Why Adriano Galliani is majorly responsible for Milan's current crisis

Silvio Berlusconi rejected Adriano Galliani’s resignation, instead making him joint CEO along with daughter Barbara, but it was in the summer that the plot was lost.

For 27 years, Adriano Galliani has been Milan through and through. His importance to the club can never be undermined and if the club today boasts of being a traditional powerhouse its majorly because of the players signed by ‘Uncle Fester’ (as he is fondly called), throughout his tenure as the second in command at Milan. A master negotiator, his magical skills at coaxing clubs into letting go of their prized assets for cheap made him the best at what he did in Europe. Add to that, his eye for players who were troubled but at the same time massively talented and the Rossoneri were easily one of the best players in the transfer market.

His record speaks 28 trophies in 27 years, but today if at all the club is struggling it is majorly down to some dubious decisions taken by the club under his watch very early this summer.

“Milan are planning a return to that tactic, but it was not dictated by President Berlusconi. We simply decided to adopt this system when we signed Riccardo Saponara from Empoli, seeing as he is a trequartista. The moment we signed him it was obvious we'd play with 4-3-1-2 and not 4-3-3", is what Galliani said back in June amidst allegations that one of the conditions that President Silvio Berlusconi had put on the table while deciding Massimiliano Allegri’s fate was the forceful implementation of the 4-3-1-2 – a formation synonymous with the great Milan side of last decade.

Now why would anyone destabilize a team that had performed exceptionally well since playing in a 4-3-3 since November of last year and in the process having won 17 of their 26 games and losing just two until the end of the season in May? It’s imperative to note, that in the second half of that season, the Rossoneri were the best team in Serie A and the only reason they could have missed out on the Champions League was because of the horrendous start where the team collected a miserly 14 points in the first 12 games of the season.

The presence of players like Stephan El Sharaawy and M'baye Niang on the wings supporting Mario Balotelli in the centre provided Allegri not only with pace and width upfront but also tremendous support to his full backs. Strength on the wings is what Milan had and after a torrid summer where the club went through a massive clear out releasing veterans and two of the best players in the world, it seemed like at least they were moving in the right direction.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and the veterans were history while El Sharaawy, Balotelli, Niang and Mattia De Sciglio represented the future of this new Milan that had decided to promote youth and build on the foundation owing to the financial difficulties at the club. But the laughable decision at the top to clip the wings and switch to a more traditional two striker system backed up by a trequartista, really pegged the club back to square one.  

The purchase of Ricky Saponara, considered to be one of the best young players in Italy today and the pursuit of Keisuke Honda represented an extension to the new philosophy the club was supposed to be following moving forward coming into the new season. A philosophy that promoted youngsters pretty much like what Barcelona had done back in 2008. But when you switch philosophies in the middle of the transfer season, you obviously have to change your whole strategy (if there was one at all) as to the kind of players that need to be brought in to suit the new formation.

Instead, Milan waited until the end of the mercato – a habit Galliani has developed over the past few seasons with mixed results – and ended up buying the likes of Valter Birsa, Ricky Kaka and Alessandro Matri who was brought in from Juventus for an appalling €12 million. Switching to a two striker system meant Milan needed another striker to support Balotelli, while the search for a back up to Kaka called out for the signing of Birsa from Genoa.

Niang, Balotelli and Sharaawy | Once the future of Milan, the trio's fate hangs in the balance today

Now though Kaka has shown glimpses of his former self, that doesn’t change the fact that despite much promise of promoting youth, the club once again resorted back to relying on veterans. Niang didn’t seem to fit in the two striker system, while before getting injured at the start of the season El Sharaawy wasn’t really at his best in a supporting role, as his primary position is on the left wing where he uses his tremendous pace to cut into the heart of the defence.

Matri was repeatedly preferred to partner Balotelli even before the Egyptian Italian fell prey to a string of injuries. The 21-year old is easily one of Milan’s more reliable options upfront and forcing him to adapt rather than play to his strength is appalling to say the least.

Is it just a co-incidence that Milan’s best performance all season was the 3-0 victory in the Champions League qualifiers against PSV when they lined up exactly the way they did for the better half of 2012-13?

Yes, the numerous injuries to the squad mean the options are lacking but at least before the summer Milan did have a plan. It would have been an altogether different thing had they concentrated on buying players based on last season’s blueprint instead of starting once again from zero having already done that in the summer of 2012. What’s funnier is that Milan have neither been able to effectively use the 4-3-1-2 nor are they well equipped to start with the 4-3-3 due to the lack of enforcement in the summer.

While Adriano Galliani has been a master at dealing and wheeling in the market over the years, his deficiency at handling the same with a limited budget has hampered Milan. His lack of faith in youth is another issue that needed to be addressed and that’s exactly what Barbara Berlusconi – who called for heads to be chopped from the top – has been wanting to implement to kick start a revolution at the club.

Yes, Galliani cannot shoulder all the blame as the financial difficulties both in Milan and Italy have handcuffed him and forced him to deal the way he has in the last few seasons but he has failed to adapt. Always relying on experience and age, Uncle Fester’s blind eye towards promoting youth is the reason why the team is so mediocre to the say the very least at this point of the season. Lady B’s assertion that scouting for young talent and tapping their potential at a very early stage should be the plan for the future given the limited budget in hand and Galliani’s failure to do exactly that is why she rose against the man who built the club into what it is today over the past 27 years.

His resignation may have been rejected (expectedly) by President Berlusconi, but how he will work in tandem with the same lady who tried to force him out of the club will be interesting to see. The two barely see eye to eye and the partnership has failure written all over it, though the only positive is that Galliani is not the only with all the power at the top. With Barbara making her presence feel, he can no longer take his position for granted.

With the arrival of Adil Rami and Keisuke Honda in January and the return of El Sharaawy and Mattia De Sciglio from injury, Milan will be a much different and better side than they are at the moment but if they are to move forward, the dubious decisions to destabilize the squad have to be stopped from the top. They have to stick to the system that has worked and continue building on that which is what should have been done in the mercato.

Having clipped their wings in the summer, Adriano Galliani has a massive task to take this club forward in the right direction and trust the youth because now a certain Lady B is watching ready to pounce at any chance she gets to make the changes at the top, which is exactly what Milan need at the moment. 

Adriano Galliani is a legend and his experience and contacts in the business of dealing with others is invaluable to Milan. But sometimes even legends have to adapt in order to preseve their legacy.

With calm on LoC, Pakistan hopes ties with India will improve: Salman Bashir

"I do not want to sound over-optimistic or exaggerate but what I am saying is that there is light at the end of the tunnel," Bashir told a farewell press conference in the Indian capital. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s outgoing High Commissioner to India Salman Bashir announced on Monday that after a series of violence clashes, peace has been restored at Line of Control.

Bashir, who is expected to be replaced by career diplomat Syed Ibne Abbas, expressed hope that Pakistan and India ties will further improve in future and that he could see the “light at the end of the tunnel” of in diplomatic relations and predicted the improvement would survive next year’s Indian elections.

Talking to media persons in New Delhi Bashir said calm had returned to the Line of Control, the de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region after a deadly flare-up earlier in the year. Bashir’s announcement on Monday was the first indication that the commitment made by both sides to improve ties, was yielding results.

“I do not want to sound over-optimistic or exaggerate but what I am saying is that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Bashir told a farewell press conference in the Indian capital.

“We have constantly worked for the improvement in relations between the two countries and at this point of time I am personally optimistic that we will be on the upward trajectory in the coming months.”

Some observers have predicted ties between the nuclear rivals could be hit if hardline Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi emerges as prime minister after elections due in India by next May.

Modi, who is ahead in the polls, has been an outspoken critic of Pakistan and has accused the current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of not being tough enough towards Islamabad.

But Bashir said the outcome of the Indian elections was “not material” to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s stated goal of improving ties.

“The improvement in relations with India is very emphatically a state policy. We believe it’s in our interest and we believe it’s in the interest of the region,” said the high commissioner.

“Our prime minister is on record as having very emphatically stated that improvement of relations with India is a priority.

“An improvement in relations with Pakistan is also something that is of importance to India and the Indian leadership.”

Bashir refused to be drawn on the impact of a Modi premiership, saying Pakistan would “respect whatever is the decision of the people of India”.

Sharif and Singh both pledged to ensure calm along their border in Kashmir when they held talks in New York in September, the highest-level talks between the two sides for three years.

As well as tensions over Kashmir, ties have also been blighted during Singh’s premiership by the 2008 Mumbai attacks, when Islamic militants from Pakistan laid siege to an iconic hotel and other sites and killed 166 people

US again driven to distraction by Karzai

Afghanistan Preisdent Hamid Karzai. PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON: What is the United States to do about Afghan President Hamid Karzai?

Eye rolls are the usual response when Karzai’s name comes up in official circles in Washington – where the Afghan leader was once feted as a silk robed savior but is now mocked as an erratic Machiavel.

In his latest mercurial move, Karzai is refusing to sign a painstakingly negotiated bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the United States, setting rules for American soldiers in a post-2014, post-combat force that would train Afghan troops and counter terrorism.

Washington warns that unless Karzai relents before the end of the year, there will be no option but to plan a full US exit that would put Afghanistan at risk of a Taliban resurgence and choke off billions of dollars of military aid.

Karzai, who openly mistrusts Washington, says it should be up to the next president to sign the BSA. But since the coming election is in April – US military planners say they would not have time to prepare a post-2014 force that could stretch to 15,000 troops.

Karzai has nursed a long grudge against Barack Obama’s White House, perhaps unhappy that his frequent contact with ex-president George W Bush was not replicated by his successor.

He has also railed against US military tactics, civilian deaths and drone strikes through the 12-year war.

But patience for Karzai in Washington, always endangered, is almost extinct.

Obama sent National Security Advisor Susan Rice to read the riot act to Karzai last week – but she returned only with new conditions – including a demand for no operations by foreign troops in residential areas.

Karzai is now accusing the United States of halting fuel and supplies to Afghan troops to force his hand – a charge NATO denies.

Many observers here believe that Karzai is motivated by a desire to exercise his own political leverage and to preserve his own power in the run-up to elections.

Washington is meanwhile loathe to let the BSA, already endorsed by a loya jirga of Afghan tribal elders, become an election issue.

But few observers are surprised that best laid plans are once more being disrupted by Karzai and former officials who have dealt with him are betraying frustration that the administration is struggling to keep private.

“President Karzai should go ahead and sign the agreement,” said Tom Donilon, who until August was Obama’s National Security Advisor told ABC News, branding the Afghan leader’s antics as “reckless.”

Former CIA Chief and National Security Agency boss Michael Hayden told Fox News Sunday that Karzai’s gambit was a “temper tantrum” while warning that tough US rhetoric would not work.

Officials in the White House and the Pentagon are clear about what further delays could mean.

“We’d like to see the BSA signed as soon as possible – certainly by the end of this year,” said Colonel Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

“If it’s not signed very quickly, we will be forced to begin planning for an Afghanistan that has no US presence after 2014,” said Warren.

Such an outcome would be unpalatable for Washington; it would risk a collapse of still fragile Afghan forces; it could open the door for a resurgence of the Taliban, and forces like al Qaeda which the war was launched in 2001 to quell.

A total withdrawal would also leave Obama with the question of whether he squandered the sacrifice of nearly 2,300 US troops in Afghanistan. It could also condemn the country to the same post-US torment as Iraq.

But Obama is also adamant that there will be no troops left in Afghanistan if they are not offered the legal protections that the BSA provides – and there remains a suspicion that some officials would welcome the chance to wash their hands of Afghanistan.

A delay in the US-Afghan BSA is also problematic for US NATO partners who must conclude their own status of forces agreements with Karzai.

Many analysts believe that Karzai will not ultimately allow his nation to be left alone to its fate and believe he will sign in the end.

One option may be just to wait Karzai out, said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior military analyst at the Brookings Institution.

“The better part of wisdom here is just to relax, time will make it a lot easier,” O’Hanlon said, arguing that the true answer to the conundrum was to stress the long-term interests of the Afghan people and not Karzai’s personal pique.

Caroline Wadhams, of the Center for American Progress, just back from Afghanistan, suggested Karzai had miscalculated his nation’s strategic importance to Washington – and convinced himself that Obama would make further concessions because Washington is desperate to stay.

“It is not clear what he wants. I don’t know how you negotiate with him,” she said, adding that Washington needed to convince Karzai, “this is it, we are not doing this anymore.”

Biden in Tokyo amid 'dangerous' China tensions

US Vice President Joe Biden. PHOTO: EPA

TOKYO: Vice President Joe Biden held talks in Tokyo Tuesday as Japan expressed confidence of winning fulsome US backing for its opposition to an “extremely dangerous” new Chinese air zone.

Biden’s tour of northeast Asia, which will also take him to Beijing and Seoul, comes as tensions in the region are at their highest for years, with China and Japan squaring off over a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Nerves are particularly frayed after Beijing’s proclamation of an Air Defence Identification Zone over the sea, including the disputed islands, in which it says all aircraft must obey its orders on pain of unspecified “defensive emergency measures”.

“China’s declaration of an air defence identification zone is an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo, which can invite unexpected situations and is an extremely dangerous act,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters ahead of Biden’s one-on-one with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“I think they will confirm that Japan and the United States will keep closely cooperating on this issue,” he said.

“Japan and the United States share the position that China’s ADIZ is unacceptable… I think (Biden) will head to China to discuss various issues including this, with his understanding of Japan’s position,” Suga said.

Beijing’s announcement of the ADIZ provoked fury in Tokyo, Seoul and Washington, who all sent military or paramilitary planes into the zone in defiance of Chinese orders.

In Washington, senior administration officials said Biden, who is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing later this week, plans to convey Washington’s “concerns” to China and seek clarity regarding its intentions.

Analysts are divided over whether it was a clever long-term move by Beijing in its bid to undermine Japan’s claims to control the disputed islands, or an over-reach by an administration that doesn’t fully appreciate its impact.

Abe will be looking for Biden to bolster his position that China is being unreasonable and aggressive, said Takehiko Yamamoto, professor of international politics at Waseda University in Tokyo.

“But at the same time, Washington does not want to take the risk of damaging its bilateral ties with China,” he said.

“Biden will deliver the message to the Chinese side but may also seek to play a role in mediating,” he added.

Analysts point out that Tokyo and Washington appear at odds over instructions to their airlines flying through the zone, with Japan telling its carriers they should not comply and the US advising American companies that they should.

After a morning coffee with Irish premier Enda Kenny, who is staying at the same hotel on a five-day visit to Japan, Biden went to the US embassy where he met with new ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso.

He is expected to meet Crown Prince Naruhito later in the day before a formal meeting and dinner with Abe.

Biden will move to Beijing on Wednesday to hold talks with Xi before flying to Seoul, where he is to meet South Korean President Park Geun-Hye.

President Barack Obama pledged in his first term to “pivot” US foreign policy toward Asia.

But he called off a trip to the region in October to negotiate with Republicans who shut down the US government in a failed bid to stop his signature health care reform.

Biden’s visit is intended to help re-affirm US commitment to the region, ahead of an intended trip to Asia by Obama in April.

Day 10: Container carrying goods to Kabul sent back

A container, dispatched for officials in Kabul, Afghanistan, was sent back by protesters from Hayatabad Toll Plaza on Monday afternoon. PHOTO: FILE

PESHAWAR: A container, dispatched for officials in Kabul, Afghanistan, was sent back by protesters from Hayatabad Toll Plaza on Monday afternoon.

The US Embassy in Islamabad said they received the information and were looking into the matter. The container was stopped before crossing the sit-in camp near a terminal and documents were produced for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) activists at the toll plaza.

The permit issued by the political agent of Khyber Agency on November 21 read, “We would like to inform you provisions for the US Embassy in Kabul are being transported to Afghanistan via Torkham by road.” The protesters refused to let the container continue further along its route. The driver of the container carried on to an undisclosed location.

The US Embassy spokesperson in Islamabad told The Express Tribune they were aware the protests had affected one of the primary commercial transit routes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and this time cargo traffic had suffered too.

“As has been noted many times, these routes are important to the US, Nato and Pakistan, as reflected recently in the joint statement released during Prime Minister Sharif’s official visit,” said the spokesperson. “We have received information about the container and are looking into the matter.”

On the 10th day of the PTI dharna, protesters checked documents of more than a dozen containers carrying goods to Afghanistan. All of them were allowed to move on after the documents produced proved they were carrying ordinary goods.

False start

The protest camp was empty until 10am while the chairs were occupied by journalists as residents of PK-10 were not informed it was their turn for the dharna. Residents from Sherkera, Mattani, Badhaber, Adezai,  Azakhel and other villages started reaching the venue around 10:30am.

“We were told in the morning it was PK-10’s turn to block Nato supplies. It was around the time when we started calling other party workers which was why we are late,” said one of the residents of Mattani. Activists also criticised provincial Minister for Information Shah Farman for not receiving their phone calls.

JI and AJIP activists were present in larger numbers when compared to PTI workers, at least until 1pm. The protest continued and Nato supply routes were blocked throughout the province. There was also a sit-in at the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway Interchange.

Following a drone strike on November 21 that had killed six people, including members of the Haqqani network, PTI Chairman Imran Khan said till US drone strikes continued, the Nato supply route will remain blocked throughout the province.

Public accountability: RTI bill still unsigned by K-P governor

Despite popular perception, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Right to Information law is still not in place. PHOTO: FILE

PESHAWAR: Despite popular perception, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) Right to Information (RTI) law is still not in place. As promised by the law, the public still has no facility to access information regarding any subject.

On Monday, official sources confirmed to The Express Tribune that while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had been busy garnering popularity over getting the bill passed in the provincial assembly, in fact the RTI, also viewed as an effective block to the rampant corruption in government institutions, was still not part of the legislature.

The officials added the K-P governor is yet to sign the bill and so no official notification had been issued regarding the law in the official gazette.

The bill that was passed almost a month ago in the provincial assembly was penciled in to be introduced with the 18th Amendment of 2010 and the delay in its official introduction still persists.

The K-P governor declared the RTI as an ordinance on August 13, 2013. After that, the PTI had 90 days to get the bill passed in the provincial assembly, which it did on October 31, 10 days before the ordinance would have lapsed.

The K-P government which has failed to present the RTI bill to the governor is in violation of Article 116 of the Constitution which states that after a bill has been passed in the assembly, it must be presented to the governor for his approval, said the official.

Muhammad Zahoor, executive director Center for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA), expressed his concern over the delay in getting the RTI bill approved. He said when the bill was passed in the assembly, it should have been presented to the governor for his assent the very next day. Zahoor said the K-P government failed to show the same kind of urgency as it did when the governor had promulgated the bill as an ordinance.

The K-P government is also in violation of Article 19-A of the Constitution which states every citizen has a right to access information in all matters of public importance. The director claimed not getting the K-P governor’s assent is equal to debarring the country’s citizens from exercising their basic constitutional rights.

The director shared his non-governmental organisation’s experience with The Express Tribune about collecting information in K-P. He claimed the CGPA recently submitted requests for information to 25 district headquarters hospitals regarding the availability of basic medical equipment.

“Only four hospitals responded within the stipulated 10 days, while the remaining 21 hospitals failed to provide any information,” Zahoor said. He added the CGPA was also unable to file complaints against the 21 district hospitals since no provincial information commission has been established so far, to whom the complaints could have been filed.

Zahoor stressed the K-P government should present the RTI bill for the governor’s assent as soon as possible. He also demanded K-P provincial information commission should be established without any delays and said without the commission the ‘very good’ bill will be worthless.

Lawsuit seeks 'legal personhood' for chimpanzees

Chimpanzees enjoy the sun at sanctuary in Gaenserndorf. PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW YORK: A US animal rights group on Monday filed what it said is the first lawsuit seeking to establish the “legal personhood” of chimpanzees.

The non-profit Nonhuman Rights Project asked a New York state court to declare a 26-year-old chimp named Tommy “a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned.”

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that Tommy’s “detention” in a “small, dank, cement cage in a cavernous dark shed” in central New York is unlawful and demands his immediate release to a primate sanctuary.

Chimpanzees “possess complex cognitive abilities that are so strictly protected when they’re found in human beings,” Steven Wise, the president of Nonhuman Rights Project, told Reuters.

“There’s no reason why they should not be protected when they’re found in chimpanzees,” he added.

The lawsuit on Tommy’s behalf is among three the group is filing this week on behalf of four chimps across New York. The other chimps are Kiko, a 26-year-old chimp living on a private property in Niagara Falls, and Hercules and Leo, two young male chimps used in research at Stony Brook University on Long Island, the group said.

Tommy’s owners, Patrick and Diane Lavery, and Stony university did not immediately return requests for comment. Kiko’s owners could not be reached on Monday.

The Nonhuman Rights Project used its own research to find the chimps, and Wise first visited Tommy in October after reading a local newspaper article about exotic animals kept at the Laverys’ used trailer lot in Gloversville, New York, about 50 miles northwest of Albany.

“He looked terrible,” said Wise, who previously observed healthy, wild chimps in Uganda. “Hey looked like a caged chimpanzee – they don’t move, they don’t look at you. They look depressed.”

The lawsuit states that chimps are entitled to a “fundamental right to bodily liberty,” which Wise told Reuters is the basic right to be left alone and not held for entertainment or research.

The lawsuit was filed at “the earliest point at which we have some reasonable chance at winning,” said Wise, a well-known animal rights activist and author of books including the 2000 title “Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals.”

“These are the first cases in an open-ended, strategic litigation campaign,” he said. “We’re just going to keep filing suits.”

Nonhuman Rights Project in 2007 began a nationwide search for an optimal venue to file the lawsuits, Wise said. New York was ultimately chosen because of its generally flexible view of requests for a writ of habeas corpus, the centuries-old right in English law to challenge unlawful detention, he said.

David Favre, a professor at Michigan State University College of Law and an expert on animal law, said it is the first habeas petition filed on behalf of an animal.

“The focus here is whether a chimpanzee is a ‘person’ that has access to these laws,” said Favre.

The lawsuits come as medical authorities re-examine the employment of chimpanzees in research in light of new technology that renders the use of chimpanzees less necessary.

In a decision applauded by animal rights groups, the US National Institutes of Health in January said it was reducing its use of chimps in biomedical research, retiring most to sanctuaries. At the time, NIH Director Dr Francis Collins called chimps “very special animals” that deserve “special consideration.”