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Milan face exodus amid Allegri calm

A tinge of sadness will also be in the jubilant San Siro air with players such as 35-year-old Clarence Seedorf out of contract and set to leave.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's future is unclear despite the Swedish striker's remarkable eighth league title in eight seasons with five clubs, a total which includes two with Juventus which were stripped in the Serie A match-fixing affair.

After Leonardo became furious with Berlusconi's close attention to his tactics and left following last term's third-place finish, Allegri took what some coaches would see as a poisoned chalice and has acted with dignity and calm ever since.

"He knows how to do the job, he worked his way up from the lower leagues and deserved his chance at a big club," Renzo Ulivieri, head of Italy's league managers' association and a former top-flight coach, told Reuters.

"He has given Milan a lot of balance which the team didn't have before. He has been brave to make the right decisions. He ran the risk of playing with too many attackers but he got the balance just right."

Fears of a backlash from fans about signing a former Inter talisman, who won the 2007, 2008 and 2009 scudettos, were unfounded given Milan supporters knew they needed a player of Ibrahimovic's stature in both physique and Serie A experience.

The results were instant as Robinho began to flourish while "I