with relegated French side Dijon, who quickly offered him the vacancy but he delayed in the hope that the bigger job would come through. He soon got a call and offer from Australia, which he also delayed. His patience paid off as the big team he’d been eyeing up eventually offered an interview but took ages to make a decision, so Mahtal had to walk away from discussions with Dijon and CC Mariners. However, they did soon come calling and Mahtal was heading back to Italy for the fourth time.

Who Are AC Milan?

AC Milan still play at the 75,710-capacity San Siro, which was built in 1926 and has perfect 20 infrastructure. Mahtal walks into a club with £61m in the bank, a £50m transfer budget and has £600k of its £4.1m weekly wage budget going spare. Last season, Milan finished a lowly 7th in Serie A, a huge 41 points behind winners Napoli. That was largely due to the usual dross Mahtal discovered when he joined a new club, so he carried out his usual firesale to bring in £177m for 19 players. And, in truth, he probably sold too many players and left the squad a little short.

There was a familiar face at Milan as Mahtal was reunited with his former Dortmund and Valencia defender Javier Sierra, who’s now 30. The best player remaining at Milan was elite striker David Andrés along with Spanish midfielder Albert, Ecuadorian winger Miguel Estupinán, legendary Qatari centre back Mohammed Al-Shammani, goalkeeper Francesco Innocenti and midfielder Noah Kappenberger. They also had a few exciting talents in winger Aboudramana Cissé, Peruvian full back Marcos Macedo and winger Salvatore Remorini.

That put the pressure on Mahtal to bring in reinforcements, which began with a few more familiar faces. He brought in his former Zurich striker Arthur Boli and loanee winger Giacomo D’Anna for £30m from Torino and former Necaxa, Tigres and Valencia left back Joaquín Domínguez for £45m. He’d left himself well short of midfielders, so added Fabio Amodio for £13.5m from Torino, Jean-Carl Monnin for up to £25m from Anderlecht and exciting 17-year-old Ratko Krstic for £8m from Crvena Zvezda, from whom they also signed winger Milorad Matic for £7m, and 6ft 5in defender Etienne Pécault for £10.5m from Nice.

Mahtal used the formations he’d used at Valencia and Olimpija as the basis for an approach that worked for the players available at Milan. They had a lack of decent strikers so Albert will play in behind his countryman Andrés, with Estupinán playmaking and roaming from the left. But Mahtal would likely tweak the roles and instructions as he bedded the tactic in.

Mahtal Returns To Italy Again

The bookies have Milan down as sixth favourites to win Serie A with title odds of 16/1. Holders Napoli are 15/8 favourites ahead of Mahtal’s former sides Juventus, who just spent £238m on a striker from Nice, and Atalanta (11/2 and 13/2), Inter (7/1) and Torino (9/1).

Mahtal’s fourth spell in Italy began with Kappenberger scoring the only goal as they battered Genoa by 25 shots to one. A few days later, another home game saw them entertain Mahtal’s former club Roma and history repeated itself as Milan bossed it by 17 shots to 4, with Roma also having no shots on target, and D’Anna scored the only goal. Another clean sheet followed as Albert laid on goals for Andrés and his replacement Pascal Schultz at Udinese before finally conceding as Albert earned a 1-1 at Torino. That set up Mahtal’s first taste of the Madonnina Derby at home to arch rivals Inter. The sides played out a turgid affair in which Milan continued to miss chances before a delicious passing move ended up with Estupinán’s low cross into Andrés. And Inter offered absolutely nothing.

Milan lost for the first time at Napoli but, without looking overly convincing, they managed to keep pace at the top of the table before losing 1-0 at Juve in late November. But they kept the solid form up and headed into the new year 3rd, three points behind leaders Juve in what looked like being a tasty title battle with the top seven split by just 7 points.

Europa League Opportunity

Milan’s 7th-place finish earned them a place in the Europa League – six Italian teams are in the Champions League, as Parma won the Europa League. They got an easy set of group fixtures and beat Rangers 2-1 and Besiktas 4-1, in which Krstic scored his first two senior goals, won 4-1 at Astana and 3-2 at CSKA-Sofia with rotated teams and then 1-0 at Celtic. A rotated team lost 2-0 at Ajaccio but Andrés’ double downed Slavia Prague 2-0 to guarantee qualification.

Milan faced Mahtal’s former club Frankfurt in the last 16, and D’Anna’s goal earned a 1-1 in Germany before Albert, Estupinán, and Andrés earned a comfortable 3-1 home win. They got the toughest quarter final draw against Arsenal and Mahtal rested the first 11 for the league game before the home leg. But they still lost 3-2 before a 3-0 away defeat sealed by Mahtal’s former Juve striker Magnus Bjortoft, which epitomised Milan’s end-of-season struggles. And Arsenal went on to beat Lyon 3-2 in the Final.

Struggling To Keep Pace At The Top

Two older players departed for Saudi in January, with veteran centre back Bjarke Gartenmann and Pascal Schultz leaving for £5m apiece. And Mahtal promoted a few young prospects in their place.

Milan began 2055 with Andrés and Estupinán earning a 2-0 win over Mahtal’s former side Atalanta before Albert nicked a 2-1 win at his other former side Roma. They were held to a 0-0 by Torino before drawing 2-2 at Inter, a few days before they lost 2-0 at Inter in Coppa Italia, then got thrashed 4-0 at home to Napoli, dropping them 7 points off top spot. The decline continued with three consecutive 0-0s then back-to-back defeats, before Boli’s first goal for the club – after scoring 48 in 48 for the under 20s – nicked a 1-1 at home to Juve.

Andrés’ brace ended a seven-game winless run and his three-month goal drought to at least confirm Europa League qualification. That set up a positive end to the campaign, but a 2-0 final day defeat at Atalanta kept them in 5th place, 18 points behind Juve and Napoli, who played a two-legged playoff to decide the title, drew both games and Juve won the title on penalties. They finished on 76 points after 22 wins, 10 draws and 6 defeats, only scoring 50 but conceding an impressive league-low 23. So it was pretty clear where their issues were. Andrés was the league’s 7th-top scorer with 18 in 37, well behind Juve’s £238m man Mansouri, who scored 35 in 36, but Innocenti kept a league-high 21 clean sheets, 5 more than Mahtal’s former Necaca keeper Hugo Quinones, who was now at Atalanta.

An Underwhelming Return To Italy

Finishing 5th in Serie A was probably a solid effort, especially considering the really good defensive performance. But it was clear they lacked goals throughout the team, barring Andrés leading the way with 27 in 50. Albert scored 11 with 7 assists but missed the end of the season and Kappenberger scored 8 with 9 assists from midfield. Estupinán delivered a club-high 11 assists but Mahtal was generally looking for more attacking threat.

The good news was that Milan’s potential was boosted by a strong youth intake led by 5-star midfielder Riccardo Montefrancesco and striker Camillo Minelli.

Mahtal would have a bit of a job on his hands to move AC Milan closer to the top four next season. He definitely needed to bring goals into the mix and add more attacking potential while building on his solid defence.

Could AC Milan move closer to their rivals next season? Join us on Friday to find out!