MN: Milanello is a ‘happy place again’ – how Allegri restored the smiles

AC Milan had a disastrous 2024-25 season on the field and there was plenty of drama off it too. Fast-forward a few months, and everything has changed.

As MilanNews report, it was and is well known that serenity was lacking at Milanello last season, especially since everything except calm and happiness shone through the team on the pitch, leading to an eighth-placed finish.

There was the cooling break saga in the game against Lazio, the penalty debacle against Fiorentina, and the altercation between Sergio Conceicao and Davide Calabria immediately after the last game against Parma, a dramatic comeback win.

The fear for fans was that one of the lowest moments in Milan’s modern history – culminating in the Coppa Italia final defeat to Bologna – would send them back to the depths of the 2010s when mid-table finishes became almost the norm.

Then came the man who not only turned the lights back on at Milanello, but made a great sun rise over it. He arrived in a grey BMW X6 in July, and his name is Massimiliano Allegri.

Photos: Marco Luzzani + Claudio Villa/Getty Images

A huge transformation

The situation at Milanello has completely reversed since July 4, when Max got to work. There’s a harmony again, a pleasure in training and playing matches, that desire to go the extra mile for team-mates, the coach and of course the fans.

By the admission of Peppe Di Stefano, the Sky correspondent who works at the training complex every day, there’s a wind of change in Carnage that Allegri brought. Yet the players are mostly the same as last year, which testifies to the work he has done on individuals.

The coach repeated it in yesterday’s pre-Parma press conference: “There is good harmony at Milanello, not just among the players but among everyone. Everyone is involved in the teams’ victories.”

The importance of Allegri’s arrival at Milan is therefore not only tactical, technical and purely footballing, but primarily psychological. The coach has brought a sense of calm and positive energy, which are aspects that form the foundation of a team that wants and must aim high.

We saw this also with Stefano Pioli’s Milan: in the Scudetto-winning season of 2021-22, the Diavolo certainly weren’t the strongest on paper, but they became greater than the sum of their parts through a collective unity.