Gerry Cardinale has spoken about the great responsibility he feels on behalf of RedBird Capital to restore AC Milan to its former glories.
This evening, several key Milan figures were present at the Milan Flagship Store in Via Dante, in the heart of the city centre. There, the exclusive photobook that celebrates the glorious 125 years of the club was presented.
The preface of the book, which traces the history of Milan, is by Cardinale who is the Founder and Managing Partner of RedBird Capital. MilanNews have relayed it below.
“It is with great pride and deep respect that I dedicate this book to our beloved fan base around the world and the vibrant city of Milan. This book is a tribute to the passion, resilience and unwavering support that fans have shown over the past 125 years.
“I had the privilege of attending the Scudetto celebration in Piazza del Duomo shortly before purchasing the team and was deeply moved by how much this team means to the fans and the city of Milan.
“Milan is not just a city; it is a beacon of culture, fashion, history and, above all, football. The essence of AC Milan is woven into the very fabric of this extraordinary city. From the echoes of San Siro and Puma House of Football to the chants that reverberate through the streets, Milan and AC Milan have shared an inseparable bond since the Club was founded 125 years ago.
“When we took on the responsibility of leading this historic club, we did so with a deep appreciation for its illustrious history, a commitment to preserving its legacy, and an obsession with returning AC Milan to the pinnacle of European football.
“Our journey together is not just about winning titles; it is about honouring the tradition, values, and spirit that have made AC Milan a symbol of excellence and pride for generations. This book chronicles the extraordinary stories, triumphs, and trials that have defined our Club.
“It is a reflection of the dedication of our players and coaches, and the undying spirit of our fans. To the fans, your support is the lifeblood of AC Milan. Your passion fuels our ambition and drives us to achieve greatness.
“It is your unwavering belief and relentless support that inspire our players to perform beyond their limits. This book is for you, a testament to your loyalty and a celebration of your role across all generations in our shared journey.
“To the city of Milan, which has always been recognised as the ‘city of doing’, thank you for being the foundation of this Club. Your dynamic spirit is the pillar on which AC Milan stands. Together, we have built a legacy that transcends football, embodying the very essence of what it means to be Milanese.
“As we look to the future, we continue to embrace the values that define us, with a relentless pursuit of excellence. Together, we will write new chapters in AC Milan’s illustrious history, honouring our past as we forge a path to a new and glorious future.”
In terms of on-field matters, Milan have not started the 2024-25 season very well with a win rate of less than 50% in the league, putting them eight points off the Serie A leaders Napoli.
The victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League certainly saw enthusiasm rise, only for the momentum to evaporate with a 3-3 draw against struggling Cagliari on Saturday.
Sure, but until we become on top of european football we need to be capable to beat teams like Parma, Monza or Cagliari
yes and you win it buy buying good quality player not players like pavlo and royal
So far he destroyed the Italian connection in Milan, destroyed the Maldini legacy. And is progressively destroying the Milan brand. No one will look at this club as a legendary club any more once this venture capitalist is done with it.
win something then talk.
so far he done nothing, healthy financial it was Elliots strict + MnM.
Yes woy. You have privileged to attend scudetto celebration but you are not in charge yet.
When cardinale in charge, it is trophyless cardinale milan coming. Next season there is big possibility we go to conference league.
BS.. Abramović had an obsession.. PSG owners have an obsession.. Perey has an obsession.. Cardinale. All he has is BS propaganda, ‘cuz thats the murican way.. talk, talk, talk.
Talk is cheap. Put your mnone where your mouth is..
Get us Osi.
Get us Zubimendi.
Get us a great rb.
Get us a top coach.
Then talk
💯
Although for the striking position, in this ideal scenario I’d like us making a go for Gyokeres.
Switch to a 3-4-3 and get Frimpong as a RB/RWB.
Leao————–Gyokeres——————-Pulisic
Theo—Reijnders—Zubimendi/Ricci—Frimpong
Scalvini (if back to shape)–Gabbia–Thiaw (gotta maintain some of our CBs)
This could be a nice team
I prefer osi over gyokers because he is proven in serie a and his contract is ending in 2026 with napoli so would come cheaper.
I’d also say hjulmand over zubi for DM. Forgot about him last night.
In 433.
The part many don’t get is that the club is entrusted to The Trio. Cardinale’s function is long term, to grow the club and get the stadium in place.
Everything on the club level is down to Furlani Ibra and Moncada. That’s where the problem is – no single vision. No Sporting Director.
Cardinale is no abrahamovic. He’s said it himself “take the emotion out of it” for better or worse.
-Cardinale’s function is long term, to grow the club and get the stadium in place.-
Starting to think this is BS as well. Dude probably encounter more red tape that he anticipated and let’s be honest. He has zero pull in Italy.
We definitely need a director. We needed one the second gazidis got sick.
If we take emotion out of it’s and logically look at this club. 3 years ago we were 2-3 quality signings from a top team and the same is still true now. Maybe that’s why they don’t want a proper sporting director..he’d tell them the same.
He must’ve voted for Kamala. They have the same propaganda strategies and hypocrisy.
Propaganda? At least Trump is honest and works for the people and truth, right? 🙂
A school example of compulsive lying from narcissistic egomaniac.
I’m sure he believes what he says. It’s just detached from an operational level. 🤣
He’s stupid and arrogant and the main decider behind that cheap policy. But Jerry still ain’t back to reality, that’s what you get being surrounded by sycophants like Zlatan.
He is not stupid at all. He is the funder, owner and managing partner of a firm with 10 billion dollars in assets. He is a Harvard University graduate (Magna Cum Laude) and an M.Phil in Politics and Political Theory from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. These credentials point to a genius-level intellectual quotient. You just DON’T get to have these credentials by being stupid.
The issue with Gerry is not stupidity. The issue is that his objectives are very different from the objectives we, the tiffosi, have. His goal is to make money for himself and his investors, not to win Serie A trophies.
That he is running into difficulties with AC Milan stems a lot more from his lack of familiarity with football and with the Italian environment, then from stupidity.
Typo: founder, not funder.
Oh, and I should add, don’t read the above as if I’m defending Gerry. I detest Gerry and what he’s doing to AC Milan.
It’s just that I know that he’s far from being stupid, which actually makes him even more dangerous to Milan.
He has not earned the right to speak in such a way, read the room, have some intelligence and humility!
I’m glad comment section can all be brought together with a common feeling baaed on Cardinale’s words. So wholesome lol 😂😂😂
Btw where are the folks that think this is going well. I’d really like to hear their take. Don’t let the current sentiment get you down. Be brave. Post.. lol 😂
was wondering the same; it has cooled down so much from less than a week ago post the UCL game.
Like some folk said “let’s hope we win the next game”, yea the same performance against RM /haha that would be cool! lol
Sure … I think we are on track. I think the path will be bumpy this entire year, so shrug.
Mgmt invested ~50m in Futuro. Camarda _started_. We learned our boys aren’t quite ready yet to play against men. The lack of bunches comments here about playing Liberali, Zeroli Vos and the like shows even our lot on this forum can be taught.
We are strong financially and on a path that will allow us to look at better players. Heck we even went for the €40m Zirkzee until the agent detailed the move and – apparently – his cli nys career. Lois like we does a bullet give Zirkzees current form.
Puli, Reinjders from last mercado are top 3 in Serie A in their position. Musah continues to develop. Chuk is becoming good depth.
Fofana appears to be a solid buy as does Morata. The full season will tell.
Fonseca has concretely demonstrated what many pointed out last season. Leao only played part of the game and Theo only plays when it suits him. He has validated moving on from Pioli (I am a fan of Pioli)
Fonseca is not stupid. Leao performance _OFF THE BALL_ in the last two games shows part of why we were 19 points of second. Message received? If Leao continues to play complete games through good form and bad this season then yes.
Fonseca and Theo is a mistake. He tried to give Theo the armband in the hope he would step up. Theo has not. We now concretely know that Theo is not (yet anyway) captain material and can set that idea aside.
Fonseca with all the tweaks and changes is frustrating to me and I am sure to lash out this season. However it shows that leadership has a coach for long term. The sky isn’t falling today because we have bad games. We learn what we have and we turn that into player development and acquisition through this season and the summer.
Insaghi had a rough first year. Pep had a rough couple of first years. Don Carlo is on the struggle bus with a roster of Galactico scoring machines.
I don’t need to win every week this season. I need to see Fonseca learn and tweak the team to his vision. He has shown that vision includes wins against Inter and RM. It demonstrated competitiveness against Leverkusen.
So yeah, I was disappointed with the player selection and tactical choices for the game last weekend. I was even upset at the number of chances we conceded to RM.
But I see the organization learning the true value of its players and working to build a plan that keeps us in the Scudetto hunt for years to come.
Gretzky said to skate to where the puck will be, not where it is.
Most of the time it seems folks here are hell bent on skating to where the puck used to be.
Even my dumb/new self of 5 years knows the landscape has drastically changed and that what created championship teams 20 years ago will not on today’s game or in today’s economic reality.
I have admired your posts for a couple of seasons, but since you returned from your hiatus you seem far more interested in trolling than looking at the entire system that produces the success we all want.
If we are so fragile as a fanbase we cannot accept the need to retool for a season, then we don’t deserve the Milan we want because we are unwilling to make the same sacrifices we expect of the players every match.
Hope there’s enough there to justify my support of the entire club and the system they appear to be building.
Now I will likely endure some amusing accusations of s3x acts with Gerry, Redbird et al and be denigrated for being from the US. You wonder why folks don’t speak up? I believe you specifically to be far too intelligent for that (thus the trolling comment above)
Peace.
Forza Milan. All of it.
“However it shows that leadership has a coach for long term”.
Our financial output, investments, recruitment policy and improvements in general depend on CL qualification. It means Fonzy doesn’t have few seasons available to get this team on track and be top 3 regular let alone winning Scudetto which is not even a priority for this owner. As usual, I do hope to be proven wrong in the end but right now it looks like top 4 will be a struggle.
They booked a small profit (the real balance sheets are probably hidden away in some dark basement back in USA) also due to Tonali’s sale, so without that sale balance sheets wouldn’t be so dandy. This tells me that despite CL qualifications, we can still expect sales every summer. So how can we expect to have consistency on the field when the team is constantly changing and, taking into consideration last two summers, not even in the direction of improvement? Almost 200 millions later we have 3 players that stand out in Pulisic, Reijnders and Fofana. They together cost like third of that amount.
We’ve become the Arsenal of Serie A but this management is yet to find its talent breeding Wenger-esque coach.
Don’t even let me start about negative sporting records since RedBird took over.
“…and the system they appear to be building.”
Elliott had system and plan in place and it took them 3 years for Scudetto with each season before that gradually improving and growing in both financial and sporting aspects. With RedBird I don’t see any system in place and from sports POV we’re currently downgrading for the second season in a row. Finances follow.
There was no major sale this summer. We spent 80m on first team and 50m on Futuro.
Your assertion is not supported by facts.
They will always show a small profit. Profits are taxed. That’s common accounting practice.
Improvements from where Elliot took over were initially easier. Plenty of head room when your are mid table. Elliot when from Scudetto to 5th. Saved by Juve cheating to remain in UCL.
Again the constant improvement simply was not there. The consistency of process was (see Pioli not being sacked that season)
Elliot was no better or worse than Redbird. Just different.
Am I a Red irs lover? No. Sack Maldini – fine. But have a plan. To do it with class. Have a new Director in the wings.
Sell Tonali. Good in that he cannot start for a mid table PL team now. I hope he finds his way back, but his sale was not part of our problem.
Hakan is the best CDM in Serie A today. He left for free. Kessie was well suited to the role and left for free. Our midfield was decimated before Redbird too over and it was done in a way that did not benefit the sporting interest of the club.
Then Pioli says “433”. So Redbird went and got box to box guys. Pioli couldn’t play a 433 and went back to a 4231. This our current predicament.
Redbird didn’t put a director in place so they allowed this
Their mistake.
Fonzy plays various formations and is clearly getting more from players like Reinjders, but the base seems to be 4231 still. His mistake (IMO)
But I am not will to churn the coach and end up with yet another list of players leaving and others needing to arrive.
Would I rather be undefeated right now with Tonali winning the Balon D’or over Rodri? Sure but that was never going to happen. So I will support the club and the players I have,.grumble when things don’t go our way and have a brighter day when the team plays well.
Forza Milan. All of it.
Yeah, you’re right.
The problem is fan base is not patient. Neither am I. But the people who have put staked their money are not stupid. And sincerely there has been progress in this team.
We are getting there. Forza Milan!💪
Oh I was definitely being cheeky there with my comment of course. I didnt realize u crafted a nice response but hope this reply you get to read at some point and not too late. I’m more MIA these days from the forum because I find many a times to be very polarising. There are hints of that even in your own response in the sense that I agree and have stated on the forum the so called positives about the ownership in past. I also find a certain section always stuck in their ways despite facts saying otherwise while the other willing to be more in the middle of you catch my drift.
Anyways I have swam up stream in the comments so to speak so I also have no qualms sharing thoughts.
I guess my history would have shown a couple things in regard to ownership. One, that I appreciate the commercial aspect of the ownership and the want to have our own stadium. On the other hand they’ve mucked up on the sporting side for the boastfulness that he’s an expert in the field, from dismantling a quite decently structured team to one that were still plugging holes after 200m and 17 players brought (this was the “think this is going well part” in my original comment). And really it’s the latter which fans care about more/most. And I come down hard on this front. And not to toot my own horn but I’ve been basically correct in my predictions for the last 4 years or so from the sporting side. And probably also correct this year too by the way it’s going. I particularly like the prediction article before the season start because imo it really speaks to how much you believe in the decisions that went into making the team.
It’s not that I want the club to not succeed or go in a certain way but it’s the product of the decisions made by management that inevitably leads to these predictions (for instance, last year buying a whole new team and still not addressing critical holes in the team was never going to make us Scudetto winners. I predicted third, we placed second moreso due to Juve mucking it up than anything and correctly predicted UCL and Copa places. It’s not that I want the team to not win, quite the contrary. But if thinking realistically, it’s really whats the best guess I have based on the decisions and personnel constructed by management. It just turns out to be a place where we’re not going to have the sort of success ppl feel we should have). Again, it’s not wishing for un-success. It’s a consequence that has nothing to do with me as a fan but the current ownership’s decisions…on the sporting side And this year we’re back to the same analysis, it really frustrates and tires me out tbh.
To be honest I’m still trying to figure Gerry out but so far the impression is not very reas.suring. He seems to be really bent on just trying to lay the foundations for a future sale. I particularly do not like his talk of knowing sport and this is where we’re at as a club in October/Nov. It’s disappointing to not see him bring in his own people to manage the club. To keep the same troop as before minus “the one” we can’t mention by name around here was the telling imo. Because it means he thought only one person was the cause of not being successful and that has spectacularly backfired. Therefore I question his sporting nous. These things only get magnified when he does interviews.
He is failing if that’s his objective, under him Milan went from a second placed team to now fighting for a top 4 spot we might not get by this seasons end. Elliot spent more on transfers than Redbird so I don’t see how he is going to improve the squad yet alone bring the club back to the heights it once was at. Spend less=better results is not a philosophy I can get behind
I think we as Milan fans need to face facts, Elliot did a good job and sold us to the only people who had a real interest in buying the club (not their fault it’s their business model as a vulture fund). We were bought by an American who thinks of only profit and has adopted a cheap recruitment policy (Napoli spend more than us but are not close in terms of status, that’s a problem). This new regime stinks of an owner who can’t afford to actually bring in top players. I hope we finish 10th this season as it’s the only way he will realise his cheap strategy is not going to work, Atalanta have overtaken us, Fiorentina have intelligent recruitment shown this season with all the good signings so could surpass us in a year or two at this rate
Obsession with winning and the club is like this. Long term goal and the management is like this. Organizations learning from its players and the match games and point table says differently.
If this is how been obsessed with winning feels like, I wonder how it would feel when he is lethargic towards winning.
Buying players that don’t fit into the system been used. Buying the cheaper blocks 📴 the market, and snubbing the better signings that would transform the club.
If we were actually like this with Elliot and had not won anything pre Cardinale, and maldini had not outlined what it would take to actually take Milan back to the top. Cardinale would have a support to fall back on in his unnecessary talking. But as it us the team has regressed from actually winning a league title and the squad is so lackluster.
Ride on Cardinale ride on. This entertainment is quite the series premium. Obsessed with winning😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣and Milan is getting farther and farther away from any sort of Glory after almost three years.
ARE WE NOT ENTERTAINED!!!
Blah blah blah. All that talk and he has taken a Scudetto winning team and transformed them into a mediocre mid table team. Sell our club you scumbag and take your cronies with you. #cardinaleout. Sempre Noi……
Cardinale think winning is boring. That’s why he transform scudetto winning team become mediocre mid table team.
BS talk. This is for the mass and they try to downplay the bad and heated situation and showing everyone that the decisions they made are the in the interests of the club. Which is nonsense ofc. They actually dismantled a potentially good squad and brought mediocre cheap players, hoping for a wonder they proof themselves and sell them immediately for the right price if offers are made. That’s not passion, that’s greed. No trophies, nothing so far since the arrival of the new owners.