Gerry Cardinale and his internal group have changed things up at AC Milan this week, from sacking Paolo Maldini to switching the strategy on the mercato. This new philosophy has a clear idea when it comes to player sales.
In the last ten years or so, Milan have been dreadful in selling their valuable players for good amounts. The likes of Gigio Donnarumma, Hakan Calhanoglu and Franck Kessie all walked for free, despite their market value reaching over €100m combined.
According to Calciomercato.com, Gerry Cardinale has made it clear that every Milan player is sellable. The Rossoneri will listen to offers for all of them, even though four players are more protected in this sense: Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez, Sandro Tonali and Rafael Leao.
These four are considered the backbone of Milan and will only leave in the event of very high offers. But they are not unsellable, which is a different approach compared to Maldini and Massara.
Leao, of course, has a release clause of €175m that most likely would have to be triggered. As for Maignan, Chelsea have expressed their interest but Milan won’t even open discussions without an offer of €100-110m.
Great headline for morale and team cohesion.
It may be true. It doesn’t need to be said and I don’t know why it’s up to Cardinale to comment.
He didn’t make comment, it’s just instruction to the working group replacing Maldini.
Impeccable timing right, not sure how this situation Milan is can be corrected. Is like in the days of Galliani and Berlusconi… the latter started saying that every player is sellable at the right price but few like Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Barest, Maldini CostaCurta to name a few are protected but can also be sold at the right price.
There are so may ways why this kind of statement (if this is true) from Cardinale is wrong. However, I will only focus on two, as I could go on forever.
1. You are telling the other players you deemed not protected, that they are not good enough and in order words, they are there to make up the numbers. Some of these players have been dreaming as a kid that Milan is the club they want to be in and thus statement just told them its just a stop in their footballing career and they can be discarded at will for the right price.
2. You have let every club know that you are nothing but a feeder club to clubs with ambitions to win trophies. Not to mentioned your statement come across as desperate and you may not necessarily have the funds to continue with this project as you may have misled the fans to believe. Moreover, this club is on the verge, if not already to serve as a cash cow.
Disagree. Players need to know that their performance on the field is what determines whether or not they will be kept. Don’t want to be sold? Become irreplaceable like the 4 mentioned. Top teams, yes top teams that regularly WIN trophies, are constantly buying and selling players. Perhaps if we weren’t so sentimental, we would have cashed in on Kessie, Hakan, Gigio, and Romagnoli, and brought in the type of players that would help us repeat Scudetto or be playing in UCL final today instead of Inter.
@Flossonero Spot on, sir.
@Flossenero, Don’t you think they know that already?
Reminding them in this manner, publicly is what is wrong, and to singled out some players that they are protected is also very wrong, in my opinion for a team sport.
That’s my stance on this. In terms of emotion or sentiments with the aforementioned players, these players according to media outlets moved on, because of more lucrative contracts, that Milan couldnt match at the time.
@ACStone, exactly. There is so much more to play for and a lot of the times we forget that too. Technically, he has just divided the players into groups and that division is bad for an already fragile Milan.
@Z, This is like an open secret, as we all know these players are key. However, more to what Cardinale said. The fact is, it would have been better for him not to say that at all. Somethings are better left unsaid…this is just rocking the boat that already holes and more water will just keep seeping through
No ManUtd selling Christiano Ronaldo did not make them a feeder club, because the core of the club remains and we didn’t hear the owners saying their other best players even though protected, can be sold if the right offer comes in.
Lastly, at @ACStone, what is also clear and probably a better question would have been why did Pioli failed to integrate some of these players that you think are sellable. We should also look at how other teams used their subs and we may have had better subs than all but three teams(Inter,Lazio and Juve) yet Pioli failed miserably.
Sooner rather than later we will see as end of July to August will soon be upon us.
@I_AM_MJ where did you hear that Milan’ owner said that every player is sellable?
There are a lot of media outlets coming out with all kind of rumors for clicks.
Where is the audio or interview of Cardinale saying this?
Sems like based on how people feel about Maldini or Milan ownership, every report that paints Maldini in a bed light is a lie and part of a smear campaign against him, but every report that paints Cardinale and Milan ownership in a bed light is true and 100% believable.
So cash in on Kessie and replace him, a top 5 CDM in Europe at the time, with who exactly? And how long would that take to integrate him to the tactics. It’s not a simple switch in and out like Fifa. The very guy who was instrumental in getting the Scudetto is the one u want to cash in on???? please make that make sense..🤷♂️
Granted, if we did have snake and Kessie I’m sure we’d win something again but we can’t afford Kessie at 10+m per season and wel Snake is a whole other story. It his nickname is Snake for a reason to Milan fans
@I_AM_MJ
You are a fan of Milan but you are talking like you are a fan of a small club.
1. In a big club no player should feel safe and protected from sales. No one’s spot should be guaranteed. Players should not feel comfortable that their place in the line up or on the team is protected. That pressure should make them train and play harder so they do stay instead of being sold.
2. How are you telling every club that you are a feeder club because you deem your average or below average to borderline bum players sellable? You are a “feeder club” if you are willing to sell your best players, not the bums.
Isn’t that what the article claimed, that Cardinale said, our most valuable players are alsos sellable at the right price?
Ok and?
ManUtd ath the top of their glory sold Cristiano for the right price.
Real Madrid sold Cristiano for the right price as well.
Are those 2 feeder clubs?
They don’t claim Cardinale said it to the players. Most likely it was instructkon to transfer market working group.
A great player trains and plays hard because that’s what they are passionate about..an average player trains or plays hard based on situations. Lesson: fish for great players
A coach is also responsible for the way a team turns out.
I see that you both are robots without feelings, totally disagree with you, I’m with you @I_AM_MJ.
Think about your life and your work, what If you found that for your boss you are pretty much useless and when a new person better that you arrives you are going to be off, or worse, you are been sacked because the boss think that you are not useful and you are only a number with a great salary that can be cut off.
Remember that player are people too, like you, with feelings, thoughts, families, not a bunch of slaves that are there to enjoy you. 🎤
That’s life.
Life’s not fair.
Everyone in the workplace is replaceable.
you’re takling as if they leave/ are sold they are going to someplace worse.. If someone is willing to cash out on a player they will aslo cash out on a higher pay for said player..
End of the day a player can refuse a move. Tho that almost never happens.
And we are all a bunch of slaves. Modern slavery is very much a thing
To be fair I don’t think this is a comment Cardinale made direct to the media. And to be doubly fair, I would add Thiaw and make that list 5, but literally everyone else is replaceable.
Bennacer will go as soon as someone bids 50m hence why I haven’t added him too.
I’ve been critical of Cardinale this week too but it doesn’t mean I’ll attack every word he allegedly says.
You speak like a wise man.
Looks like a made up comment as it doesn’t make commercial sense but yes those 4 plus Bemecer are our world class players.
Thaiw, Kalulu and CDK are our potentially.world class players.
Tomori should be sold and replaced by Scalvini, I believe we should take advantage of the Premier League more money then sense aspect and get £50m plus
I really like Tomori but I’d sell too if a trigger happy premiership club came along.
How many fans honestly disagree that besides those 4 everyone else is sellable?
I’d like Thiaw, Kalulu and Lazetic to be kept, because they have room for major growth, but the rest can all be easily replaced and upgraded upon.
I’d maybe even give CDK another chance, but I don’t think Pioli really knows how to use him properly.
I agree, players should not be too comfortable at on club. They need to be kept motivated to grow.
I would include Thiaw to make it five players that are ‘less sellable”.
And some people still back him and says he doesn’t want to transform us into lille. Mr Burger need to leave
Lille sold Maignan and Leao.
Maignan dont want to renew the contract ,so they sell just à year before the contract expirés.
Leao is unknown quantity when they sign even after his 1st season. No one remember that Leao played in France.
35million just in a year who joined for free.
I will sell Lazetic if someone offer 25million.
35million in France is lot of money for this club.
And Lille is not a big club like Milan,you should never compare in here.
We want to be compétitive in Europe but Lille wants to be compétitive in France
There is big difference of idealogy
I said that comment to emphasize that Milan is different from Lille.
How you know Maignan doesn’t want to renew his contract? You read too much into dumb Italian news outlets.
Bennacer as well? What a shame
His release clause is very easy for premiership teams to match, so he is for sale by default, sadly.
So everybody is sellable. Some of us were labelled “children on tantrum” when we said this would be the new strategy at the club and that we don’t like it. And the council of wise grown men of this website’s comment section said that it was not in Jerry’s interest to sell the players.
In case you still doubt it, there is the word “money” in “moneyball” and Billy Beane’s nickname is “guru of trading players”. And for those complaining about Maldini letting players go for free, just see that Toulouse already lost four starters for free before the beginning of the mercato, including their two best players. And the coach just got fired because he didn’t met data expectations. Facts.
why are you losing your mind OVER A RUMOR
You feel like I’m losing my mind when I’m calmly making a point and using the terms that have been thrown at me and others here? Just saying I am mad to discredit the facts is not helping the debate.
Who are their 2 best players? Good enough for Milan?
Van Den Boonen, who signed with Ajax already, and Stijn Spierings, in talks with PSV. I don’t think they are good enough for Milan, but I’m not a pro scout nor a data AI haha
What strategy?
All i read is they will listen to offers.
AS THEY SHOULD!
They didnt say they mean to sell the whole team right away, close up the club and retire to a new zeland beach..
Tantrum still… Overreacting still
Don’t you think that listening to offers is a strategy? Do you think teams that win championships, like Milan last year, or go to the Champions League semi-finals, like Milan this year, listen to offers for their cornerstone players when they are debt free? “Protected” is semantics to say “there is a high price for selling”.
We have the same debate since last Monday, some of us kind of foresee what’s coming and everyday we have news that confirm our thinking. Are we fans of Milan (the players, the passion) or are we fans of the brand’s value on the NYSE? I go to the stadium for almost every home game and I never heard the tifosi sing “holy money” or sh like this.
how do you expect Milan to invest if they have no money?
Should a credit be taken? Or should they mine for oil under san siro? dont own that land anyway so that would be pointelss.
news that confrim. tis all gosip
Invest? On free agents? Debt free club with not much spendings on salaries, high salaries leaving this summer and 120M from the last UCL campaign is “no money”? Man this is beyond my understanding how you guys are thinking.
@iffat, Maldini brought players that made us win a scudetto and go to UCL semi-finals. And it’s totally dishonest to say he didn’t keep our best players, since he extended Leao and Theo for cheap and convinced Tonali to decrease his salary. Kessié and Calhanoglu just wanted more money than what the salary cap could allow. If you want to cheer for insane profits go support the NASDAQ FC.
Well said @Bartholomeo
@Flossonero Absolutely, you are spot on, Maldini fail to bring money or keep our best plyers ,only if we had Kessie and Chala we would have won the league again.
Do you guys read what u write? To keep Kessie we’d have to pay above the salary cap which is dictated by the owners not Maldini. We won the Scudetto without snake, but we couldn’t win without Kessie. But to keep Kessie we couldn’t offer 10+m per season
Of course everyone has a price. If we sold Balloon d’Or winners Sheva and Kaka in the past, we could sell ANY players. I think most of us won’t have any qualm if we sold any of the players for the RIGHT price.
However, was it really necessary to mention that? Especially right now?
Finding good prospect consistently is a hard job. Not every years we could unearth gems like Theo/Kalulu/Leao whose value improved dramatically in a few years. After developing them for a few seasons, it would also be tough to renegotiate their contracts once they are established and might run down their contracts for bigger leverage in free agency too.
Another issue that might arise is hindering the consistency to grow together as a team. It would be like a revolving door situation where players just come and go, without much attachments to the club. Just seeing it as stepping stone towards (financially) bigger clubs. Sure, the management would say that we would remain competitive etc, but I think this cycle would persist until at least we own our own stadium / Serie-A have a lot more revenues from broadcasting (which might be tough if most Serie-A teams are also in debt).
I just wish I am as optimistic as some of you guys.
Why you want to sell who just renewed contracts.still there is 4 to 5years contract left
Obviously, I prefer that we don’t sell our best assests. But of course, say if some EPL teams come with ridiculous offer for some of the players. it is only a responsible thing to do to assess and make an assessment.
However, this doesn’t mean that we have to sort of announce that everyone is for sale on the right price. I think the players (any PROFESSIONAL players for that matter) knew that they need to perform anyway. So, this is just so redundant IMHO.
Do you know Real Madrid,City,Liverpool, Bayern sell their best players except Ronaldo sold at right âgé he is going to under perform they got profit out of it.
If you still argue, we dont have nice bench players to replace immidiately nor there is à guarantee that new players adapts or Pioli trusts them!
Everyone is sellable. So… What has changed? It has always been that way. Sheva was sold, Kaka was sold, T.Silva was sold, even Zlatan was sold. No one is bigger than the club. Never has been, never will be.
Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.
Thiago and zlatan robinho seedorf etc. Were sold because berlusconi & co. Wanted to make money for themselves because after all these sales Milan were out of eu competitions for 11 years so it wasn’t good business decision. For me it’s wrong to name players to be sold or not in public because you messing players and fans psychology. Also my opinion as a fan the irreplaceable are theo leao magic Mike kalulu bennacer tonali tomori. The players that need to be sold are gabbia kjaer florenzi messias pobega origi ballo toure . Also Pioli needs to leave if hes not willing implement players like cdk adli to different positions to take a risk he did that with kalulu that good from rb 500k player value to cb 30+m player value
*Rebic
*Needs to be sold rebic
I actually like that – this puts more pressure on the players to perform better, just like at every big club. You don’t perform at 100%, you are replaced by someone who does. And those that are saying it will affect some players mentally – these players are all adults making tons of money and if they can’t handle the pressure, they don’t deserve to play for Milan. Kaka, Sheva, Ibra were all sold and they were much better players than anyone in Milan’s current squad.
” Kaka, Sheva, Ibra were all sold and they were much better players than anyone in Milan’s current squad.”
Hard to disagree here.
Its one thing to sell players .. and completely different thing to instruct your management that the whole team is on transfer list. Everyone is sellable for sure. But you have to be a colossal dumb@ss to declare that to your management. Berlu didn’t ever declare ANY Of those players sellable even after the sale.
It is normal to sell player that are not key player for that team even rich club like manc city & Real madrid sell player too. Of course that if good offer come example : origi you can sell him 5-8m euro for capital gain. The mistake you make if you are too sentimental & put trust too much to player that they will renew , later they will forcing free transfer
Management wanting to listen to offer for ANY Player means they are put on a transfer list. And this RET@RD just put the whole club on a…
TRANSFER LIST?
So, basically, what I feared is coming true.. GERRY is here for money and for that, he will sell everyone. And not just that.. it’s celebrated by some ‘fans’?
You think Perez goes around instructing his staff that every player is sellable for the ‘right offer’? You think Khelaifi goes around telling the club staff that everyone is sellable and will listen to offers for ALL OF THEM? Berlu sold Kaka, Ibra, Thiago and a lot more. You think he went around declaring them sellable to the management and put them on a transfer list? You think ANY OTHER OWNER of ANY CLUB is THAT DUMB that they will put the ENTIRE team on transfer list?
Have ANY of you EVER SEEN Any of such NEWS about ANY OTHER CLUB? Not just big ones. .EVEN SMALL ONES?
It means.. Gerry has no idea how to run a club. Period. I told you guys way too many times before. It’s frustrating so see it coming true.
This doesn’t assure a healthy competition. AT ALL. When you put a player to transferlist.. you know the player has outlived his utilities and the club is going to cash on on him.
It only happens to players who are openly unwanted by the club and the player is informed as such so they can seek their future ELSEWHERE. And this dumb f*k of an owner just declared that all of our players are open to leave?
This just assures players that GERRY.. Is a clusterf*k who will make Money even if it means selling the UCL trophies we have by their weight in Silver. No wonder he didn’t want to Keep Maldini or hire any competent SD. No SD will suffer through this bull$hit and Gerry knew it.
Sellable, not sellable. No one is for sale. There will be sales but also nvestments. Man it’s been confusing these days.
I think that’s a good decision. But i think should add Fikayo Tomori too, so we have 5 key players. I don’t think we can easily replace Fikayo’s quality : smart, very fast, strong. And versatile, at Chelsea he can play all positions at back.
Enough said… Look pioli did a great job, would pirlo have done something better? Cardinale is an idiot. Giroud had a great season, Brahim Diaz was good too.
Cardinale is an idiot. The team doesn’t need to put players on display to sell, we need constancy and someone who can direct things in order not to be selling players that we need, this mofo needed to invest more money in order to get players
The end of Milan