The owners of AC Milan and Inter, RedBird and Oaktree respectively, are both willing to consider offers for the Milanese clubs. However, the situation is far from simple.
RedBird took control of Milan in the summer of 2022, just after the Rossoneri won the Scudetto, and the journey since has been a bit of a roller coaster. Oaktree, meanwhile, became the owners of Inter when Suning defaulted on the loan in 2024.
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Two American funds thus own two of the biggest clubs in Italy, the world even, and it’s part of a larger trend that has seen more American funds/consortiums investing in football. Without a long-term plan, however, enjoying any financial success is difficult.
Owners are open to selling
According to the reliable Carlo Festa, who works for Il Sole 24 Ore, RedBird and Oaktree are both ready to consider offers for the clubs. In fact, they are very open to it, but the problem is finding someone who is willing to pay the asking prices.
‘At least one and a half billion euros’, Festa writes, as especially RedBird are looking to get a big return on their investment. This is very difficult to get without a proper approval for a new stadium, as someone essentially has to pay extra for something that isn’t certain yet.
Just a few days ago, reports suggested that RedBird could sell Milan to the Steinbrenner family, with Hal Steinbrenner already owning around 10% of the club through RedBird.
Redbird doesn’t even own half of Milan, Elliott still does. They even have board members. Technically it is Redbird but in reality it is different. Hopefully they are out soon, Redbird undid most of the good stuff that was setup by Gazidis.
This is not true at all. Elliott gave to RedBird a seller’s loan (a.k.a. a vendor’s loan) which is regular stuff in corporate sales. RedBird has already paid back part of the loan and has refinanced the rest.
Yes, usually (or rather, almost always) in corporate acquisitions, when a seller extends a loan to the buyer, the latter accepts one or two board members loyal to the seller, which is just a way for the seller/lender to keep an eye on its investment (such as, advise if it looks like the buyer is mismanaging everything and veering towards bankruptcy).
You don’t seem to be familiar with corporate mergers and acquisitions practices and you see a big conspiracy where there is none; what is happening is regular and routine stuff. Elliott’s representation within Milan’s board is strongly a minority. They get information/monitoring from the Board meetings to keep the seller/loaner aware of what is going on, and can give opinions to the buyer (RedBird) on the investment, but CANNOT make decisions for RedBird, because two representatives are strongly a minority within the Board.
Milan’s board has 12 members, of which 2 are Elliott representatives (Gordon Singer and Dominic Mitchell). The other ten members are: Gerry Cardinale (Founder), Randy Levine, Robert Klein, Mark Dowley, and David Castelblanco, all RedBird staff. Also Paolo Scaroni (Chairman), Giorgio Furlani (CEO), Stefano Cocirio (CFO), and Alfredo Craca. Finally there is an Independent Member: Richard Stefanelli.
You can see that even if the two Elliott representatives got together with the independent member and even coopted Furlani who is a former Elliott guy, they would at most have 4 votes, with RedBird still controlling 8 votes.
If Gerry were to decide to pay back in full the vendor’s loan, then he’d kick out the two Elliott representatives from the Board.
Sure, Cardinale still owes part of the sellers’ loan to Elliott. However Cardinale has HUGE personal and corporate assets (which I listed in another post a while ago) and has the ability to cash out some of his assets to pay back the rest of the loan, if he so desires. Or, Cardinale could sell Milan, receive the full amount, and then pay back the remainder of the loan with part of the proceeds from the sale. Finally, Cardinale also has the option of keeping Milan, but decreasing his share of it (while still keeping a majority stake) by getting new investors on board, and use the buy-in from these new investors to pay back Elliott.
Currently RedBird owns 99.93% of Milan, the other 0.07% being owned by Italian local investors. Say, Gerry could decrease his share to 61% by selling 38.93% to a new investor, and use that money to pay back the loan. He’d still own the majority of Milan, keeping the decision-making capacity (of Gerry’s 99.97% ownership, internally to RedBird, Yankees Global Enterprises – the Steinbrenner family – have a 10% stake in those 99.97% so effectively Gerry’s share is 89.97%, but that’s not very important in terms of percentage of AC Milan owned because that’s just part of the corporate structure of RedBird Capital Partners). In my hypothetic scenario, Gerry would keep 61% of which 10% belong to the Steinbrenners, so he’d still have a controlling majority of 51%.
Think of it as a house you purchase with a mortgage contract. Say you pay back in advance part of the mortgage but keep another part still financed by the mortgage company. Say you also have other properties and assets that are way bigger than what you still owe to the mortgage company (Milan fans badly underestimate how wealthy Gerry Cardinale is; he’s got multiple assets and owns multiple corporations; just selling one of them would cover the remainder of the Elliott loan).
That means you are NOT under the water. You can pay back your mortgage anytime by simply selling one of your other properties to get the money to pay back your loan, or using liquid assets you hold elsewhere, if you so desire.
In this analogy, you could also carve out part of your house as an independent apartment by walling out part of it and building an independent door to the outside, and sell that independent apartment to another home owner, using that money from the sale to pay back the remainder of your mortgage. You’d own a smaller part of your house but you’d then own it in full.
Or else, you can put your house in the market, find a buyer, and upon the closing, you get money from the buyer and you pay back to the mortgage company the remainder of the mortgage. That’s normal stuff, routinely done in most real state transactions when someone sells a house before paying back its mortgage in full (which is actually more common than selling a house you fully own), and it’s exactly the same concept in corporate sales. While the mortgage company in a sense does own part of the house beyond your equity in practical terms given the existence of a mortgage remainder, it’s still YOUR house and you are free to sell it whenever you want. You’ll just have to divert part of the profits you get from the sale, to finish paying back the mortgage company for the remainder of your mortgage loan. Simple. This is handled in the closing by the lawyer doing your closing. You then walk out from the house owing nothing and having pocketed the difference between your sale price and the amount diverted to the lender to pay back the remainder of your mortgage.
I understand why most Milan fans hate Gerry Cardinale and RedBird (and I also do) but then they engage in wishful thinking and this BS that Elliott owns Milan rather than Cardinale/RedBird.
Nope. Cardinale/RedBird owns Milan. It’s just that Cardinale still will needs to pay back Elliott for the remainder of the seller’s loan, either slowly with the refinancing that he got until July 2028, or in a lump sum if he sells Milan to a third-party buyer before the loan is due.
Look, the Interista city prosecutor in Milano tried to imply that Elliott still owned Milan and tried to prosecute Milan for not disclosing it. He ended up with egg on his face and the suit was dismissed when RedBird presented proof that they indeed owned Milan; just had not paid in full yet the seller’s loan that they received, and there was nothing illegal about it. This is SETTLED MATTER but somehow some Milan fans still spout this ridiculous idea that Elliott owns Milan.
Finally, regarding your statement that RedBird doesn’t even own half of Milan, it’s also not true. After Gerry paid back part of the seller’s loan (he paid back 170 million euros in December 2024) and refinanced the remainder until July 2028, that remainder is 489 million Euros. However Milan is worth at least 1.2 billion Euros (the original sales price when RedBird purchased it), if not 1.5 billion. So, no, Gerry owns way more than half of Milan.
I believe that Gerry’s interest in purchasing San Siro together with Inter for 200 million Euros, that is, 100 million Euros for his half of the stadium, intends to boost the market price of AC Milan to those 1.5 billion euros that Gerry would consider selling AC Milan for. He would be able to tell a prospective buyer: ‘look, now we even own half of our stadium; the value of this club will explode in the future; buy cheap now and realize a huge profit once the club becomes even more valuable by owning its stadium and profiting from the stadium.”
Unfortunately for us Milan fans who disagree with how RedBird manages Milan, Gerry Cardinale is just fine (financially speaking) and he does own AC Milan.
Big conspiracy? Where did you find a conspiracy? Which part of what I wrote? Which conspiracy? Redbird owns Ac Milan in the same way that Yonghong Li did. If they don’t repay it on time, and they already refinanced the loan, Elliott takes it back. I would also bet that they can’t even sell without Elliott approving it. This is the reality, writing 100 sentences won’t change it. Redbird’s money comes from an investor, so in reality Gerry Cardinale doesn’t own even close to half of Milan. We don’t have the exact contracts to see but this is how Redbird operates, but the reality is that a group of investors own Milan, not Gerry. Technically it can be displayed differently, but reality is like that. Gerry doesn’t have billions, even the Fiorentina owner was making fun of him af ew years ago, and publicly, for buying Milan with others peoples money and talking in interviews like it is his :”It’s not his money”. Let’s not talk about the Emirati sheiks that are in there, as investors, not working for Gerry. You don’t understand the basics of investment funds and you are trying to explain to me about “corporate acquisitions” . Ok.
The conspiracy, even shared by a misguided Milano City prosecutor, is that RedBird doesn’t actually own Milan but Elliott does, which has been adopted by “fans” like you despite it being disproven in court.
LOL, you don’t know anything about Gerry Cardinale’s assets. Do you need me to spell to you what they are? I’ve already done it before in another post but I can do it again.
Sure, RedBird Capital Partners are an equity fund with investors, but still, the controlling majority of it belongs to Gerry Cardinale and it is only ONE of his multiple assets.
The Fiorentina owner trying to mock Gerry due to some misguided rivalry is just as mistaken as you are. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
If you want, you can ask me about what his other assets are. I’ll be happy to list them for you but apparently you have a small attention spam and can’t handle long texts, so I’ll do it only if you humbly ask me about it.
Hm, OK, not waiting for you to humbly ask because you’re arrogant rather than humble, and it’s not my fault if you can’t handle long text (this short attention span generation is pitiful), so here is a little primer on what Gerry Cardinale’s assets are:
Sports Investments
AC Milan: Full ownership of the Italian Serie A football club, acquired in 2022 for €1.2 billion. I’m saying full ownership as 99.93% but with some caveats I’ve explained before, including the local investors, the Steinbrenners, and the remainder of the Elliott vendors’ loan. Still, he controls AC Milan.
Toulouse FC: Majority stake in the French Ligue 1 club, purchased in 2020.
Fenway Sports Group: 11% stake in the parent company of the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, Pittsburgh Penguins, and NESN.
YES Network: Ownership stake in the regional sports network serving the New York Yankees.
United Football League (UFL): Significant investment in this professional American football league.
Alpine Racing: Minority stake in the Formula 1 team.
Rajasthan Royals: 15% stake in the Indian Premier League cricket team, valued at $250 million.
Media & Entertainment Ventures
Skydance Media: 20% stake in the Hollywood studio known for films like Top Gun: Maverick.
Artists Equity: Co-founded with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, this production company focuses on empowering artists in film and television.
The SpringHill Company: Investment in the media company co-founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter.
Telegraph Media Group: Acquisition of a controlling stake in the British publisher of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph for £500 million.
Financial & Business Services
RedBird IMI: Joint venture with International Media Investments (IMI), backed by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, focusing on media and sports investments.
Collegiate Athletic Solutions: New venture aimed at investing in U.S. college athletic departments.
On Location Experiences: Co-founded with Jerry Jones and the New York Yankees, this company was sold to Endeavor in 2020 for $660 million.
A&S: Strategic marketing and communications firm acquired by RedBird in 2021 to support portfolio companies.
These are the major things. There are smaller assets too, which are too numerous to quote.
———
You and Fiorentina’s owner should get better informed before spouting nonsense.
“The conspiracy, even shared by a misguided Milano City prosecutor, is that RedBird doesn’t actually own Milan but Elliott does, which has been adopted by “fans” like you despite it being disproven in court.”
Adopted what? This is why I won’t read your 200 sentences. You make up stuff to sound better. I didn’t adopt anything or is it any kind of conspiracy but I explained to you exactly what I think. Until you repay the loan it is not yours and you can’t make decisions without the company that loaned you the money. If you own something really it is 100% your decision, on anything.
Gerry Cardinale personally doesn’t own any of those things. 0. He has a share in the company he founded, along with all the other people that invested their money. The “assets” he owns are owned by Redbird. Not by him.
LOL. I’m only stating facts.
You seem to be unaware that most wealthy individuals use corporate structures for their assets, to avoid personal liability and personal taxes.
Of course he owns these assets because they are owned by RedBird which is owned by him. LOL.
And like I just posted, he got many other assets not owned by RedBird but by different corporations he owns, given that his portfolio is extensive and runs along other kinds of corporations and investments.
Read again what I just posted, and may have crossed/overlapped before you posted your (as usual misguided) reply.
Get informed.
Oh, you already replied, like I knew what you will list under “Gerry’s assets”. I’m sure Gerry had billions he invested and all of those assets are his. Of course.
And most of Redbird funding came from investors. So you want to tell me that those people put in the money and relinquished their investment? Is now his money? 😀 Hahhahahaha
I have to go so I won’t wait for you. But let’s recap. Ok, so Gerry is the big billionaire with 15B in assets that had to loan 550M to buy Milan? More importantly, with 7% interest rate. That he couldn’t repay on time. When he started his company he founded it with money from a fundraiser. That is how most things were and are financed. From investors, not his money. Not his personal assets. It is really simple. Cardinale is great at getting money from others, fundraising. Now he is also a billionaire, as he seems to be really good at what he does, raise funds from multiple people and institutions to get them into ownership of something that they couldn’t afford themselves. He is like a “groupon” for rich people. The whole things is not that complicated. But he doesn’t have even close to what you are describing, personally. Even their investments clearly say that they were “leading capital raise”. They didn’t take 275M out of their bank accounts but raised the funds, which part of that is Gerry, hard to say. You keep writing like he was this big billionaire 13 years ago, and he probably didn’t have 10M of his money when he founded the company. There is a big difference in Gerry being good a fundraising and managing other peoples money (so they trust him with new investments) and him actually owning all of it. HUGE DIFFERENCE “In 2020, RedBird became the second largest investor in Ellison’s company, leading a $275 million capital raise. Cardinale helped raise an additional $400 million for Skydance in 2022. “
The are a makeshift and symbolic ownership group. The club is profitable. Hence they are recycling our previous assets with a loan. They didn’t put a penny in yet.
Not true. Read above. More details: While Milan was purchased for 1.2 billion Euros, the remainder of the vendors loan is now only 489 million Euros after the latest loan repayment (recently in December 2024, Gerry paid back part of the vendor’s loan, by paying to Elliott 170 million Euros). So Redbird put in A LOT more than a penny: namely, 711 million Euros.
Redbird also purchased the land in San Donato for 20 million Euros then allocated another 40 million for development. They also invested 15 million to develop facilities and infrastructure for Milan Futuro.
That is, another 75 million Euros there, bringing the total they spent on purchasing AC Milan and redeveloping it, to 786 million Euros. That’s a bit more than a penny, right?
Where did they “put it”? They paid Elliott. Do you understand what is he talking about? You don’t, obviously. What a legend.
Duh, they paid Elliott because that’s who they purchased the club from!!! Jesus. When you buy a house, you make a downpayment to the SELLER and usually you get a mortgage to finance the rest. That doesn’t mean you haven’t spent a penny in the purchase!!! Are you THIS dense that you don’t understand these basic facts???
Actually RedBird has paid to the seller, Elliott, more than half of the total value of the club, not to forget the additional money they invested in infrastructure and land at San Donato and Futuro. PRECISELY 786 million Euros were paid/spent. They still need to come up with 489 million Euros but like I said, there are many options for that and it’s not due until July 2028.
They could do several things about it:
1. Pay back just part of it and refinance again the remainder just like they did in December 2024 to avoid the loan going into default (if Gerry is keen on keeping AC Milan, that’s the most likely route)
2. Choose to simply pay it back entirely before the due date (Gerry can easily do it by using other assets he has, both liquid, or if he decides to sell one of his other more minor corporations that he owns; see, he’s not exactly poor, and just recently he purchased part of Paramoun+).
3. Sell part of his share to a third party investor and use those proceeds to pay back the remainder of the vendor’s loan. It could for example be done by increasing the share that Yankees Global Enterprises owns; rumors are that the Steinbrenners would consider it).
4. Sell the whole club entirely before the loan is due, and then use part of the proceeds to pay back the remainder of the loan, and then pocket the difference.
You clearly don’t understand ANYTHING about corporate acquisitions and you spout nonsense, while mocking the people like me who actually understand it.
Sure, sure, mock me again if you want. I don’t really care. I know that I understand it and you don’t, but you can pretend to your little click that it’s the other way around, despite the fact that you spout nonsense while I’m providing verifiable facts, including the exact amounts, the Board composition, etc.
Too bad for Yonghong Li, that he didn’t have you by his side, would still be the owner of Milan…
Yes Milan are better financially largely to the work done by Elliott but the sporting project is a mess due to Redbird and new owners will have to invest more than usual to correct the mistakes. They can not realistically expect a big return on their investment after such a short period and all their failures
Actually it’s not just the work done by Elliott. RedBird continue to right the ship financially. Milan is now out of the UEFA monitoring, due to posting profits in three consecutive seasons. Also, have you noticed how RedBird have recentlly streamlined the previously bloated roaster, by keeping 22 players in it and getting rid of A LOT of dead weight? Dozens of surplus mediocre players were sold or loaned out with options or obligations to buy; some of which are still bad legacies of the Elliott time.
Look, regarding the athletic project, RedBird made HUGE mistakes, resulting in the club dropping to 8th place last season and not making the UCL.
However they ARE indeed trying to correct that, by hiring Tare and Allegri, and by investing a lot of money for new players (and getting a couple of cheap or free ones that are not stupid signings), some of whom are actually very good players like Modric, Rabiot, Nkunku, Jashari, and Ricci. So yes, while I still don’t like RedBird at all, it is clear that now they are trying to right the ship athletically as well.
The five players above are clearly good players. Also, some of the other signings are decent or show good potential, like Pietro Terracciano who is better than the outgoing Sportiello, and Koni De Winter who already did well in Serie A. It’s more mixed for Estupiñan and it is a question mark for Odogu and Athekame, but at least the two latter young players have potential.
For me, the big question mark is Estupiñan. I find him slow and easily beaten by speedy wingers, and while he seems to be a better defender than Theo, he is definitely not as good as supporting the offense as Theo used to be before his decline. Also, the RB position is still suspect. Still, if Allegri ultimately goes back to using Estupiñan as a full back rather than a wingback, by being more static in defense, the likelihood that he will get beaten by speedy wingers will decrease. We’ll see what the ultimate formation will be, and how the fullback versus wingback issue is handled by Allegri, who is after all a defense specialist.
So, yes, the mercato was less than ideal and there were mistakes like wasting too much time negotiating for Jashari while leaving for too late the pursuit of a striker, a RB and a CB (ultimately failing to get a true striker and getting a very young CB instead of the needed older CB with the capacity to lead and organize the defense). But it’s CLEAR that at least they are trying, even though they were less than highly efficient in doing it.
Regardless of the newest mercato mistakes made, it is to me clear that they are trying to correct the mistakes made in the past season with a failed mercato and the hiring of not one, but two cheap and mediocre coaches.
Sure, we sold Reijnders, but you need to understand that after we didn’t make the UCL because of the previous athletic project mistakes, it was hard to avoid a large sale because we can’t go back to being in the red, jeopardizing the good stance with the UEFA monitoring.
I’m not trying to apologize for RedBird. I still hate them. However I’m also a realist, and I can’t help but realize that they are trying to correct the errors. Think of it: just by hiring an experienced Italian coach who is actually the guy who won the Scudetto more often than ANY other Italian coach including Conte, rather than relying on two mediocre Portuguese coaches like last season, it is clear that RedBird have realized that they made mistakes and are trying to do better.
The management is full of arrogant maniacs driven by their ego, nobody cares about the club as a football team, I you think otherwise you underestimate human nature. Jerry’s business is simple, in his own words: “What we do at RedBird is we look for ways of monetizing world-class IP.” All the rest is nuisance. Exploit the brand, make it lifestyle, entertainment. Like the Yankees or the Cowboys, two clients of Jerry when he was at Goldman Sachs. Two other franchises owned by billionaires obsessed with value and cruising on their brands’ fame but that win nothing for a while.
Sure, that’s exactly why I also hate RedBird. I’m just saying, the value of their brand decreases when they don’t have athletic success and they seem to have finally realized it, and are clearly trying now to right the ship. Still making mistakes as they are still unfamiliar with Italian football, but they are now at least doing better (or less poorly) than they did last season.
They will never admit any mistake because they’re so arrogant and because their job is not to win. It’s trading and value. If the goal was to win, Moncada would be long gone. He’s still here because somehow he finds many dudes that they can sell later. Good for the “books”.
Basically this year they just brought one more ego with Tare into a crowded room. And a washed up coach advertised as a winner, with a team broken after its fourth “revolution” since summer 2023. Key players like Mike, Modric and Pulisic might leave next year.
There’s still absolutely zero sign that the team is going in the right direction.
Oh my GOD…… I think I’m having an erection… u can do it Gerry…. just do it!
Time to go to church and pray.
@Sure
Forbes lists as Gerry Cardinale’s PERSONAL net worth, 1.8 billion dollars. So, yes, he IS a billionaire, regardless of your earlier misguided idea that he only manages other people’s money.
So, yes, a significant chunk of these assets you dismiss as not having his own money, do indeed exist as his own money.
Again, get informed. Do you know better than Forbes???
And don’t say it’s all RedBird. Actually RedBird’s total investment portfolio is in the order of magnitude of 10 billion, and sure, a large part of it, like in any equity partnership, belongs to other investors.
It doesn’t mean Gerry doesn’t have his own net worth and his own money, like Forbes details.
I wouldn’t call 1.8 billion dollars in personal money, being exactly poor.
Maybe YOU are a multibillionaire and for you, that’s pennies. I kind of doubt it, though. I don’t know many multibillionaires who spend their time as keyboard warriors spouting nonsense in some obscure forum for fans of a soccer club.
Who called him poor? When did I say any of those things? The last comments were about Gerry Cardinale not owning Redbird assets, if he did he would have a net worth of over 10B. Easy. So you are wrong. He is still mostly managing other peoples money, even though he is a billionaire, that doesn’t change the facts. Most of Redbird capital is not Gerry Cardinales money, not even today. When he purchased Milan, he didn’t even have that 550M€ net value, in total.
OK, poor Gerry! Although he has almost 2 billion in personal assets, he is still mostly managing other people’s moneys. I’ll cry for him; is he just a financial advisor at a local Edward Jones? LOL.
Yep, now you are dismissing him for earning his fortune by doing what he does professionally. I’d call it good business sense.
And yes, he is likely to increase more and more his personal net worth in the near future. Just watch that space on Forbes. You’ll see in subsequent annual evaluations of net worth of this world’s billionaires, that Gerry Cardinalle will keep climbing. Mark my words.
Enough with this. I won’t waist my time with one of the – by wide consensus – most misguided posters here on SemperMilan.
You can have however parting mocking words you want to spout. It’s very clear for anybody reading this thread, that I’m providing facts while you are providing guesses, prejudices, misguided views, and vague statements devoid of facts. Who exactly do you think you are fooling???
Have a nice rest of your day, good sir.
*waste, not waist. Pardon me, English is not my primary language.
“Yep, now you are dismissing him for earning his fortune by doing what he does professionally. I’d call it good business sense.”
How am I dismissing him? Where? Can you point me to that sentence? I am writing facts, he is mostly managing other peoples money. You can’t make up that I said something so you have a point? You did this in EVERY SINGLE COMMMENT. You are not providing facts, but you keep putting words in my mouth so you can respond to them. Can you point to where I was dismissing him? Or when did I say he was not a billionaire? Or that he is poor? You responded to those things and I never wrote them. Stop mentioning things I didn’t write to counter them and I might take you seriously?
And my point was 100% correct, you just proved it. Thank you once again. Gerry doesn’t own all those things you listed as “his assets”. Gerry doesn’t own 89% of Ac Milan as you wrote, he doesn’t own even 20%, if Redbird disbanded and shared their assets between investors. Even you stopped claiming that. It is obvious.
When did I write he isn’t a billionaire? Can you show me? He became a billionaire after he bought Milan. He was managing other peoples money for 10 years to become a billionaire. And you wrote that he owns those “assets” Redbird controls over 12B in assets, where is the difference? Call Forbes and tell them to add more to Gerry, you seem to know better. You actually confirmed what I said, you just don’t get it. Thank you.
When did I write he isn’t a billionaire? Can you show me? He became a billionaire after he bought Milan. He was managing other peoples money for 10 years to become a billionaire. And you wrote that he owns those “assets” Redbird controls over 12B in assets, where is the difference? Call Forbes and tell them to add more to Gerry, you seem to know better. You actually confirmed what I said, you just don’t get it. Thank you.
@Bartholomeo – I can’t answer directly to you as your post for some reason lacks a reply button on my screen.
Sure, you don’t need to try to convince me that RedBird are evil and don’t really care a lot for AC Milan’s history and athletic project, and only see it as a golden eggs goose. I agree with you. It’s just that I think that at least, they are trying a bit harder this season.
I also agree, and made many posts elsewhere about it, that the team still lacks structure and we have still engaged in mercato mistakes this past summer that has just ended.
I won’t really lament if Mike walks away like it seems he will. I actually used to agree that Mike was in the past a world-class goalkeeper but I think that’s no longer true. He takes too many near post goals, and after a string of injuries, even though he stayed healthy last season, these do take a toll and he just doesn’t seem to be as good any longer. He is a classy individual and a true leader but remember, as a goalkeeper, actually his stats last Serie A season were behind the vast majority of other first team goalkeepers for the other Serie A clubs.
I actually don’t think that Suzuki who is rumored to be his replacement, is any good, so this might be another future mistake. I hope it’s just a rumor. I’d rather see Torriani bulk up a little (he’s still too skinny) and become our first team’s number 1 goalkeeper. We’ll see.
Modric, of course, he’s just going into retirement age so it’s not exactly the fault of our management that likely he won’t stay with us for too long.
Pulisic, I frankly doubt that he will leave. Regardless of the athletic project being suspicious, he still did much better with us than in the EPL and he seems to be very happy in the city of Milano, immersed in the country that was the one of his paternal grandmother. Pulisic is also very valued by the American owner for obvious reasons, that his sheer presence increases Milan’s fan base and merchandise sales in the United States where he is the most prestigious current footballer. If Puli were to threaten to walk away, I’m sure the ownership would tempt him back with significant upgrades in pay, in order to keep him.
I have a bit more faith in Allegri than you have. I think he will at least do much better for us than the two Portuguese disasters.
Tare is an experienced Sporting Director. He made mistakes too but I still think that it is better to have him, than to not have a Sporting Director like we endured for several seasons. I think with him on board, Moncada will revert to just being a scout, which is what he is and should never have been promoted to acting like a Sporting Director. Still, not ideal as we could have hired better Sporting Directors than Tare, and we did try but people were suspicious (with good reason) of Milan’s administration and preferred to stay with their current clubs or to go elsewhere. Tare was who we could get and it’s still better than not having an SD. Sure, I’d love to see Moncada fired with a better scout being hired but like you said, it’s rare that RedBird acknowledges mistakes so likely and unfortunately, Moncada will stay. But hopefully, his role will be minimized. The same can be said of Ibra – great footballer, disastrous manager; with Galliani hopefully coming back, Ibra’s role will be diminished.
See, Nkunku used to be a HUGE world-class player, with more than 50 goal participations (goals + assists) in a season before his injuries. If he goes back to good form and good health, he could easily become the dream trequartista that we haven’t had since Kaká. Allegri knows how to use trequartistas, after all he was the one who developed Dybala.
Either Modric or Ricci can hold the ball and protect the defense better than anybody we had recently since we lost Kessié.
Rabiot is 100 times better than Musah The Headless Chicken in terms of football IQ and clarity regarding his own role, and he is also a better player than RLC.
So, while we still have many problems (lack of an experienced CB to lead the defense, lack of a very good RB, a bit better at the LB position with Estupiñan backed up by Bartesaghi but still less good there than at the time of prime Theo before the latter’s decline), I do think that there are indeed some bright spots, and despite the first disastrous game against Cremonese, I still believe that we are better off now than we were at the beginning of last season.
Not as good, of course, as during the Scudetto season. We had a very good team then and dismantled it due to the numerous mistakes made by RedBird. But at least, I see a bit of a movement in the right direction, this season.
We have now a streamlined roster (used to be EXTREMELY bloated and full of mediocre players) with still 3 spots unfilled among the 17 allowed for foreign players, which is fine this season when we basically only play in ONE meaningful competition (Serie A is important; who cares about Coppa and Supercoppa?), and less so if we make it back to Europe next season, but then we still have left-over money from the various sales of the surplus dead weight, and we can fill up the holes in January or next summer, and further address CB, RB and either LB or striker, in those spots. Also, we’ll get Camarda back next season, hopefully fully developed and ready for the first team (this would mean that we wouldn’t need to use one of the 3 foreign spots for ST – Camarda goes in the lists as a product of Milan’s academy, and Italian – and could use the spot for a LB).
Tare is not brilliant but is not grossly incompetent either, so he probably does have plans already to complete the squad next window, bringing it to 25 players rather than 22.
I’m choosing to be a bit optimistic. Forza Milan!
During the Berlusconi Era, he and Galliani were fixtures at virtually every match. The teams they assembled were a reflection of their passion for the spot and the club…. I hope any new owners are similarly huge football fans…yes, and ridiculously wealthy.