What’s wrong with the “conversation” between the AC Milan players and the ultras

The scene seen on Saturday at the Picco stadium in La Spezia is causing discussion, and not a little. The AC Milan players, who have just been beaten by the home team 2-0 after a very sub-standard performance, in conversation with the ultrasstanding in front of a black wall of people asking for more from the players and from Stefano Pioli who was “on fire” a year ago and who now seems to have lost his way.

However you think of it, that image is not beautiful: seeing players who have to come back from a Champions League semi-final attacked and forced to remain impassive in the face of the anger (justified by a terrible ordeal, it must be said) of some fans is never nice, but the issue is less clear-cut than it seems.

Milan is going through a difficult season, light years away, in terms of quality and results, from last year’s. Never fighting for the Scudetto they were defending, eliminated after just one match in the Italian Cup, Pioli’s men have so far consoled themselves with a Champions campaign in its own way historic, given that the Rossoneri had been missing from the semi-finals for sixteen years. Yet, the January crisis and the latter gave the idea of ​​a team that has never really come to terms with itself and which, guilty, is always hanging on Leao’s physical conditions. This is why the annoyance of the fans is understandable, especially on the eve of the return match with Inter. Instead, what is more difficult to understand is the dynamics of the ultras world for which it is normal to have a “comparison” in those terms and modalities.

The faces of the AC Milan players and coach have been defined as “Caravaggesque”, perhaps because, just like in the artist’s paintings, all the emotions they were experiencing at that moment transpired from their eyes. Well, summing up to the max: they didn’t want to be there. For no reason at all. Perhaps the initiative the following day, with the fans waiting for the team at Milanello to sing chants, wave flags and support the group, was more just and even more useful in a certain way.

The relationship between the ultras and Milan has often been talked about in recent years, especially after, in 2009, a part of the Curva Sud booed Paolo Maldini, at the last appearance at San Siro of his very long, incredible career. And there has also often been talk of Maldini’s hatred towards the most heated fringe of organized Rossoneri support. This time, however, the situation is different: the fans have the right to express dissent when things don’t go well, God forbid: the one-to-one relationship between the field and off the field can only benefit the performance of a team, if managed well. Instead, what is really wrong is a dialogue that is not a dialogue, because one of the two parties is in a position of clear superiority (numerical, proxemic, emotional) compared to the other.

In short, to reach the final in Istanbul, a non-trivial city for the Rossoneri side of Milan, it will take a collective effort: both the players, the coach and the managers, as well as the fans, will have to row in the same direction, without anyone the blame lies with the others, because reassembling Inter is a very difficult challenge on paper. Some more, some less, everyone has a share of responsibility. Milan’s season will be decided here and now. Ultras and team will have to work together.