CorSport: ‘We missed you’ – why Allegri is fired up for Milan return and new Conte battle

By: Oliver Fisher

Massimiliano Allegri will officially lead day one of preseason at Milanello today, and it is very much front page news in Italy.

The players began arriving on Friday and by last night the 28 players called up for the preseason camp by the coach had arrived at the training ground. The official start date is today, complete with a double session and a press conference in between.

Welcome back, Max

This morning’s edition of Corriere dello Sport has the following on the front page: ‘We missed you. New Milan. Allegri of the 6 Scudetti is back and challenging Conte. A story that ended in 2014 reopens in Rossonero. Maignan and Leao are locked up. Jashari is coming. He wants to equal the seven titles won by Trapattoni’.

After a year out following his second spell at Juventus, the coach from Livorno returns to the Rossoneri. Today is inevitably his day, not only because he will be presented (the press conference is at 13:00 CEST), but also because he will lead the first two training sessions.

Out of the loop, Allegri lived as a protagonist in newspapers, websites and talk shows during the months of unemployment because his candidacy was promptly relaunched at the first disturbing signs of detachment of Fonseca’s Milan.

The cooling break at the Olimpico was the key episode of a season out of control. Allegri was far from detached: he immediately began to study, to follow every public and non-public detail, to take note match after match of errors and blunders recorded at Milanello, accumulating a real dossier.

Towards the end of the season he was linked to different jobs, from being Antonio Conte’s replacement at Napoli to perhaps even being Simone Inzaghi’s successor at Inter. However, the Rossoneri’s call was a strong one in the end.

The last time Allegri was at Milan was under Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani, marked by the rich summer market with Ibrahimovic and Robinho then later (in the January window) with Cassano and Van Bommel to complete the team that sailed towards the Scudetto won in Rome.

Even then, the Rossoneri rebirth came after the magical treble of Mourinho’s Inter. This time Inter only came close to the treble, and Inzaghi left for Arabia but Allegri’s number one rival returns to being Conte.

Photos: Simone Arveda + Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images

It is just like 14 years ago when the challenge between the two went down in history for Muntari’s famous goal and more precisely for the muscle injury suffered by Thiago Silva that weakened the Rossoneri defence in the decisive part of the campaign.

Allegri inaugurates his new adventure today, with the official presentation of his second era in red and black. He does not have Ibra or Robinho at his disposal, he has chosen to focus on the relaunch of Maignan and Leao, while he still has to complete the midfield and defence.

The coach travels in perfect harmony with Tare and has a mad desire to prove something to Juventus and to those who criticise him for his “outdated” brand of football that there is not only one way to the Scudetto.

He, just like Conte, and even before them Sacchi and Capello, have experienced that the roads that lead to triumph can be very different. And that perhaps by playing only for the title, Max can access a shortcut.

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