ALLEGRI UNDER PRESSURE

The future of AC Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri has been speculated a lot in the last one year. It has been recently reported that the manager may offer his resignation even though this season is only a few matches old. He is thought to have fallen out with the higher-level officials at Milan over several issues like finances and budget. Allegri, though, has rejected any rumours by confirming that he will be a Milan manager going into the Champions league campaign.

The group stages of the Champions league will see Milan competing against usual contenders like Barcelona, Ajax, and Celtic. This is one of the toughest groups in this year’s competition. Milan managed to qualify for the group stages after a convincing 4-1 victory on aggregate over Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. They came into the second leg match after a 1-1 draw in the first leg, but the performance in Milan was great. Milan scored three goals and won the match 3-0.

Midfielder Kevin Prince Boetang scored two goals, while striker Mario Balotelli scored the other to put Milan in the Champions league group stages, which alone will be worth around € 30 million in revenue. Milan have sold a number of stars in recent years due to financial problems.

“Tonight was the final result of last season and our qualification for the next round is deserved. Did I feel there was any tension in the atmosphere? It’s been like that for the last two years – maybe tomorrow I will resign. I need to sleep on it. Maybe I’ll just head out on my boat off the coast of Livorno and come back to watch the occasional game. It’s been two years that people have been talking about ‘the next Milan coach’,” said Allegri after the PSV match that lifted a lot of pressure off him.