AC Milan are heading into yet another season finale with the feeling of being a ticking bomb, and not for the first time.
You can tell that it’s May, and not because of the Coppa Italia final taking place or the fact the days are getting longer. The temperature is rising alright, but where it seems destined to reach boiling point is once again inside the walls of Casa Milan.
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One can deduce that the end of another season is near because Milan are playing their part in a media circus. As has been the case almost every year for the past decade (barring the Covid period and Scudetto win), the crosshairs of the Italian media have zoned in on the Cirque du Rossonero.
Massimiliano Allegri and his men have 180 minutes to snap out of their collapse and salvage the minimum objective: a return to the Champions League. Yet, based on everything we read in the papers and online, does it even really matter?
Regardless of whether or not Milan fall above the dotted line it feels as though the warring factions and the negative energy will lead Gerry Cardinale and RedBird Capital to push the reset button again. How did we get here, and how does it seem to happen every year?
Mistakes of the past
As fate would have it, Milan’s crisis has been deepened by defeats to Sassuolo and Atalanta. Four years ago, games against those two sides at the end of the season gave many their best recent memories as Milanisti.
Many comparisons have been posted in the past couple of weeks, harking back to the seen in Reggio Emilia as tens of thousands of fans invaded the pitch to celebrate Scudetto No.19, and the full-stadium display before the win at San Siro against La Dea that set that finale up.
There’s no way to sugarcoat things: Milan have gone from the highest of highs at the time the ownership passed from Elliott Management to RedBird, to the lowest of lows at present. That kind of managed decline is only made possible by getting most major decisions wrong.
At a squad level, the team that brought glory in 2021-22 and then went on a run to the final four of the Champions League the next season has been almost fully dismantled. Only Mike Maignan, Matteo Gabbia, Fikayo Tomori, Alexis Saelemaekers and Rafael Leao remain from both campaigns.
Now, it would be far too time-consuming to go into the merits and demerits of each individual exit, but the fact remains that Milan are getting further and further away from having a presence within the team that have experienced winning.
Of course every club needs to refresh things and player movement is absolutely inevitable. Yet, looking back, that core of names like Maignan, Theo Hernandez, Sandro Tonali, Ismael Bennacer, Franck Kessie and Leao was never built around.
One of the overwhelming emotions from that day against Sassuolo in May 2022 was that it felt like a starting point, a first chapter rather than the end of the book. As it would turn out, it would be the only silverware Milan have lifted this decade, barring the Supercoppa Italiana last year.
There is a common thread that links what feels like a previous era to the present day: Paolo Maldini. Four years ago, the then-director was being hailed for the work he did to assemble and oversee a winning team. Fast-forward to Sunday’s loss to Atalanta, and fans were holding up shirts with ‘MALDINI 3’ on the back, calling for his return.
We wrote in depth back in May 2023 (we did say the month would be a running theme) about the decision to sack Maldini, weighing up the reasons for and against ending what was a clearly souring relationship.
No matter what led up to that decision, it was not a good PR move. Some may say that it was brave for Cardinale to give a club legend the chop, others might justify it purely on transfer grounds after the failed summer window that followed the Scudetto, but it generated an overwhelmingly negative response.
It is one of those calls that changes the course of a club, for better or worse. Now, we presume the Milan owner was not aiming to sabotage an asset he had just agreed to shell out €1.2bn for, so he clearly thought it was the correct judegment call.
For one decision to still be talked about nearly half a decade on says everything though, and it seems like the departure of Maldini will remain used as a stick to beat the current ownership with at every opportunity, unless the fans like what they see.
Another inarguable fact that has seen Milan hinder themselves is the four failed transfer campaigns that have followed the title triumph.
The 2022 summer mercato was the last one conducted ‘solely’ by Elliott Management, as Cardinale acquired a majority stake at the end of August 2022. The big-money signing was Charles De Ketelaere for €37.5m plus bonuses after a long and drawn-out negotiation. He flopped and was sold to a rival, where he is now flourishing.
Milan signed Malick Thiaw for €13m from Schalke, who would then be sold to Newcastle United in the summer of 2025 for €35m. From a financial standpoint, this represents a significant capital gain, but he was never consistent at Milan.
Aster Vranckx did nothing memorable, while Sergiño Dest was but for his errors than anything. The biggest error was Divock Origi, who arrived on a free transfer from Liverpool with a salary of €4.5m net per season. He scored twice, then disappeared completely and was leeching money for over two years.
In 2023 came the first transfer window after the departures of Maldini and sporting director Ricky Massara, a bit of an unsung hero in the resurgence along with Stefano Pioli. Some of the deals were funded by Sandro Tonali’s departure to Newcastle for over €60m plus bonuses.
The most significant investment was Tijjani Reijnders from AZ Alkmaar for nearly €25m. He took a bit of time to adapt to the league, but had an incredible second season and was then sold to Manchester City for €58m plus €14m in bonuses.
The acquisition of Christian Pulisic was also a good one: 42 goals in 132 appearances since joining for only €21m. Yunus Musah cost €21m and never delivered, Ruben Loftus-Cheek cost €18m and has shown glimpses but has been hampered by injuries.
Samuel Chukwueze did not repay his €21.1m investment, while the same applies to Noah Okafor who cost €15.5m. Filippo Terracciano signed from Verona for €4.5m. Relative to his fee of €500,000, Luka Jovic arguably performed well, with nine goals in 2023-24 and four in 2024-25. Marco Pellegrino cost €4m and was anonymous.
Last season culminated in an eighth-place finish, and many believe the summer set the team up for failure. The most expensive deal came during the January transfer window though, with Santiago Gimenez coming from Feyenoord for €30m plus bonuses. So far, he has been disappointing.
The same goes for Alvaro Morata, bought from Atlético Madrid for €12m, and Emerson Royal, who cost €16m from Tottenham. Youssouf Fofana – who arrived from Monaco for €26m – has been up and down, but has enjoyed the faith of all his coaches.
The best signing of the last summer mercato was Strahinja Pavlovic, who joined for €18.5m from Red Bull Salzburg, and now there is talk of him being a €50m+ man. Tammy Abraham returned to Roma after a year on loan, meanwhile.
Other mid-season fix attempts included the loan signings of Riccardo Sottil, Kyle Walker and Joao Felix arrived in January from Fiorentina, Manchester City and Chelsea. None remained. Warren Bondo, signed in the winter from Monza for €10.5m, is only loan at Cremonese.
We arrive at the present season. The best signing of the summer was probably the free agent Luka Modric, who is competing for the title with Adrien Rabiot, acquired from Olympique Marseille for €7m plus bonuses.
Despite €170m spent, there is little to show for it. Christopher Nkunku cost €37m plus bonuses to sign from Chelsea, Ardon Jashari joined for €34m plus bonuses from Brugge after another gruelling saga, and Samuele Ricci was one of the first additions for €23m from Torino. None are starters in the first choice XI, despite costing €94m combined.
Koni De Winter was acquired from Genoa (€18m plus €2m in bonuses) to replace Thiaw. Pervis Estupiñán was Theo Hernandez’s replacement, but the €17m paid to Brighton looks more and more like a waste of money. Zachary Athekame was bought from Young Boys for €10m, David Odogu from Wolfsburg for €7m.
In January, when more help was expected for the surprise title push, the German Niclas Füllkrug arrived from West Ham on loan. Alphadjo Cissè (€8m plus €2m in bonuses) will join from Verona and Andrej Kostic (€3m) will join from Partizan Belgrade in the summer.
To summarise, a lot of business without much clear direction. There is no homogeneity in the profiles that Milan are going for, and for the most part the gaps/shortcomings in the squad at any one moment have not been filled with the correct or logical profiles.
Part of the reason for this comes back to the instability in the management, with more on that to come. Whatever your stance on RedBird’s ownership, though, you cannot argue that they haven’t spent money.
In fact, over half a billion has been invested into new signings. The problem is that when you don’t have any kind of clear plan while so many other things are chopping and changing, you might as well be lighting that money on fire.
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Present mess
One of the beauties of Serie A, given the parity of the league, is that you are generally only ever one good summer away from getting back into contention. Napoli found this out, going from ninth to winning the league under Antonio Conte.
So, after finishing eighth in 2024-25, Milan turned to two safe pairs of hands to try and replicate the rapid ascent: Massimiliano Allegri and Igli Tare. The new coach-director duo featured the man with the second-most Scudetti as a manager, and someone heralded for their work on the market under difficult conditions at Lazio.
However, even the journey to arrive at that point was a torturous one. Once it became clear that Conceicao would be on his bike after the Coppa Italia final defeat book-ended an ill-fated six months, rumours started swirling about the ‘new structure’ at Milan.
It was going to be Fabio Paratici as the new director, who himself recently admitted had an agreement in place until he heard nothing back. There were also talks with Tare – headed by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cardinale – who had been out of work for a year after leaving Lazio.
In amidst all of the interviewing and conversing, Furlani flew to the United States to obtain confirmation from RedBird’s number one that he should be leading the search, a sign of the internal power struggle we have written at length about. So, he restarted the process, tried to get Tony D’Amico from Atalanta and then eventually decided Tare was right after all.
The hiring process for the new head coach was only a bit less smooth. Vincenzo Italiano was the main name in the frame until ironically his Bologna side beat Milan in the cup final to ensure they had brighter prospects in 2025-26, with a Europa League spot.
Many names then followed after that rejection, from trying to prise Antonio Conte away from Napoli to more left-field profiles like Xavi and Thiago Motta. Once Tare was locked in, he pretty quickly turned to Allegri, a coach he clearly has great esteem for. All’s well that ends well, right?
To borrow one of Allegri’s favourite sports, the Rossoneri’s present campaign has been akin to a horse race. As the starting field line up, a lot of the favourites in Azzurro, Bianconero and Nerazzurro have got new jockeys, making it a bit more of an open field.
The red and black horse is a hard one to predict. It has won before and has an experienced rider, but is not in good form and also isn’t expected to last the distance. Yet, halfway through the race it has navigated the fences well and is keeping pace.
It even takes a crucial jump better than the other contender to pull almost back even. And then, when the moment is there to accelerate into the final straight, it falls and is drawn back into the pack just hoping for a podium finish.
For a while, it looked as though Milan might genuinely push Inter (and Napoli) all the way in the title race. Since the derby win on March 8 reopened the talk of a Scudetto push, a run of two wins in eight has followed, and all of the certainties have evaporated.
Now, Allegri is not blameless and as the head coach has to accept some responsibility for the collective drop-off, as he has done repeatedly in interviews. There are big tactical question marks about his system, while the one thing holding it all together – the defensive solidity – has crumbled like a sandcastle as the tide comes in.
The biggest accusations regarding Allegri as manager seem to be ones about style rather than substance, about entertainment rather than results. It’s true that the attack has failed to produce from the little service it has had, though we have to question if this was ever a group that would rack up 100 goals with any manager in charge.
If you were to rewind to February or even after that derby win in March and take a snapshot of the moment, ‘Corto Muso’ (winning by a nose, a racing term coined by Max) was all the rage. Most fans were loving winning the big games by small margins, letting in the least goals in Europe, and going into every game with a solid chance their coach would outfox the other.
Fun football is winning football and vice versa. Then, the wheels fell off. As we revealed in an exclusive recently, it turns out that the game everything fell apart was the one straight after the Derby della Madonnina win. The 1-0 loss in the capital to Lazio for so many reasons became the scene of the adrenaline dump, and even two months on the squad have not recovered.
In all honesty, though, this slowdown was very predictable and it all comes back to a point already mentioned: squad construction. Primarily, the group are lacking in some critical components: an experienced leader at the back, the target man No.9 Allegri has asked for repeatedly, et cetera.
Above all, watching the Diavolo every week produces the impression that the technical level of this side is very low. Very few of the players are press resistant, comfortable on the ball and willing to take risks. This is why, in turn, the manager has preferred low-event, small-margin games.
The decision was made to go into the season with only 19 outfield players (which became 20 in January with Füllkrug). Even without any European football, it still created a whole barrage of issues that manifest themselves on multiple fronts.
First of all, it meant that the same 14-15 players are always playing, partly because injuries and suspensions take pawns away from the chessboard, but also because Allegri simply didn’t trust a lot of the back-ups in each position when the chips were down.
From there, you get the physical and psychological issues. While they were never a pressing machine, the team run less now than they did before, individually and collectively. This impacts the defensive record, because that compactness to protect Mike Maignan’s goal, that willingness to make an extra run or a block and that desire to help a team-mate in need are not there.
The mental aspect is important too. Having to play every game without much of a break can produce a mental fog. It is also harder to respond immediately after setbacks when your battery has been drained to zero, and we have seen this in the past two months,
What is the end result result? The 42 points earned in the first half of the season (average 2.21 per game) have become 25 in the second half (average 1.47, with two games left). Second place turns to fourth, and a title charge turns to being about to drop out of the Champions League places.
Whilst these issues on the field were multiplying like bacteria, the general atmosphere completed the picture as it turned more and more toxic. The Atalanta game on Sunday was the most important of the season, and before a ball was kicked headlines were generated by protests from the Curva Sud.
As they have done so many times in sink-or-swim situations, the players sank. The performance gave the supporters inside San Siro little to get behind, yet it also felt as though most were waiting for that first opportunity to voice anger and discontent. That isn’t the kind of environment that is conducive to winning.
The mass walk-out at 3-0 said it all: this is not a club that is together at any level. The fans dislike the management and have now turned on the squad and coach. The squad and coach have done their best but are now showing inevitable limitations. The management don’t seem to care about anything below, and ditto the ownership.
To distill it down further: in huge companies, the culture and the standards are set from the top and they filter through through solid leadership and governance. Milan are owned by a media company (RedBird’s area of expertise), yet the proprietor Cardinale, the Chief Executive Furlani and the president Scaroni barely speak.
There has been zero clarity from the top, and it’s hard to know as fans what to be listening out for when those who matter most never face the music.
Future worries
Even if this season had delivered some kind of relative success, such as a more sustained Scudetto bid or a trophy like the Coppa Italia or Supercoppa, it would have only papered over the fact that this ‘project’ is built on hollow ground.
As it turns out, the near-vertical collapse of the past few weeks means that another year zero is on the horizon. Those who want Allegri out, don’t worry you will probably get your wish, and he the incoming coach will probably have another new incoming sporting director to work with too.
This is the consequence of incompetence: instability becomes not an enemy but something that you willingly accept. Roll the dice one more time, hoping to finally hit the pair of sixes that would be the product of nothing other than blind luck.
Through everything mentioned above, it is crystal clear after four years of RedBird Capital’s tutelage that there is not a single semblance of an over-arching vision for how to move forward. There is nothing concrete to suggest the will to create an identity that directors, coaches, players and fans can collectively buy into.
The words of the Chief Financial Officer Stefano Cocirio earlier in the month said a lot about what this ownership model believe to be true.
“We have three fundamental revenue streams: TV rights, the stadium, and commercial. To become competitive again, and therefore compete for the best talent, we must necessarily grow these three revenue streams,” he said.
In other words, the path back to the top is dependant on factors outside of their control. A new stadium will be great if it ever comes, and even then it will be years. Commercial revenue will always be a struggle for Serie A clubs and even then Milan do better than most of their rivals already. TV rights are a political game the club have limited sway in.
It is almost as if there is an acceptance of the status quo, and of the present being a battle to retain interest that those at the helm have little interest in fighting. Ticket prices go up as the product worsens, yet the attendance table shows Milan at the top and the accounts show the money coming in, so they can sleep peacefully at night.
This summer will almost certainly bring another reset. It could be a big one with a managerial clear out from Allegri to Furlani, or it could be a small one with something as simple as replacing the sporting director.
Whatever happens, do you have faith that they will get it right this time? Can anyone honestly say, hand-on-heart, that they have reason to believe summer 2026 (after 2025, 2024 and 2023) will be the year that Cardinale and co. finally create a winning machine?
As further proof, the reports of the past 48 hours make for grim reading. Multiple sources speak of a rift between Ibrahimovic and Allegri, brought about by the former holding conversations with players and even Antonio Cassano behind the coach’s back, as well as disagreements over targets.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was meant to be the guarantor that the fans lost when Maldini departed. The Swede is supposedly driven by winning, by being able to make a tangible difference and by giving back to a club that gave him so much.
After a first year as Senior Advisor to RedBird spent front and centre – introducing new signings at press conferences, being the face of the Milan Futuro project and speaking to potential signings – Zlatan has vanished in the past few months.
We now know that it is likely because of friction with Allegri, while Ibra’s last public comments date back to being on the CBS Sports panel for the derby in March. Before and since then there has been nothing in an official capacity in 2025-26.
Naturally, the rumour is that Cardinale is now going to give the former striker carte blanche to clear out the sporting side an implement his own ideas, as is a perfectly logical amount of trust to give someone who has been hiding away for a year.
As nice as it would be, nobody can reasonably expect a Berlusconi-level of dominance with 29 trophies in 31 years, including multiple European Cups. The standards though have slipped to a level whereby top four is the new Scudetto, and the reliance to solve problems is on those that created them.
Things could slip even further, too. Milanisti do not even have to go back that far to remember an era spent in the wilderness, more specifically the mid-2010s when the top four was a distant mirage and mid-table became familiarity.
Those days can return, especially when we already know that the next step will be another giant leap into the unknown.
Let the Allegri defense start. It was not style over substance. Allegri’s style was not sustainable when breaks that before start to go the other way and teams figured him out. All the ties are not complaints about style but substance. His inability to get the best from his offensive players is a complaint about substance. His continued use of Leão as a #9. Since January, he had a true #9 on the bench. Oh, I know he’s won all this trophies- in the past. At least if he stays at ACM the National team won’t have to suffer him. Allegri has set ACM back a year as Leão, Pulisic, Modric, Pavlovic (?) and maybe Mike leave.
If all you took from the entire piece was the small section on Allegri, then that’s a shame. I will respond politely though and say I think you are accurate in some parts and wide of the mark in others.
That to me is the most concerning point.
🙌🏼
“Allegri defenCe” (no American spelling please)
aka
“With 2 crucial games to go to secure Champions League football, how about you stop f’ing complaining and support the man who dragged the team from 8th to within 3 points of 2nd?”.
Allegri is still betting on a defense that has been figured out by all opponents in Serie A and an attack that has been PURPOSELY trained to score only once per game and it has to be the opener and t. His attacking football can’t even score an opener no more. Now they are always chasing goals.
Pioli, Fonseca, Sergio, Allegri all failed, so this is not a coach issue. This is a squad issue. The most important reason why Inter is far ahead Milan is that Inter has had a core of quality players for years; on the other hand Milan has bought and sold too many players, and has not managed to create a core group who serves as a healthy foundation. Leao, as a lazy player who does not fight for the shirt, should have been sold when his price was highest; instead Tonali, a true Milan fan, was sold.
Newcastle main target in the summer of 2023 was Barella. Barella transfer to Newcastle didn’t happen because Barella didn’t want to leave or because inter didn’t want to sell him, because as I remember inter already had terms agreed to sign Barella’s replacement in Frattesi for 35 mil. Frattesi literally plays in the same position as Barella. Did inter sign a player for that fee to just back up Barella, or they signed him to replace Barella because they wanted to sell him? Frattesi has stayed on the bench the entire 3 years he has been at inter.
I guess Barella is a more of a true inter fan than Tonali supposedly is Milan’s.
But you are absolutely right about Milan building the team around the wrong players, which is the biggest incompetence by Milan’s current and previous management. Building a team around Theo and Leao, 2 wild cards that you don’t know what you going to get game in game out.
Frattesi was bought to gradually replace Mkhitaryan. His transfer had nothing to do with Barella. He was seen by the management as an emerging talent and as the right profile to be Mikhi’s successor. Inter did not want to sell Barella because he was part of the core group.
I believe Tonali was forced out. I doubt he asked to be sold to a mid-table EPL club.
Inter spent 35 mil on Frattesi to gradually replace a player who Frattesi never replaced while other midfielders bought for less money cane in and replaced Mikhitaryan? Sucic replaced him immediately and he was bought for 15 mil.
Frattesi likes to play on the right side of the midfield, Mikhitaryan plays on the left. Guess who plays on the right.
Inter was literally selling 1 player of their core every season up to that point.
Barella didn’t want to leave Inter thats why the transfer didn’t happen. Tonali wanted to leave thats why the transfer happened.
Milan tried to sell Kalulu to Juventus and it tool them more than a month to convince him to accept the deal, Motta had to call Kalulu several times, and Kalulu was just a bench player, but Milan so easily “forced” Tonali out of the club in 2 days
“Tonali’s transfer to Newcastle? The deal came about because a club like Newcastle, with infinite financial , resources, had decided to invest in Sandro. We considered the idea of having the player compete in a higher-level league.”
Giuseppe Riso, Tonali’s agent
Another reason why he wanted to leave was the sh!t storm coming his way because of the betting scandal. Something that was confirmed by his agent in the same interview for calcio e finanza
“I must say that the transfer also proved to be a winning choice from this perspective. Because both Newcastle and their fans treated Sandro incredibly, always supporting him. In Italy, he received different treatment. Not from the AC Milan fans, who always protected him.”
“In England, after all, the mentality is different,” he said.
“Every time Sandro entered the stadium, despite his suspension, he received a standing ovation. We’re talking about a guy who made a mistake, the fans noticed it, and he was forgiven. Now, Sandro has completely changed.”
He created a mess and then he ran away.
You made up half of the “facts” here. Hahahaha
The reason Inter has been successful is continuity due to competent people in key roles. Ausilio and Marotta.
Maldini and Massara (and Boban): CL return after seven year absence, Scudetto, CL semi-final, great PR boost. The 2022 transfer market should not be mentioned along with these recent ones. After winning the Scudetto, Maldini and Massara were given only 50 million to spend. That’s insane! They spent it on CDK and Thiaw to be long-term signings. Thiaw did well and CDK started well before massively declining after the first Napoli match. He has had three solid seasons since. The rest of the signings were free and for the bench. They didn’t work out but that happens.
How is that even comparable to what this management has been doing since. They have dismantled a winning team, created a toxic environment, and in three seasons, under four coaches, spent 300 million on 30 players. Over half of those have failed: Gimenez, J. Felix, Walker, Sottil, Bondo, Musah, Loftus-Cheek, Abraham, L. Romero, Pellegrino, Okafor, Nkunku, Morata, Terracciano, E.Royal, Fullkrug, Chukwueze. The jury is still out on Jashari and Ricci. Keep in mind, many of these aren’t bad players but they were brought in randomly; with no idea how they would fit in together and sometimes with no role in mind. The even had to bring back Gabbia and Saelemaekers.
yea lol cdk and thiaw were good signings… cdk just didnt get the time to grow. shame
Stop with the blinkered M&M crap. That’s not what happened at all. CDK, Origi and losing Cana, Donarumma and Kessie for nothing was why they were fired. Their transfer dealings made it difficult to improve the squad. Kjaer, Giroud and Ibrahimovic had to be replaced. Their big idea was Origi and CDK. The new owners lost faith in them.
Yes, with how much money? 😀 You just forgot to include the most important detail why Origi was even signed, because he cost 0€.
And why was there a lack of money? Because €100 million was lost when Donarumma, Cana and Kessie left for nothing. Inter and Napoli would sell off players and bring in money to rejuvenate the squad, we didn’t have that luxury. M &M blew most of the budget on CDK, he wasn’t cheap. I believe they were also opposed to Tonali being sold, which was also a brilliant decision because he would have been banned and then worth nothing. People are pretending it was crazy to fire M&M, it wasn’t. They made costly mistakes. The mistake wasn’t firing them, the mistake was giving Moncada and Ibrahimovic power.
Yes, they left due to 1M€ a season difference in wages, which Milan didn’t want to pay, Gazidis didn’t approve, except for Donnarumma. So, if we use your childish simpleton logic, they left because of Gazidis and Elliot fund not wanting to pay them as much as Inter, Barcelona and PSG paid.
Same with Acerbi, Maldini wanted so sign him but someone didn’t want him. 4 years later he played CL finals with Inter. And so on. If we use this childish logic you prefer we can always find another culprit, however, it is evident who brought the last title to AC Milan.
We missed out on the transfer money but keeping Hakan and Donnarumma until the end of their contracts got us back into the Champions League after a seven year absence. Keeping Kessie brought us a Scudetto. You can make money off of sporting success and the PR that comes with it, not just by selling stars.
The season after Maldini, Ibra made a joke on CBS that he was with the backup lineup of pundits instead of in the studio with Kate, Thierry, Carragher, and Micah. But that’s what happens when the team is not successful. When we made it to the semi-finals, the casual fans started hearing the name AC Milan again. They knew who Leao, Giroud, and Tomori were and the viral moments that came with it (Leao run vs Napoli, Giloud, Fikori, Internazionale, gushing over Maldini). We lost all that momentum, enthusiasm, and feel-good factor the following season. Since then, two first round Champions League exits and then not even qualifying.
I would love to have seen the calibre of ballers that would have followed because Maldini wanted them with half a billion to spend. He never got that luxury but I think right now we would be looking at a stacked team of quality and another 1/2 scudetto
Its transfer politics.
They saw how it is impossible to buy on max 5 mill net salaries younger players who will not ask for more and reach result.
That happened once in a 100 years with Kessie, Tonali, Leao and Bennacer after which all players requested more money.
That’s why they started to bring “experience” one, like Origi, who totally fail, Rebic, Ibrahimovic, Giroud at the end Modric and Morata.
But Milan main player target are 23 years old players who will develope at Milan so later can be easily sold for huge profits.
Tonali, Reijnders, Thiaw and Theo are first. We will see more and more of them.
The media really shouldn’t talk as they’re main ones driving most of the instability by pushing for more and more transfers and drama.
Football is one of the few areas where a journalist can make something up completely and not be sued for defamation.
I’d love to see Leao coming and suing for defamation when it’s speculated he’s holding out for Barcelona.
That is actually defamatory as it brings into question his loyalty and commitment.
Sue the bast#rds.
plz take back paolo maldini and galliano and we will win again ! and make swap leao to lewandovski and take mbappe and we will win
Nearly half a decade? Less than three years ago…
Only way is selling club. After we will lose against Genoa you all will see that we not anymore competitive club.
Seria A is worst league at league 5 now,have disaster players,and we not at Europe so they should be fresh but at the end we not go at Champions league.
So only way is sell club or changed eveeything start from director,scouts,coaches and 80% players( only good Maignan,Rabiot,Modric,Gabbia,Bartesaghi,Pavlovic)
It’s not the worst league, it’s still better than Ligue 1 and probably than BL too/also. Pulisic is not good?!
Memory and nuances.
We didn’t just go out and got Dest because we wanted to. IIRC both Calabria and Florenzi were injured and Dest was one of the few fullbacks available on the last day of the transfer window. Speaking of transfer window and CDK. The original target was Botman (this, after the stellar performance by Tomori and Kalulu the season prior so good spot by M) but Maldini wasn’t able to make a proper bid for the player because their own contracts were still up in the air and they didn’t know what budget they had. The ownership/management handicapped that whole summer transfer window. Half the window passed without a sporting director and by the time they signed their contracts many of their targets had evaporated. Plus they only had like 50m budget. This was at a time when a few quality pieces would have put us over and become a formidable team for years to come.
That being said, I think CDK was too expensive even at the time but it was an investment for the future. Similar to what we have now in Jashari…a bit overpriced and paying for adaptation I a different and superior league. CDK is doing quite well at Atalanta. After all he’s won a major European trophy,. something no one in the team can say in the last 5 years, maybe bar Modric. The irony! I think Jashari will do well next year, unless of course, once more, management is impatient. Wink wink.
*Remember* Vranckx wasn’t a nobody. He was the best young player in his role in Belgium. As a matter of fact he was the U19 captain. A great LOAN imo. Vos is currently our new Vranckx…we simply don’t know how to grow talents. Thiaw was an excellent purchase.
Messias was signed to maintain chemistry and a cheap RW option. Between him and Salad produced about 10-15 goal contributions per season. Not spectacular but solid numbers and options. Saladman is now an important player in the team.
The one real *bad* apple signing was Origi. And that story has been beaten to dth. But folks remember…. He cost zero in transfer fees and the cost to the club in wages with the growth decree wasn’t double the 4.5 per year. As far as I can recall he behaved well. We can’t say that about our management who tried to strong arm him to leave the club and demoted him without proper reason to the Futuro. It’s easy to be dismissive and say he scored a couple of goals and faded out. But I digress.
The stories of Hakan, Kessie and Donna have been well documented. But it’s easy to say oh Maldini wasn’t able to re-sign them. Yes on the face of it sure but in reality it was never going to be the case. The wage cap handicapped Maldini. 500k was why Hakan left. He’s a key part to inters team rn. Kessie got a bigger offer from Barcelona..simple as that. But if we’d had offered him his 6 or 7m. Per year salary early on and slightly over our cap, things might have been different. And *remember ” Donna’s case was Raiola wanted us to sign him for 2 years at Maldini wanted between 3-5 years. Reason being that at two years you’re not going to sell in the first year and by the second years you’re back to doing the whole final year of contract shenanigans again with Raiola. We opted for a different option in Mike. And that ended up being cheaper in any case …but we don’t tout that success do we? All we hear is about the money we could have gotten from selling (which Mino Raiola would have never sanctioned anyway) . We sell those three aforementioned players and we wouldn’t have a Scudetto and subsequently a UCL semi. And the money may not be what you think or the players would not be the same quality.
In totality these things (one thing really) imo look so much smaller of an issue than spending 20mil on say Musah, (plus wages) . That isn’t talked about enough because the management has a lovely way of waving new trinkets each summer so we forgot our expensive trinkets from the summer before. We beat the dead 🐴 with Origi, well let’s do the same for the numerous atrocious transfers over the years. 27 mil on Chukwueze (plus wages). This guy has almost identical stats as Origi (0.08 goal contributions per game), costs more in transfer fees AND wages to the club. But here we are always talking about Origi. If that’s what Maldini for fired for, surely someone needs to get the axe. And those are just two examples, I haven’t gotten into Bondo, Loftus, Estu, nkunku, Morata, Royal, Felix, Walker, Sottil….
Apples to oranges really. Whereas one preferred the unsexy stability, we currently have a the toxic instability and our results demonstrate this. They have the money now, on the back of hard work done by the previous directors and they haven’t a clue on how to use it. It is sad how much we’ve declined since then. And here we are looking at those transfer windows and management of the past and somehow think this lot is better? How??