It was recently announced that Igli Tare has become the new sporting director of AC Milan, filling a role that had been left unoccupied for some time.
The title of sporting director was previously held by Antonio D’Ottavio, though he only really occupied the position by name and was certainly far from the traditional interpretation from the role given his media silence, before being sacked last year.
It became apparent that Milan would be going for a stronger director figure towards the end of the 2024-25 season as a disaster unfolded on the field. Not only that, but it seemed obvious they would go for someone with Serie A experience, as a safe pair of hands.
Links to Tare first began in February, with reports in early March suggesting that the Albanian was to be appointed by the club after meeting with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gerry Cardinale in London. Now, almost three months later, he is finally through the door.
Tare has already been busy: he met with agents and directors on his first day in charge, and has held numerous discussions about the strategy for the summer. Above all, his first big move has come: hiring Massimiliano Allegri as the head coach.
What can Milan expect from Igli Tare beyond the brief sample size so far? We spoke to Shawn McIntosh of LazioWorld plus the Rome-based journalists Vittorio Campanile and Alasdair Mackenzie of Lazio Lounge to get some insight.
First of all, what was your reaction (and of Laziali generally, if there has been a reaction) to the news that Igli Tare has joined Milan?
Shawn: “I think the reaction on Tare’s appointment at Milan has been a relatively neutral response from Laziali. It’s been two years since he left Lazio, and I’m honestly a bit surprised it’s taken him this long to find a landing spot. I’m more curious as to how he will fare at a club as big as Milan given his mixed results at Lazio.”
Vittorio: “Surprised and curious to see what he will do in Milan, he has a huge opportunity. Bigger budget, he won’t have an owner like Lotito holding him back – he’ll be freer and more independent.
“That way, we’ll truly see what his strengths and weaknesses are. If he goes back to being the Tare from his early years at Lazio, he’ll do great. But if he’s as arrogant as he was in the later years, I foresee disaster.”
Alasdair: “Not a huge one as far as I’ve seen. To be honest there was an expectation that sooner or later he would be back in the game, and likely to be in Serie A as that is where his reputation is strongest.”
Tare spent well over a decade with Lazio, would his work be generally viewed as positive?
Shawn: “Tare will be known for his mixed results at Lazio. Some of his highs were tremendous, but he missed on more signings than he hit on. He managed to bring some trophies to Lazio, but our inability to adequately reinforce the squad after qualifying for Champions League was ultimately a stain on his tenure.”
Vittorio: “Not by all Lazio fans. He had some great signing but a lot of terrible ones. Some of the journalists in Rome when Tare was the Lazio sporting director believed he was one of the best, not everybody agreed on this.
“He had some great singing and some terrible ones. The questions are, how can you blame Lotito for this and how is really Tare’s fault? He didn’t have a huge budget in Rome, but strangely he did better when he didn’t have a lot of money.
“The impression is that when he started he was more humble and did the best things of his Lazio career, later on, he became a bit too arrogant, convinced he was a god, and that’s when the disasters started. Also, in my opinion, he needs to share transfer decisions more with the coach, something he rarely did.”
Alasdair: “It’s a strange legacy because he was fundamental in taking the club huge strides forward with a string of unbelievable deals early on, but once Lazio were competing in Europe regularly and getting loftier ambitions, there started to be more misses than hits.
“His record has a lot of extremes – the hits were some of the best deals the club has made this century, the misses often completely unfathomable.”
What were some of the best signings that he made?
Shawn: “Tare was able to both discover some gems and revitalize careers with some incredible business on the mercato. Bringing in Ciro Immobile and Luis Alberto for under €10m each after struggling at Dortmund and Liverpool respectively.
“He discovered Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, bringing him in for €12m from Genk. Bringing back Felipe Anderson after turning a huge profit on him was clever work as well. Today’s squad is still influenced by his work, with Zaccagni (€7m) & Romagnoli (free) both playing big roles.”
Vittorio: “This is easy, Milinkovic-Savic, Luis Alberto, Ciro Immobile and Miro Klose just to name a few, You could add Felipe Anderson, Candreva. He made a lot of good signings. But probably this great one have been overshadowed by the awful ones he made.”
Alasdair: “He was excellent at finding players who were talented but undervalued and with a point to prove – often after difficult spells at big clubs. That was the case with Immobile and Alberto, while Lucas Leiva and Miro Klose were thought of as finished but came in and made huge impacts.
“He also did some superb deals in smaller European leagues, finding Biglia, Marusic and Milinkovic-Savic in Belgium, Lulic in Switzerland and De Vrij in Holland. As an SD working with a tight budget he was superb for many years.”
What were some of the bad signings he must be held accountable for?
Shawn: “While Tare should be praised for his crafty work managing tight budgets and building competitive squads with such restrictions, his inability to land impact signings when the pocket book is opened up must be flagged.
“Most notably, Tare was responsible for brining in Vedat Muriqi for €21m in an effort to bolster Lazio’s attack after qualifying for Champions League for the first time in 13 years.
“Other notable ‘big signing’ flops were Bruno Jordao (€9.5m), Akpa Akpro (€12.7m), Denis Vavro (€10.5m) and Luis Maximiano (€10.5m). The number one question mark for Tare at Milan will be around his ability to manage a bigger budget.”
Vittorio: “He had so many bad signing that it’s not possibile to put them all here. But he wasted €18m on Vedat Muriqi, €11m on Vavro, €8m on Berisha. He loved so much signing wingers that we didn’t need as we were playing 3-5-2 so he signed players like Jony or Adekanye who didn’t fit in Inzaghi’s scheme. The weird thing is the most expensive players he signed was the worst signings he made.”
Alasdair: “He almost became a victim of Lazio’s success. The team he helped build grew Lazio’s budget, but Tare had a tendency to get it badly wrong when he spent what was considered a big fee at Lazio.
“Muriqi and Vavro were two of his biggest money signings and they weren’t just flops but totally unsuited to Inzaghi’s style. There were a lot of deals like that – he had a bizarre passion for signing wingers who didn’t have a natural role in the 3-5-2. Square pegs in round holes.
“Then there were some who just clearly weren’t good enough, the most infamous being likes of Kakuta, Alfaro and Kamenovic.”
Were the head coach appointments he made at Lazio largely positive?
Shawn: “As far as head coaches go, that decision usually falls square on Lotito. Some of the managers appointed during Tare’s tenure that saw great success were Stefano Pioli, Simone Inzaghi and Maurizio Sarri.”
Vittorio: “I’m not sure it was his decision, Inzaghi was Lotito’s choice and also Sarri was. He didn’t want Sarri but had to worked with him. He signed Bielsa, but that didn’t work out at all. Petkovic was a good pick, Ballardini instead was a disaster.”
Alasdair: “Generally, even if with Lotito around those calls wouldn’t have been his alone. The Bielsa situation went famously wrong with him not showing up in Rome and then quitting after 48 hours, and that was due to him not getting the players he was promised.
“But otherwise it’s gone very well in the last decade or so, even if giving Inzaghi the job off the back of the Bielsa mess was as much out of necessity as choice. But obviously he did brilliantly and Sarri was a real statement successor.”
What is Tare’s media style like? Is there a particular philosophy or idea he likes to reinforce?
Shawn: “I can’t say that Tare has a defined media style. He largely tries to stay out of the media and was always in the backseat to Claudio Lotito in that area.”
Vittorio: “Tare has a strong character, is rather sensitive, and prefers to keep his distance from the media, he is not a chatty sporting director.”
Alasdair: “Not that I can particularly recall…”
How did it feel when Tare left Lazio in 2023? Did you presume he would end up with another job in Serie A?
Shawn: “I was ready for Tare to leave Lazio in 2023. It was clear that we needed something different to take the next step as a club. I was always grateful for some of the teams he managed to put together, most notable the 2019-20 side that competed for a Scudetto prior to COVID.
“I always thought he’d land another job in Serie A because he was always able to find a level of success with a tight budget and that always warrants more opportunities.”
Vittorio: “Well, the rumours were he had already a new job: at that time they said Juventus was interested in Tare. As I said, some journalists here believed he was one of the best on the market, so it was strange to see him without a job for so long.
“But we thought it was the right move, fans were tired of Igli Tare and his mistakes. We thought we couldn’t pick a worse sporting director than Igli Tare, but Angelo Fabiani is making me reconsider Tare!”
His first big move at Milan has been hiring Massimiliano Allegri. What are your thoughts on that?
Shawn: “I think the appointment of Allegri should be viewed as largely positive. He’s a manager with strong ties to Milan and a history of success. He comes with certain demands and creates a certain stability, which is what Milan need in order to find themselves back to the standard they’re historically known for.”
Vittorio: “Well, he couldn’t pick Sarri because in Rome they had some issues, so he signed Allegri. I’m not sure he is the right move after what he did in Turin. But Allegri was linked with Lazio when Tare was our sporting director often, so you could understand he wanted Allegri and still valued him as one of the best managers in Italy.
“I think Tare doesn’t prefer managers who are too attack-minded, he thinks defence wins the Scudetto and never went for a De Zerbi or those types of managers. He loves Italiano but he just signed a new contract with Bologna so wasn’t available.”
Alasdair: “Milan are a club that desperately needs leadership, so I can only imagine that’s why they’ve gone for Allegri. A known quantity who is respected and experienced can be a welcome sight after a turbulent period. But I think Serie A has moved on from Allegri’s style and he must learn to adapt.
“His second spell at Juve proved that playing turgid football only gets so far, and you would hope that with the talent in Milan’s attack he might be able to strike a balance and find a less negative approach. For the sake of all of us who watch Serie A!”
We’ll see what he will do at Milan. Only time will tell.
Every director has good and bad signings.
Guintoli was the hottest name while at Napoli, he goes to Juventus and he is a total disaster which ends up costing his job. The media was too busy attacking Milan while the director at their favorite club was worse than Milan so called directors.
Marotta at Inter also has a bunch of bad signings.
How much did he spend on Correa who was absolutely awful at Inter. As much as Marotta is hyped Inter has no bench. They got no competent back ups for their midfield and attack. Lautaro was bad this season and Arnautovic, Taremi and Correa were still useless.
How much he spent on Frattesi who can’t even start over a 35 year old Mkhitaryan, same with Asllani.
Pavard also hasn’t been what inter expected from him, especially this year.
Just like Tare, most of Marotta more expensive signings have been duds.
Maybe they should stick to buying cheaper players. Low risk high reward.
As you pointed out even hitting on 50% of signings over the course of a career is rare. Ultimately the success of signings comes down to several variables that aren’t necessarily controllable.
Will Tare be good or bad idk but the media will definitely trash him at every opportunity. Hopefully he has a plan and gets buy in from the top to the bottom of the club. If everyone at the club is rowing in the same direction then that’s a great start haha
With these analysis, Tare will definitely do his best within this season and the next 2 seasons. After we can consider changing him before he starts feeling bigger than the club.
My thought
Thanks for the insights
Thanks for the insights. Interesting read.
Well… He can’t be arrogant in Milan as Furlani wants to show he’s the boss. And he won’t have endless money chest either. And let’s be honest, he can’t do worse than Moncada did a year ago. And we can get rid of him in 2 years if everything fails.
*3 years