Chapter 31 30. Extra people?

After the Champions League failure, Sacchi still did not dare to take responsibility as before, but shifted the responsibility to the players. He said: "I only have 48 hours to prepare for the game. It is impossible to shape a team in such a short period of time. The team, and the failure of this game is not my mistake in formation, but the fault of individual players.” Blaming players seems to be Sacchi’s new way to get rid of himself, but this time he said that individual players’ faults Wrong, certainly should not include Roberto Baggio, because he was one of the best players in the game, but was replaced by Sacchi, whose fault can be seen at a glance.

When Sacchi came to Milan, Baggio still had illusions about this "cannon coach", "When Sacchi first came to AC Milan, I thought he would rearrange my position and use me as the main force. Proof, I was wrong." Not only did Sacchi fail to help Baggio when he was not in good form, but he replaced him midway when he was in good form, and Baggio seemed to be a superfluous person.It can be seen that Sacchi has a deep prejudice against Baggio.Baggio is a person with high professionalism and tolerance. Although Sacchi makes things difficult for him everywhere, he never embarrasses Sacchi in public. When the two face each other, Baggio will not stare at each other.But his generosity and tolerance failed to change Saki's heart.Baggio felt very sad about the cold reception he received. He said: "I don't know if I am a redundant person, but my belief in playing football has not changed. I am eager to contribute to the revitalization of AC."

Just when Baggio was troubled by his failure to be reused by the coach, another unpleasant thing troubled him again. The thing is, a newspaper reported that Baggio and several other players who played in the Italian league were suspected of tax evasion, which claimed that Baggio's tax evasion amounted to 3.5 billion lire.According to the report, Baggio entrusted a large sum of his own money to a friend in Vicenza to operate, and used the money to obtain special benefits through investment in the Americas, such as investing in prospecting in Chile and the Andre Islands, etc. .Baggio was surprised when he heard this. He said: "I don't know anything about this. My property is indeed managed by someone else. I just sign it. I don't know anything about investments, bonds, stocks... I think I I’m just a football player, I only think about training and playing.” Some people in Italy do have tax evasion, but Baggio himself has never thought about tax evasion, because only in 1994, Baggio took the initiative to evade taxes. Declared income tax due on income of 6 billion lire, although he could have easily evaded this tax at the time.The income of football players is relatively high, so people are often suspected of tax evasion, but sometimes this speculation can also cause harm to some people.The tax evasion scandal was just an episode in Baggio's life, and he was eventually proven innocent.

It is naturally impossible for AC Milan, whose generals are at odds, to achieve any impressive record. The morale within the team is low, and the performance is declining, which makes Milan fans distressed.Especially the fiasco on April 6, 1997 filled the whole city of Milan with a sad atmosphere. The 1996-1997 league season was coming to an end. At this time, AC Milan went away to challenge their old rival Juventus. AC Milan fans hoped that the team could sweep away the disappointment with a victory, and various media were also optimistic about this battle.At this time, Baggio was in good condition and eager to fight, but Sacchi still put him on the bench.The result of the game was shocking, AC Milan lost with a disparity of 1:6.Sacchi only sent Baggio on for a few minutes symbolically at the end of the game, but at this time the whole team had already lost their morale and had no fighting spirit, and Baggio could only look at the ball and sigh, with no power to recover.This disastrous defeat caused a huge shock in Italian football. People couldn't believe that the Rossoneri, which won the championship last season, were so weak at this time.Faced with this result, Berlusconi, the boss of AC Milan, wanted to cry without tears. He said helplessly: "This really makes me feel ashamed. Perhaps in the history of AC Milan, this sad event will always be remembered." time."

... A season is finally over. AC Milan counted their harvest, which made them feel ashamed. Not only did they fail to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League, but their league performance was also the lowest point in the past ten years.They are only ranked eleventh. 11 wins, 10 draws and 13 losses, scoring 43 goals and conceding 45 goals and 43 points, 22 points less than the number one Juventus.Baggio's original home team Vicenza, as well as Atlanta, Bologna, Udine and other small teams are all ahead of AC Milan. For AC Milan, this is a season of complete failure. Due to the failure to be reused, Baggio's personal performance has also dropped to the lowest point in recent years.He scored 5 goals in 23 appearances in the league, 3 goals in 5 appearances in the Italian Cup, 1 goal in 5 appearances in the European Champions Cup, and only 9 goals in the entire season. Since 1988 The number of goals scored for the first time is only in the single digits.

With such a record, how will AC Milan and Baggio face the future?