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Honda: Milan need complete rethink, spend like 'PSG or City'
Marooned in 11th place and coming off a 4-0 humbling at the hands of rivals Napoli, the Rossoneri look as lost as they did last season under Pippo Inzaghi.
In a very candid interview transcribed by the Gazzetta dello Sport, Keisuke Honda called for Milan to shell out even more on transfers, as well as revolutionise how the club is organised and how it evaluates things.
“Milan’s problems are very clear, also because they’re always the same,” Honda told assembled Japanese journalists.
“If we don’t learn anything from this defeat, we’ll be very far indeed from rebuilding the club.
“Based on the last few years I think it’s clear that this club can’t start over without investing a lot of money, like PSG or City have.
“Either you invest, or you re-examine the club’s structure. The ownership, the coach and the fans need to realise what the situation is."
Having shelled out €86 million on shiny new players and brought in Sinisa Mihajlovic, the Diavoli were expecting these first seven games to go very differently. The Serbian recently told the press that mentally speaking, the players still had a long way to go. Honda’s answer is fascinating:
“I don’t understand, it makes no sense to blame the players. Milan have lined up many players and spent 100 million this year, including many internationals, yet why is it that they can’t perform for Milan?”
“Change would involves revolutionising the club’s evaluation criteria, how the ownership, coach, fans and media see things.
Otherwise it’ll take at least 5-10 years.
I know I’ll get a lot of slack for this, but I believe that what I’ve said is important to the future of the club”.