GdS: Cardinale exploring crucial management hire for Milan – the strategy

Gerry Cardinale already has an idea regarding the next evolution for AC Milan, and it involves a new figure within the management.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, over the summer Cardinale decided to manage the transfer window himself and focused heavily on a direct relationship with Ruben Amorim. He’s now very present and even attended yesterday’s press conference.

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However, he is already thinking about further changes to the sporting side. In the coming months, he could create a new structure for the transfer market, with a managerial addition.

A new figure?

Cardinale now lives with AC Milan. He saw the first match against Torino, the second against Venezia, and tomorrow he’ll be at the Juventus Stadium for the third match of the season. It’s not superstition but a desire to take charge of the club and manage it personally.

Cardinale conducted the most important transfer negotiations this summer, leveraging his relationships with the owners of other clubs, and is dedicating a lot of time to Milan. He will continue to do so in the coming months.

It seems the American understood what went wrong during the four years of his long-distance management, from the 2021-22 Scudetto to the club’s exclusion from the Champions League under Massimiliano Allegri.

At Milanello and Casa Milan, therefore, much has changed. Cardinale is present, participates in meetings, and changes the decision-making processes, which are now the result of consultations with his collaborators and Ruben Amorim.

On this Saturday afternoon in September, for example, he attended the Portuguese coach’s press conference, something he’d never done before and something owners never do. While the coach was speaking, the owner was at the back of the room.

The bond with the coach is very strong, probably the single strongest relationship built in recent months at Milan. When explaining his ideas, Cardinale always makes it clear that he wanted to personally choose the coach. He overturned the Italian model, which he dislikes, to shake things up.

In the tradition of Italian football, the owners appoint a sporting director and rely on him to choose the coach, who pays for everyone if results aren’t satisfactory. Cardinale broke this paradigm, and, after all, he is a man of change, who doesn’t like to follow the flow of the river.

The match against Juventus will tell us something about Milan’s ability to compete with the best teams in Italy, but it won’t change their growth path. Cardinale’s vision in this regard is clear: in the coming months, a new director of football could arrive.

He’s met many in the past, and he’ll meet many more (Krösche has been linked again). What’s certain is that the RedBird founder will never again hand the keys to Milan to anyone, as happened in the past with CEO Giorgio Furlani.

He’ll no longer be an owner who follows the team remotely from the United States. From 2026 onward, he’ll be constantly present, making decisions, and, above all, ensuring the model established this summer continues to thrive. A model in which decisions are shared and the coach has a strong say.

Cardinale (perhaps) will no longer be a full-time protagonist like he was this summer, but he will dictate the line, use his relationships with other owners to facilitate negotiations, and have the final say on decisions.

In short, the (possible) new head of sporting affairs will adapt to the model, not the other way around. Will this all work? No one knows, but Milan certainly want to move in this direction.