Many have been left confused by Gerry Cardinale and his style of operating AC Milan, but a report has offered some clarification.
Cardinale has previously stated that he isn’t going to be like the legendary Silvio Berlusconi, in the respectful sense of spending money because he has it or because the fans want it.
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Yet, his own style of spending has not been worked out by the Milan faithful either. Of course, there are certain buzzwords, ‘opportunities’, ‘balance’, and the rest.
However, the timings confuse.
Cardinale’s method
As Gazzetta dello Sport writes, the Rossoneri were silent, decisive and now silent again. It’s hard to decipher what’s going on really and the purge of the management means it’s difficult to work out who does what.
No one thought they’d lost time after the signings of Mario Gila and Goncalo Ramos – where €100 million was spent – but that feeling is creeping up again.
Indeed, fans are beginning to feel uneasy again and Ruben Amorim’s football gives a reason to, with several key components missing from the team.
For Cardinale, though, he wants to buy smartly, rather than doing things ‘for the sake of it’. Arrivals must be based on logic and tick several boxes; budget isn’t really one of those.
If they’re right, signings will be made, but right now, the need isn’t drastic. Perhaps that’ll change with the mercato summit this week, though.
We need actions on the Mercato. We need to offload players and buy 3-4 new ones. Time is limited. I have a bad feeling about that…
FIVE new ones.
Why stop there? Why not SIX or SEVEN or TWENTY?
.
Because FIVE is the right and the adequate number. No more, no less, FIVE.
We can’t be accused of not spending, either this summer or in recent seasons.
We can definitely be accused of not spending well.
And now we’re just living with the consequences of spending badly.
And, for the record, that’s not a slight on individual players, but the lack of strategy at the top about how we want to build a squad, play football and manage it.
(part 2, because the site won’t let me post in one)
We’ve chased short-term solutions ever since Pioli committed the crime of finishing 2nd and, not only have they not worked, they’ve also been made at the detriment of any long-term planning.
Can we spend our way out of it… maybe, but one summer with a completely muddled management structure put in place in a panic is unlikely to do it, regardless of how many comments under each post there are about “just sell these 7 players and buy these 5”.
Reality is, we’re going to (in Amorim’s words) have to suffer a bit first, until we get a house in order and start moving in the right direction. Fans won’t want that and are unlikely to accept it, but until we all do then IMO there’s no real long-term way to move forward.
So far we really can’t blame the top management.
We all complained when they refused to get Allegri his players, now the management is given the coach the players he asked for despite their purchase price.
That to me looks like a strategy in the right direction.
But, I will fault the management when after building a team to play with 3 defenders, we get rid of Amorim and replace with a coach who plays with 4 at the back.
This was my clamour then when the Furlani sacking saga was was on. I said repeatedly, that more important than the sacking of any individual, we the fans should demand a sporting blueprint on how we want to play as a club.
Why do people and media act like this is Chelsea or Man City, or even career mode? Funds are limited. We cannot ‘just’ buy players. You see what happened previous years. We bought ridiculous, overlapping players with all our budget and ended up with some positions vacant. The two purchases that were most obviously needed, were taken care of immediately. And it’s not like they’re a bunch of nobodies – Ramos and Gila are really really solid when you can’t even offer CL football. Is it really that bad that the players on the pay roll were first analyzed by the manager, to make specific transfer decisions afterwards? And it’s not like that story was made up because the management ended up unable to sell the deadwood players – it was reported from day 1 that Amorim would first assess his current squad. Also the evidence from the past few days confirm that approach: Gimenez is being sold, Fofana is being excommunicated, Athekame’s been loaned out and so on. In my eyes, for once, this actually looks like there is a coherent project with an actual sustainable plan where management and manager are aligned. More than two weeks is a long time to offload and buy players. It’s never enough for Milan fans. For once, please, just be happy with the fact that there is a plan, and stop expecting some career mode like overhaul where you can just sell and buy everyone in 1 mercato. This process is gonna take years. Same goes for Amorim’s playing style: the media and fans go straight into doomsday mode when we logically cannot top Chelsea in 2 crooked formations with players that have barely touched the grass twice since the WC. Let alone had the time to absorb the new ideas. Everyone is rightfully pessimistic because of the past years under RedBird, but let’s just have some trust in the project this time. It is thought through, which at least is more than I’ve seen the last years.
Marco Pasotto’s comment on AC Milan’s transfer market: “To allow Amorim to truly develop his game, they would need another central defender, a wing-back, a central midfielder, an attacking midfielder, and another center forward. We’re obviously living in a dream world; not all the boxes can be filled, but with three weeks to go until the end of the transfer window, fans are starting to get worried—to put it mildly—because there are only glimpses of Amorim’s game and because the inflow of transfer market players has been halted for some time now.”
Another failed year. Good job Gerry!
There has been no mercato strategy since Maldini and Massara left. Cardinale and his people don’t know football. They spent half a billion on 30-40 players, gone through four coaches, and finished 2nd (19 points behind 1st), 8th, and 5th in Serie A. They also failed to make it out of the Champions League group stage two seasons in a row and haven’t qualified since.
This summer he fired everyone because his hand was forced but he had no plan to replace them because he was satisfied until the Cagliari match. Seeing the chaos, no decent coach or manager wanted to touch this team, and so Cardinale desperately turns to a desperate coach in Amorim. Now, we are stuck with this back three nonsense and Amorim is asking for players in every position: center backs, wing backs, central midfielders, attacking midfielders, striker. Did this not come up in the hiring process?
Amorim is a rebound hire and will be gone soon and we will be stuck with his mess. I sincerely hope I’m wrong but there are so many red flags already.
If they had the foresight that Allegri and his back three were done, they could have signed De Zerbi and used the last month of the season to plan for the future. Other good options would have been Italiano or Grosso (maybe along with Lauriente and Pinamonti).
I’m still waiting to see the “wants to buy smartly” part… or did I miss it already?
Cardinale asu!!!
For years, previous managment was selling talented players and replaced them with expensive deadwood players. Now they can’t sell any of those players without taking a loss. Reality is hit him hard now.
Fans arguing as though they own the club.
Gerry will run his club as he likes it. Period.
However, the onus really is on Amorim to call the shots and say what he wants. He is the one that has to answer to the club when things works out well… or not.
Manajemen Milan sudah saatnya bersih-bersih. Leao, Salaemakers,fofana,Tomori,Roftus Cheek, estupinan, terraciano,de winter,bondo,musah, pulisic dan GERRY CARDINALE HARUS DI JUAL DAN ANGKAT KAKI DARI KEPEMILIKAN MILAN. PELATIH SEKELAS XABI ALONSO,RUBEN AMORIM DLL, KALAU GERRY CARDINALE MASIH PRESIDENNYA,MILAN TIDAK AKAN MENJADI JUARA SCUDETTO MAUPUN MASUK ZONA LIGA CHAMPION. LEBIH BAIK DARI SEKARANG RUBEN AMORIM MENGUNDURKAN DIRI DARI KURSI PELATIH MILAN., KALAU GERRY CARDINALE TIDAK MAU MENGELUARKAN UANG BESAR UNTUK MEMBELI PEMAIN YANG DI INGINKAN OLEH ANDA AMORIM
Cardinale’s method? which lead us end-up in 8th & 5th? he admit that noone come/ go w/out his final sign.
all of his signing is flop/ injury-prone or hanging on the market w/ noone interested. he anti-Italian & overpaid foreign junk.
he got fooled by mediocre like furlani, moncada & zlatan to buy trash. he can’t stand beside strong & capable like Maldini. jeri is no more than a manless looser
The biggest problem is the hubris Cardi G came into football with. Redbirds Milan has been a complete and utter disaster since inception due to the owners cheap and frankly baffling approach to football and its management. It’s failing on the field and now in the finances too. Gerry your tenure as Milan owner is a complete failure more comparable to Yonghong Lee