The fall-out continues after Milan Futuro suffered relegation to the fourth tier on Saturday night, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s words proving prophetic.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
The Futuro project was launched ahead of 2024-25, and around 12 months on it has already suffered a major blow. Last night’s 2-0 defeat to SPAL meant a 2-1 aggregate defeat in the play-off, and relegation to the amateur level of Italian football.
MilanNews recall the words of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had defined Milan Futuro as a ‘copy and paste of the first team’, which sounds almost like a prophecy today. An ambitious idea, but betrayed by the facts.
Ibrahimovic’s words
Ibrahimovic spoke on July 4 alongside Daniele Bonera at a press conference the club put on to mark the launch of the project, and the Swede began with a speech before answering questions.
“We want to show that we believe in our talents, we want to give them an opportunity to enter the senior team. For Milan the young player is important. Futuro and the first team for us are one team,” he said.
“Everything that mister Fonseca does in the first team, Milan Futuro will also do. As if it were copy and paste. Milan Future will also focus on individual training, we want to improve and make young players become men. When you represent Milan you have a great responsibility. You also need discipline.
“[…] The first team and Futuro will be a unique team for us. We are happy and confident. Choosing a coach in this situation is not easy: the coaches in the academy think too much about the results. Maybe they choose players who are more ready than players who have more potential.”
The start-up of Milan Futuro, with everything included, cost €12m, which then became over €15m after the January market. Meanwhile, the first team invested around 10x that over the past two transfer windows hoping to fight for the Scudetto, but they sit in eighth place.
Simply put, Milan have not put the right people in the right positions to succeed, and the incompetence stretches to all levels of the club. Barring, maybe, the Primavera, who are in the play-offs for the Scudetto.