With the widespread news that Stefano Pioli is set to depart AC Milan at the end of the season, more background information continues to filter about the breakdown between the sides.
Calciomercato.com report that Pioli will leave Milan at the end of the season. The decision has been made, the Rossoneri coach will be sacked, despite having a contract expiring on 30 June 2025.
The defeat in the quarter-finals of the Europa League was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. The cycle is over and from 1 July this year Milan will have a new coach.
Gerry Cardinale, owner of RedBird and owner of Milan, was ‘furious about his team’s insipid performance at the Olimpico’, so much so that Thursday’s poor performance could lead him to change plans and not attend the derby against Inter, scheduled for Monday at 20:45 CEST.
Pioli bought Milan to bring it back to the glories of the past with the Scudetto win and the Champions League semi-final last season, but Cardinale finds it unacceptable that after the investments made there his team are out of every competition with over a month of the season still to be played.
The one who will pay will be Pioli, with whom the relationship has been cracking for some time. Even back in December, before Christmas, Cardinale sent a message: “Like all of you, I am not satisfied with our current position in Serie A or the Champions League.”
For the Rossoneri to be out of the Champions League in the group stage, out in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia and Europa League, plus being 14 points behind leaders Inter in the league can – in the eyes of the owner – only mean a change of coach.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is now pushing for change too. The final decision will be made together with Paolo Scaroni, Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada, but the Swede is not willing to go back and is already working on a replacement.
He is taking the foreign route into consideration. Thiago Motta has an agreement in principle with Juventus, and there have been contacts with Julen Lopetegui but also Paulo Fonseca of Lille
Think most people have been dissatisfied
If he was indeed dissatisfied since december, then why did he make no contact since december ? *
I’m not necessarly said to dismiss Pioli as early as december (although I did think it should be considered at the time), but he could have contacted some managers and already try to link Milan with some of them. Xavi, Tuchel and Klopp already knew they’re gonna go by the end of the season.
Because right now we have reached a point where Motta is likely going to Juve and maybe some other coaches are unlikely to join us.
Common dont dream about Tuchel or Klopp we all now that Milan wouldnt pay that wage to this coaches. I can say that Milan doesnt want to offer more than 4Mio Net per Season also to a coach. Unles the Starcoaches want to reduce their wages to come to Milan
I think you misundestood me or my post was perhaps unclear.
I wasn’t trying to say we should have gone for Klopp or Tuchel (although I’m certainly not against Klopp), but I thought we should have contacted some managers as early as december, kind of like what Juve did with Motta.
I have a bad feeling that we are going to rue Motta with Juve.
Young coach. Good behaviors. The only barrier jlis that he had a lot of egos to deal with.
Yeah so far he’s been a serial overachiever
“Cardinale finds it unacceptable that after the investments made”. Were those good investments? Overall, no. Pulisic is the only one that delivered consistently and with Chukwueze improving, we improved the right wing position. Okafor and Jovic added depth and important goals off the bench, but ultimately unable to displace Giroud. Then there’s the midfield disaster. Let’s face it, regardless of what you think about the Tonali sale, he wasn’t replaced. The same goes for Diaz. We didn’t sign the defensive midfielder we needed. The midfield was restructured to hide these things and to accommodate three new guys. One of them plays as a striker now, one of them plays a deeper role than originally planned, and one is on the bench. The shunning of Krunic, our only defensive-minded midfielder was strange but we don’t know what’s been going on behind the scenes.
Pioli hasn’t been perfect but it’s unfair that only he alone will take the fall. The management are already looking foolish compared to Maldini and Massara.
“ but Cardinale finds it unacceptable that after the investments made there his team are out of every competition with over a month of the season still to be played”
What investments exactly?? We INVESTED approx 35M of ADDITIONAL $$ into the transfer market. Same as previous years. The rest of that money used for transfers was from player sales like/mainly Tonali. So we didn’t “invest” anything different from other seasons.
Maldini said it after the UCL semi-final defeat to Inter – if we want to compete we need to ADD to the CORE. Not sell and SWAP with players that were available at bargain prices. This is the difference between building a WINNING team vs building a COMPETITIVE team. Winning takes time and comes from keeping the core group together and not selling a key asset each season to buy cheaper replacements.
Just think what would have happened all those years during our UCL dominance of the 2000’s if we had sold a key player each season like a Nesta, or Seedorf, Kaka, Pippo, Pirlo, etc….I doubt we would have multiple UCL’s let alone one.
It was also Gerry’s decision to entrust Pioli in the project – something Maldini also warned him about.
It was all there for Gerry to see he just chose to ignore it and because of that we are where we are – but he certainly shouldn’t be surprised at all. Don’t complain Gerry until you look in the mirror.
“Maldini said it after the UCL semi-final defeat to Inter – if we want to compete we need to ADD to the CORE. Not sell and SWAP with players…”
Bang on spot on 💯
I get the declarations of wanting to win at the start of the season but he couldn’t REALISTICALLY think buying/swapping 10 players was going to bring success. If he truly believes that then we’re in bigger problems than I thought.
Apart from Pulisic who replaces Messias/Saele, have we really massively improved in the rest of the squad? Let’s see we have RLC (20m) who blows hot and cold just as loaned Brahim Diaz and roughly the same goal/assist contribution so that’s a wash. Next up, midfield is a downgrade. We sent Krunic away and sold Tonali leaving Musah, and Deers (40m total mind you) who collectively cannot be argued as better. And that particular area of the field is where we lost the season.
If we kept the core over time and not be stingy on salaries we could have had something to work on but basically all we did was have the same quality in total, not an addition of quality.
Almost all new player upgrade from last season with same position. Pulisic & chukwu upgrade from junior & salad for RW, okafor upgrade from rebic for LW, Jovic upgrade from origi for CF, sportielo upgrade from tata for GK, tijani so far are upgrade from krunic for CMF ,RLC upgrade for both brahim & CDK , downgrade maybe yunus musah ( for tonali ) , pelegrino ( for gabbia because he is 5th choice CB last season) . The biggest problem the tactic still old tactic 4231 that already exposed the weakness by coach serie A
My thoughts exactly. One feature of Maldini i love is: ambition. He had a plan to win UCL again as a manager. he wanted TARGETED investments. Cardinale did not want to spend money or have the looming figure of Maldini around, who cast a large shadow as he rightly should. So the media spun all stories to prove him wrong and these guys bought players in bulk, claiming to have wisely invested the money from sales! something they accused maldini of not being able to do. BUT, their data says those investments are not yielding results, so now they blame the coach?
Maldini wanted Pioli gone, as manager, he saw the trend and despite giving pioli an extension, he must have realized his mistake and preferred to correct it. Gerry fired Maldini instead. Cardinale has cut off his nose to spite his face.
Hiring Ibra was to save face, and reconnect with the fans. I wait to see what would be done differently. Furlani said Ibra is ONLY an adviser with no executive powers, he cannot fire anyone despite what the media reports, he can only advise! What will he do since the same guys (moncada, Furlani & co) outnumber him in the vote? Ibra will choose the next coach, Ibra will do this or that, then they remind you Ibra is still learning the ropes… he is a fast learner. etc. Ibra will do nothing that Gerry does not want and he will not walk away either. He will stay and get paid. In milan Ibra is not a legend, no matter the hype, he is not a FLAG. Maldini is. He asked that Ibra be brought in, to instill the culture of mental strength in the younger players. no matter what the media says we see the attitude of milan is different now, even with Ibra around. so what went wrong? Management do not want to take the blame.
Gerry has no passion for the club, its a business where only numbers matter. The rest is media hype and hyper-publicity. I am trying to get used to that.
I think the management have a different idea of which levels Milan are supposed to be competitive in. their actions show we have stooped to being competitive in Italy only. The bars are set lower, Maldini wanted us to step UP not keep up.
There should be a dissatisfaction with mediocrity, with “average-ness” , with just a top 4 finish, with statements like “we took 40 shots and only gabbia scored”. the list goes on and on, we should not be there to COMPETE. we should be there to WIN.
thats how the spirit of excellence is built. thats why Real Madrid is feared – the never-say-die attitude, playing till 95mins with gusto and grinta. Our march to the Scudetto, where we were grinding out last minute wins, exemplified by Tonalli’s last gasp winner, gave fans belief, hope and ambition that the worst years were behind us.
There was no tactical innovation, improvement in Pioli’s game plan, and that is where we find ourselves now. I have prayed for the second coming of Ancelotti, and other coaches on his level. the light looks dim at the end of the tunnel.
Ancelotti had Pirlo, Gattuso, Nesta, Maldini, Seedorf, Inzaghi, Shevchenko, Kaka…
We have Mike, Theo, Giroud and Leao now. These are very good players, not players with a history of winning and they are now generational talents in their positions.
We were the most attractive league in the world, paid less than maybe two or three other teams. We can’t even keep players asking for 4 to 8 million euros that were top ten in their roles, so forget finding equivalent replacements.
After Thiago Silva and Ibra left, we never had star players again, lost our identity. We finally rebuilt some very good players up then let them slip away.
That is not Pioli’s fault. We had 40 chances, scored one goal, when he says that, he is admitting they had the right ideas, they excecuted them to 95 %, the coach did his part, they have to finish them off and score, management haven’t brought in a scorer since Ibra and Giroud . Ibra and Giroud had Tonali, Kessie, Bennacer busting their lungs and Hakan to link up with to find that last 5% we needed to turn opportunities into results.
Our tean did not sign another Ibra, nor a player as good as Giroud 2 years ago. They didn’t find midfielders as competitive and complete as Hakan, Kessie and Tonali. The failure is solely in the hands of ownership and the financial department for allowing only 35 million euros as a budget to compete with a team who has the same core for 4 to 5 years with superior talent across the board on top of it.
They are not generational talents, with maybe Theo being the exception, Mike has yet to play and win in big tournaments *