Monza earned their first ever Serie A victory by beating Juventus on the debut of new coach Raffaele Palladino and patron Silvio Berlusconi is wasting no time taking the credit. ‘I will intervene directly with advice, like I did at Milan.’
Berlusconi was the President of Milan for over 30 years and after selling up to Yonghong Li, he started all over again with Monza in the amateur leagues post-bankruptcy.
Along with CEO Adriano Galliani, they took the club to repeat promotions until this, their first ever Serie A season.
It started with one point from six games, so Giovanni Stroppa was sacked and replaced by youth team coach Palladino, who was on the bench for the 1-0 victory over Juventus.
“Taking Monza into Serie A after 110 years gave me more joy than winning the Champions League,” Berlusconi told Telelombardia.
The former Prime Minister of Italy is famous for taking a very hands-on approach with his coaches, regularly berating them in public for not following his tactical advice, or enjoying the credit when they do get results.
He pledges to do the same now that Palladino is at the helm of Monza.
“I will intervene directly with advice, just as I did with all my coaches at Milan. Palladino is a coach I know well from his time with the Monza youth academy and I decided, along with Adriano Galliani, to put the team in his hands because in our view he really deserves it.
“There is at the same time no doubt that I will deal with the situation directly because I have proved that in football I know how to achieve the objectives that I set.”
Meanwhile, Milan are the current Champions of Italy after securing their first Scudetto in a decade.
“I was a Milan fan my whole life and still support them now, Milan are forever in my heart. Today I deal with Monza, with nostalgia for the past, but for obvious reasons I will abstain from getting into matters to do with Milan.
“I view the new owners with great respect and as a Milanista hope they can lead the club to new great success.”
I’ve missed Berlusconi being in Serie A. He’s so entertaining. I’d like to think I’d be like that if I was an 80 year old billionaire.
Grande Silvio !