Some members of the AC Milan squad are disillusioned by recent developments and could push to leave, Antonio Vitiello writes.
Last Monday, after Milan’s collapse was completed and they failed to secure a Champions League spot, Gerry Cardinale decided to make big changes. Massimiliano Allegri, Giorgio Furlani, Igli Tare and Geoffrey Moncada were all dismissed from their roles in the same cold statement.
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It seems difficult to pin the blame on any one person or factor after the late-season capitulation. However, Milan are now without a head coach, sporting director, technical director and CEO ahead of a major summer rebuild. Interviews are scheduled for this week, but it is a race against time.
Vitiello: Players want out
The journalist Vitiello published his weekly column for MilanNews and tried to summarise all the chaos of the past eight days, which has led to some players within the squad understandably questioning their futures.
“The last week has been one of the craziest AC Milan fans have ever experienced. First, the Champions League exclusion on the very last matchday, then the summary dismissal of the entire management team and the coach. But the truly insane thing was the lack of an alternative plan to the managers ousted by Cardinale.
“The American owner made a clean sweep (legitimately after a failure) without even a shred of a solution ready. And for a whole week, there was a power vacuum within the club, something never seen before at top clubs.
“For a week, Milan have been without a coach, sporting director, technical director, and CEO. We never thought we’d see this situation, yet in the Gerry Cardinale era, these absurdities still happen. We’ll see in the coming hours what the decision will be.
“The idea is to put everything in Ralf Rangnick’s hands to prevent Ibrahimovic from causing further damage, as he did two years ago, when his decisions led Milan to eighth place, with two coaches fired.
“The power vacuum in management has led Rafa Leao to make explosive statements on the market. The news itself isn’t new, as the Portuguese is at the end of his career and would have been sold; that had been known for some time. However, the manner and timing were surprising.
“But who should monitor the players? Who should bother calling them before their international departures to tell them to keep a low profile with their statements? There are no managers in place; the power vacuum has amplified this situation. And the players are taking advantage…
“Leao, by the way, won’t be the only one leaving; there are many players who are dissatisfied and unconvinced by the Cardinale ‘project’. We’ll see what Rabiot, Modric and Maignan do, to name just a few, but it will be a different market with a lot of incomings and outgoings.”
There will be many players leaving Milan, just like Leao, that Milan is dissatisfied and unconvinced with, once the new management and coach are put in place.
Milan was moving on from Leao regardless if they had a management in place, a coach in place or even if Milan finished top 4. Everyone ran out of patience with Leao
You are still obsessed with Leao smh
This isn’t about Leao lol.
READ the article. It’s about Milan in CHAOS that is causing players SUCH AS Leao to want to leave…
Deflection deflection deflection……
more emphasis was laid on Leao leaving than the total mess we are into
I can understand if any player would seek new challenges after such a disastrous season. There is no hope with that squad and the American owner. Many players have been bought and are difficult to sell. They have gone for quantity instead of quality. And it has also been expensive. It takes time to fix it. Everything Maldini had built has been destroyed. Now we have to start from 0 again. These American owners are only interested in profit and not trophies. Their goal will always be to finish in the top 4.
Title to this article could be deceiving…one would swear more interviews surfaced like that of Leao. Journalists are having a field day with Milan. Forza.
So leave! Rabiot, Modric and Maignan aren’t Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard. The sky has already fallen so it makes no real difference who stays or goes. The only thing that matters is getting the right SD and coach. If they don’t, then the club is boned.
Banter 3.0
Clown show
“…without even a shred of a solution ready. And for a whole week, there was a power vacuum within the club, something never seen before at top clubs.”
Hit the nail on the head right there. Typical Redbird fashion. No plan and dragging their feet on critical matters of the club. Amateur hour at its finest
Holding a battery of meetings is the opposite of dragging their feet. They can and should be criticised for the decisions they make, but wasting time is the last thing they can be criticised for.
There he is the “UBER” Redbird Defender!!!
LOLOLOLO
Kid – we all know you beat off to phots of Gerry alongside @Boulden – we get it. Your pro American and pro everything that is Redbird.
FACTS are facts however. AND the FACTS ARE: Gerry fired everyone save for Ibra without a concrete plan in place. Gerry wants Ragnick and Ibra doesn’t; Ibra is taking off for a month for the WC while the club sits in limbo. We want to hire a coach before a SP who may not see eye to eye. Everything is being done without a formal PLAN. That is the point. AND as such, it is resulting in CHAOS so much so that many players are questioning their want to stay at the club. Like it or not those are the FACTS. Ya you can say who cares let them all leave, but that is not how properly run clubs operate. You just choose to ignore those FACTS because of your undying patriotic love for Redbird. I bet if Redbird were owned by Arabs you would be singing a totally different tune – FACTS
The logic of Gerry/Redbird is atrocious as are fans of him such as yourself. Only two scenarios are possible in the logic map for how the club was going to move forward. Either 1. Waiting for the outcome of the final day to see if we secure UCL and precious champions league money or 2. Gerry already knew that he was going to fire them all regardless of the result on the final day.
Both options are terrible because for option 1 that’s a terrible way to run a club based on the result of a single match day and not the entirety of the season. It shows desperation and poor footballing judgement. And for option 2, if you knew that this was what was going to be happen anyway, you could have prepped for it way ahead of time. How you know you going to lose the whole management team and don’t have NO ONE lined up to fill those roles. And while in interviews boast that you have this vast array of expertise in sports in your portfolio, and we’re yet to see any of it at the club .
But go ahead, make those excuses for mediocrity
Really reaching on this one. WHat’s the big deal? 2 weeks without a coach in the off season!! How will we survive. Who’s going to coach these players who are on vacation or at the World Cup? Of course they are going to wait to see if they make the Champions League or not. It affects who they can get to come here, coaches and players, how much money they will have. They have been interviewing people since the day the after the final match. It’s more important to get it done right than to get it done fast.
The other twad to the rescue of the ubertwad. Can’t make this ish up hahaha 😂😂😂 Facts got y’all panties in a bunch I see. “Of course they are going to wait to see if they make the Champions League or not” Ain’t that the problem? Read my post again because you always seem to have problems with reading comprehension. You’re telling me Gerry can’t see if there’s need to be a change in management way in advanced of the final day of season? We’ve seen what has been happening all season prior to the final day, one matchday result shouldn’t be the deciding factor. That’s amateurish behavior. You and Cardinale are exactly the same, hold this L.
Like I said you both have poor footballing judgement. It’s evident in the way you’ve defended the sporting incompetence of Redbird over the years. Stop acting like it’s only a coach we need. We need a sporting director, head scout, coach AND CEO. Stop making excuses for this sorry bunch for the last 3-4 years. Ever since Maldini and Massara were fired, the club has been in decline and you, Uber, and the rest of the gang have to write mental gymnastic comments on the site to justify their clearly and objectively worse performance ever since those two left. Y’all can’t say nothing worthwhile now. The results are clearly in your face. At least some commenters like AcM1899 changed their views once they saw what was really happening. But go ahead. Defend away and look silly
I don’t think they anticipated having a hard time attracting talent. They thought the badge would merit it. But they are completely unaware how incompetent they truly are, how ridiculous their lack of ideas and structure has been and most importantly how much damage has been done to the crest and the image of the club…
That incompetence is now fully on displayand it can have (if not already as seen by all those rejections) an impact on who we can attract in the future, along with those who are already at the club (they may, rightly so, want to leave this terrible environment)
What do you expect, start with 19 players, no competitive substitutes. They had a golden opportunity to build and prepare a team for the CL next season. Instead, went with a minimalist approach in the summer and even worse in winter. They made it clear that a winning project isn’t the priority and that they don’t know how to operate a club
Alla som har skallen i behåll lämnar
Kvar blir snackpåsen EGO Zlatan
Honestly the core of this team has gotten 4 coaches fired while displaying the same issues. Lack of focus, lack of energy off the ball, lack of purpose on the ball, lack of concentration and most of all being out worked by every opponent. I’m actually ok with a large squad overhaul as I think this team has some major issues amongst the players…
I think it’s the opposite. I think the people who hired these coaches didn’t know what they were doing. Fonseca was a terrible choice (nothing outstanding at roma, terrible with us), Sarge came in midway but turned into a terrible choice due to style of play being too rigid. And what did we do next, hire an even more rigid coach in Allegri who is so overrated. Don’t blame the core for not being able to function. They’re actually doing well despite all the coaching changes (see Puli and Leao this season). Don’t get me started on the changes in teammates, every window it’s a different colleague. That ain’t how to run a successful club
Stop defending the players.
They are still the ones loosing and drawing too bottom teams. Doesnt matter what coach you have the players we have should beat some of the teams we lost and draw against.
How do you win games? by sitting back and waiting to be attacked right? or looking for a counter, what energy is left for such counter after bee exhausted defending? or playing your best players out of position, the defense is not that great no doubt but why not attack more. make do with what you have, we can talk about this all night long but the truth is wrong coaches were hired from Fonseca, Sarge and the overrated Allegri
Very predictable and totally understandable. Who the hell would work with these self-centered amateurs? It’s a waste of precious time in the limited span of any player’s career.
Seems like our objective next season will be to not get relegated. Not a joke or an exaggeration, I actually think this could end up becoming a thing at some point. It’s ultimately the direction this piece of s##t management has dragged the club into.