The last few days have been characterised by a lot of negativity in the Milan fanbase, following the sale of Sandro Tonali and the failure to sign Marcus Thuram. Soon, the club could reach a dangerous tipping point.
The sale of Tonali to Newcastle for €70-80m was never going to be popular. The reaction of the fans, as such, was very expected and the management was heading for a swift response with the free signing of Thuram. Instead, however, they got bamboozled.
The incompetence of the management, having negotiated with the Frenchman for almost three weeks, was indeed highlighted. This is exactly what Furlani and Moncada didn’t need, seeing as the rest of the clubs now are well aware of their lack of experience. This is something you certainly don’t want when you have €70m to reinvest.
Midfield target Davide Frattesi’s price has already shot up to €40m, despite Inter having an agreement at €35m, and the demands are the same if not higher for strikers. An uphill battle even for the most experienced directors, in other words.
The mercato struggles mean AC Milan as a brand (which Cardinale is so wary of) is at an all-time low. The sacking of Paolo Maldini left a bitter taste and a swift and strong response was needed from the new management, but instead the opposite arrived. A sense of hopelessness is thus washing over the club.
It seems Cardinale grossly underestimated the weight of Maldini and the whole infrastructure that was in place. Furlani comes from a corporate background, having worked for Lehman Brothers and Elliott Management, but has no prior experience in the football world. Moncada, meanwhile, is and has always been just a scout.
The pre-season will soon kick off, with a USA tour scheduled, and everyone will be watching. Milan have lost many players thus far and have not replaced a single one of them, meaning there is indeed cause for concern. Names are being thrown around by newspapers, but apart from the Thuram attempt not much concrete has happened.
Stefano Pioli is thus returning to a very difficult situation and one that must be sorted out as soon as possible. He made it clear several times last season that the depth was lacking to properly compete, which makes it even more strange that Cardinale backed the manager and now (so far) hasn’t fulfilled his one request.
What’s even more worrying than the squad situation, though, are the rumours of disagreements between Furlani and Cardinale. Footmercato outlined in an article last night that Furlani, along with Moncada, want to run the club in a traditional manner. Cardinale, meanwhile, wants to fully Americanize it.
Furlani, we must remember, didn’t arrive at the club as an employee of RedBird but rather Elliott Management. The suggestion that he has different views than Cardinale is not to be disregarded, therefore, especially since he’s also a boyhood Milan fan.
Given the increasing amount of worrying reports coming out of the media, Milan have been surprisingly quiet. And that silence suggests that Cardinale indeed wants to revolutionise – for bad or for worse – the club without taking into account the concerns of those who know football best.
We’re already at a very dangerous point. A majority of the fans are furious with the sale of Tonali and without proper replacements, the situation will absolutely worsen. Not to mention that the midfield isn’t the only department that needs reinforcing this summer.
It’s possible that Cardinale could have got away with these changes in other circumstances. But everything has now happened in a very short period of time, from Ibrahimovic’s goodbye and Maldini’s sacking to the sale of Tonali. As a result, there is almost no room for error left. God knows what will happen if Milan were to continue in this direction…
