As the season came to an end, AC Milan seemed likely to make major changes for the new season. Indeed, Gerry Cardinale essentially promised that.
Now, a month and a bit on from that interview, we can sit here and question a lot of that interview. It was questioned at the time, but most wanted to give Cardinale a chance to go again. After all, this was finally his Milan and he had the chance to make his own changes.
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Not those dictated by a set of staff brought in whilst the old regime still had a say. So, he promised changes. He promised a ‘world-class’ level and much, much more.
Have the Rossoneri got that ‘world-class’ set-up now, though? Well, after a month, you’d hope so. However, things are as confusing as ever.
There are questions about the manager; there remain questions about Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the hope that seemed to be there for Ralf Rangnick’s Milan or Markus Krösche’s Milan seem to have faded.
So, let’s take a look back at some of the key quotes from that interview.
Laying foundations
The first quote of interest is that Cardinale stated that this move to sack the management was to bring the organisation to a world-class level.
“The goal is to improve the organisation and bring it to a world-class level. The goal here is to win as much as possible every year, but also to ensure that, while we do so, we’re laying the foundation for consistent success.”
In terms of organisation, you can certainly argue that parts of it are world class, you have well respected analysts there, you have a pretty good coach and there are certainly elements that can be considered ‘world class’ structurally.
However, internal hires rather than respected names are a big flaw. By hiring a Technical Director, you get someone who knows how to negotiate with specific clubs and has relationships with them, which can often benefit you.
Look at Giorgio Furlani, for example. Now, whilst not a sporting director, it was well known that he had somewhat of a connection with Chelsea and that matters massively. These relationships pay off largely and waving goodbye to them is a mistake, perhaps.
The foundations don’t really feel like they’re laid with confidence. Instead, internal hires feel like a placeholder until the right people are available. It just feels a bit off and not world-class.
It lacks any real feeling of class, really, as good as the people in these roles may be.
Having everything ‘in place’
Following that is a quote about having the right people in place.
“It’s not just about replacing people, but about examining the organisational structure and making sure we have everything in place, from the coaching staff to the player selection team, to the sporting director, to the academies: it’s a holistic ecosystem that needs to be improved.”
You can argue that we’ve covered a lot of this in the previous point. Again, though, the hires have been split into multiple things and with Ibrahimovic keen to avoid centralisation, maybe this is why. However, the top clubs all have the same-ish structure.
It is defined and they all follow the same ideas pretty much. Does the new system at the Rossoneri? Not really. This is now a fifth different management set-up in five seasons under RedBird and this doesn’t really give a permanent feel.
Does it give a world-class feeling? Does it give a stable feeling? To both questions, you’d answer no.
Attracting people
Finally, we wanted to look at the idea of ‘attracting the best people’.
“When I took over the team, it wasn’t there. Sport, like many industries, is about people. You need to have the best people, you need to attract the best people in all areas. We’re not there yet.”
You can argue that the best people in the field were attracted, certainly. As things go, Rangnick and Krösche are two of the most respected figures for the roles in European football. However, what goes on is attraction if neither ends up in a marriage.
Stick with us here, but fairytales don’t see the prince and princess become attracted to one another, then spend weeks talking about a project, then hire a manager together before breaking it off.
No, we don’t remember that ending of Sleeping Beauty either.
The Diavolo had the chance to have some of the best people, yet they blew it twice. If you lost one solid option and landed another, the worry wouldn’t be as great.
However, two elite options have been attracted by the project and something (or someone) pushed them away from it. That is worrying for now and it doesn’t look great for any potential hires in the future…
So what now?
Now, this is not meant to say that this new structure cannot be world-class or that the wrong people are in place. Instead, it is more of a brutally honest look at the interview.
From his words, Cardinale could’ve fended off a lot of judgment for this summer, but his actions feel somewhat underwhelming. We hope to be proven wrong, but the ups and downs from the past month to end up here feel a little backwards…
“Only the best people”.
I believe with Zlatan in that role we’ll end up doing samething over and over again
Guess he will then recommend the club to bring back Emil Roback after a few years trip to the Thai football league as he did recommend him when he joined us the first time 😀
no no no it was Ibra who rec him bc he bought hammarby
That was what I said, he recommended the player himself.
we are so screwed
He’s been self debunking himself since he got here.
My assumption is they have promoted from within as the off season means we desperately need a football department.
Then quietly work on better candidates I the medium term.
It’s an embarrassing back down though
Until we sell this club to Saudi Arabia b4 we can enjoy our Milan again,this owner doesn’t what to spend any big money
“You Need To Attract The Best People”
whats he smokin on? wtf is he dumb ?
moving around failures are the best people?
we are so cooked lets see on the next season what stupid decisions he will make bc this… is already finished bf it even starts MY GOD
That’s not a debunk, that’s a contradiction. To debunk is to disprove something. By employing randos, his claims weren’t debunked, they were contradicted.
But it seems you got the gist of it.. so Roll with that
The reality is that no good manager wants to work for Cardinale and Ibra, both incompetent buffoons. Ibra is also st*pid.
Aka, all targets, who were actually worth something, took one look and said “absolutely Not”. Gerry somehow thought anyone would love to join his mess, and when literally everybody said no, he had no plan B and just panicked. Nobody was willing and he certainly wasn’t gonna pay more to convince them, so his cheap ahh just hired whoever was nearby and pretended it was always an idea