The Torture of Following Milan

The current saga of the Milan sale is nearing an ugly boiling point. While the sale of the club is being negotiated, Milan cannot make any moves on the transfer market, and with the sale reportedly being pushed back again for the FIFTH time since the initial signing date in late June, it looks very likely that this current horrendous horde of players is all Milan will have at their disposal to start the season with and in less than one month's time! This situation is about as tenuous and taxing a scenario that a supporter of a club can be faced with, because our options are down to two. Stop supporting the club, or put up with all of the garbage that supporting this club entails and hope that something changes.

For the sake of context, I consider myself an incredibly passionate and loyal sports fan, but also one with a love/hate relationship with my favourite teams. While being born and raised just outside the beautiful city of Toronto certainly has a long list of positives, professional sports fandom is definitely not one of them. Unfortunately I am a diehard fan of all of Toronto's local teams, the NHL's Maple Leafs, the NBA's Raptors, and MLB's Blue Jays. For those who aren't familiar with Toronto's sports scene, all three of these teams have been absolutely horrendous since the mid 90s, which is conveniently the same time I was born.

Suffering and patience have been key parts of my sporting fandom my entire life, they're practically all I have known and I understand  them more than most. Despite the collective struggle of my favourite teams, my devotion and passion never wavered. My teams sucked, but I believed if I toughed it out during the down years, all of that pain and suffering would be worth it if/when one of my teams won a championship. Now while I'm still waiting on that, the Raptors recently reached the Semi Finals of the NBA playoffs, the Blue Jays just finished 2 games away from the World Series, and the Leafs have the most promising group of prospects in the NHL.  All of this is a long winded way of saying that I understand that supporting a team can be more painful than enjoyable at times, but I could also never imagine how someone could stop supporting their team in a time of difficulty.  If Toronto's team's are collectively turning the corner, then anybody can, right? But, this Milan sale saga has crushed the entire fanbase's belief like nothing I've ever seen before. This is torture for Milan fans and never has it seemed so bleak.

The amount of deceit, rumor, and drama that this saga has induced is like nothing I've ever experienced as a sports fan before.  After each and every pushed back deadline or missed transfer target the level of apathy and anger increases as fans are forced to watch this team sink lower and lower.  Those who are choosing to stop caring about this team really can't be faulted, as it's incredibly evident that this club does not care about it's fans.  It's been 5 whole years of mediocre signings, awful management, coaching changes, false promises, and lies, and fans shouldn't be faulted for saying enough is enough.

This level of distrust and scorn between a club and their fans is at an alarmingly high level. Until this club is sold those feelings will continue to fester and boil, and if God forbid the sale does not happen, the damage done to this fan base may be irreparable. The only thing for Milanisti to do is wait and hope that eventually they'll get to have their day in the sun. Again.