From a club that had always aspired to reach greater heights, the Rossoneri this season have spiraled to reach ever sinking depths.
They say good things come to those who wait, and after a 57-year patience to beat AC Milan at the Stadio Meazza, Genoa will savour the adulation from their comprehensive win.
Back on May 25, 1958, goals from striking duo Paolo Barison and Julio Abbadie — with a hat-trick and brace respectively — secured a 5-1 win in an equally dominant display. It remains Genoa’s biggest ever Serie A away victory.
After Andrea Bertolacci and M’Baye Niang — on-loan from AC Milan — fired the Rossoblu in to a two-goal lead early in the second-half Wednesday night, that long awaited win felt destined to arrive against a Rossoneri side a shadow of itself.
Even Philippe Mexes’ stunning reply on 66 minutes did little to enthuse the disenchanted Milanisti. An Iago Falque injury-time penalty ultimately gave the visitors a more deserving scoreline to take home.
That defeat back in 1958 came in similarly impoverished times for AC Milan, when on the final day of a season just two points eventually separated them and Genoa in ninth and 12th respectively, despite winning the Scudetto 12 months prior. However, while the Rossoneri went on to clinch the Serie A title in 1958-59, they now seem caught in an endless cycle of mediocrity.
Under the stewardship of debutant coach Filippo Inzaghi, AC Milan were expected to at least be challenging for Europe. Instead they seem intent on breaking records of a different kind at the San Siro, with comparative minnows Sassuolo, Palermo and Atalanta also walking away with three points.
However, it is not so much dropping points to such opponents that is concerning, but instead with the performances during those defeats.
Sitting in 10th, and showing little sign of recovery, Inzaghi is in danger of overseeing the club’s worst season in the near 30-year reign of owner Silvio Berlusconi. In 1996-97, AC Milan finished 11th (in an 18-team Serie A) just six points from relegation, losing 13 times in total.
Would it be too much of a stretch to consider seeing the Rossoneri not win any of their remaining five fixtures? One might think not.
In no danger of relegation, or ‘achieving’ the record of 15 defeats registered during 1930-31, AC Milan have lost as many as they have won this term (10) while conceding 42 goals. Since three-point-win rule was introduced, the 43 points amassed in that disastrous 1996-97 campaign are still the lowest in their history; yet they could be equalled despite the Rossoneri still having four games left to play.
Considering the fewer games they had to play back in 1997, this current crop of misfits actually has a worse points-per-game ratio: 1.13 to 1.26.
What Inzaghi can argue is that the 1997 side failed with far greater quality. The 1995 European Footballer of the Year George Weah spearheaded a team containing Paolo Maldini, Demetrio Albertini and Roberto Baggio.
The likes of Luca Antonelli — acquired from Genoa after netting the winner in the Grifone’s December victory — are simply good professionals, nothing more.
That said, it is a squad that should be achieving more than they have this term. Therefore, It is surprising that more Milanisti protests — largely against the club’s hierarchy — have not been directed with greater vigour towards Inzaghi.
It is almost as if there was an acceptance that the material Inzaghi was handed is simply not good enough. However, in this topsy-turvy season, at no point has the 41-year-old brought any consistency to the team. That seems largely irrelevant now with Inzaghi sounding resigned to walking away this summer and potential new owners likely to bring in their own man.
One would certainly hope that, for the moment at least, the misguided strategy of employing former Rossoneri legends to take up the AC Milan job is abandoned — not yielding any significant reward since Carlo Ancelotti last took the club to a Champions League trophy in 2006-07, a UEFA Super Cup win and a FIFA Club World Cup victory in 2007.
Only then may the club hope to return to breaking records of the right kind.
