Gerry Cardinale has received a lot of criticism over the last few weeks, mainly because of the sacking of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara. Amid new reports of his plans, the criticism has only increased.
At the start of the month, Cardinale decided to sack Maldini and Massara, putting CEO Giorgio Furani and Chief Scout Geoffrey Moncada in charge of the operation. Of course, this didn’t go down well with the fans.
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The situation got even more heated with the sale of Sandro Tonali to Newcastle for €70m, given that the midfielder was a fan favourite and a boyhood Milan fan. Not to mention the fact that he’s a very good player.
Recently, there have also been growing reports of Cardinale’s plan for the club, aiming to make the most of statistics with the Moneyball protagonist Billy Beane involved. And with that, he has been criticised for not understanding how Italian football works.
Today’s edition of the newspaper Libero, as highlighted by our colleagues at SempreMilan.it, had the headline “Cardinale, Tu vuò fa l’americano”. This refers to an Italian song with the same name, generally considered to be a satire of the Americanization that occurred in the early years after World War II in Italy.
The report also brings up the article by FootMercato, suggesting that there is internal friction with regard to the ‘NBA model’ Cardinale has planned for the club.
Well Cardinale might not know how Italian football works. But seeing how a league that dominated European football 20 years ago and a national team that hasn’t qualified for a world cup in ages maybe Italian football doesn’t work.
If only they’ve won an European championship recently, you would mention that. It is perfect to leave it out to make a point. 😀
They dominated because they spent more money than other leagues. There was no FFP so owners just pumped money in and that is how it was…
Literally know nothing dude….Italy won the world cup in 2006, more recently than England, Brazil.
As Martin said, they won the euros in 2020(1)
Cardinale is a mug and a moron. He didn’t even know how many CLs we’d won and given we are the second most successful team in its history that’s embarrassing
Italia football isn’t improving. One euro win since 2006 and two consecutive WC disqualifications is all we have to show for it. Instead of developing homegrown talents more the pressure opts for foreigners. Instead of helping teams build new stadiums, get more revenue and make more lucrative TV deals, the league downs in red tape and bureaucracy… Italian product is subpar compared to English. Then we huff & puff when the likes of Newcastle throw stupid money at our feet for the likes of Tonali.
If Redbird have bought Newcastle they will be fighting to stay in PL.
Yeah, really? So, the clubs are doing worse than a few years ago, there are no young Italian players? Always the most stupid replies. I mean where is a fact in there? Just your pretty useless subjective opinion. Your idea is that Italian football is not improving because their national team didn’t qualify, so is England the 3rd, 4th or 5th best league in the world, considering England doesn’t win anything? 😀 Did they become the biggest money factory because they developed young players? What does what you wrote even mean? 😀
You guys rightly name Azzurri winning Euro 2020. Also, in club football there were Serie A had finalists in all 3 European trophies… This Season!
Sure they didn’t win, and Inter had a favorable draw to the UCL final, but if anything I’d suggest Serie A technically and tactically has been improving over the last few seasons, going in the right direction.
The argument that Italian football is failing doesn’t hold water. Sure there are plenty of things to improve (eg stadium ownership) but outside the EPL megabucks, Serie A can compete with any of Europe’s top leagues.
The ONLY thing serie a needs is for the clubs to own their own stadiums and get the revenues from that. That’s literally all Calcio needs to compete year after year. We’re already close as proven by how many competitions we made it to the finals in this year across the board.
No, serie a need better tv deal
Exactly. Just read this guy ACM1899 and the complete nonsense he writes up there. Italy is behind England and you can see that by the national team. The last time the English have won something was 60 years ago. A bunch of unconnected nonsense…
And …where u from??
This was my point when they were in the running to buy Milan. I was so against this, and I knew why. Cardinale is doing such moves that half of Italy will hate him soon, not only Milan fans. Literally people that are usually happy to see Milan do bad are mad at him also. 😂😂😂😂😂
The coaches and former Director at Toulouse were pushed out by his cronies and stupid methodology, the fans hate the ownership group with a passion as well .They forced the coach to have a coach with computer algorithms come up with their training plans and strategies, also to heavily influence the head coach’s training regiment and assistants that opposed it were fired. Head coach refused to sign a long term extension because he doubted their operating model could go as far as their expectations would demand and his director, a red bird executive is very hard lined, unreasonable and invasive, with his wife trying to run the show as an advisor. Sounds familiar?
As was I and which is why I would have rather had Investcorp buy us instead of Redbird. Main reason is Elliot is still a 30% owner in the club w 2 seats on the board of directors – they are also dictating how and what is spent and the clubs direction. Redbird owe 42M in interest payments per year from that 600M loan and Elliot is the beneficiary if they default. Redford cannot do anything without Elliot’s approval. Big problem. Gerry’s lack of understanding of the dynamics of Italian football is also shocking. You would think a person would educate themselves on everything about a potential investment. He obliviously did not and it has come back to bite him right now.
And last time I checked we were already practicing a “money ball” approach. We were already buying mostly young players then developing them increasing their resale value. Tonali was one of them. Theo, Thiaw, Mike, Kalulu, Leao, etc…are all the others – so we didn’t “need” to change our method of scouting/buying just like we didn’t “need” to fire Maldini nor “need” to sell Tonali to fund transfers (we made 120m from UCL that we haven’t touched and are profitable) – this was all for Gerry’s ego. His way or the highway. Most billionaires are like that. They believe none of the “rules” apply to them.
Shame
Gerry is not a billionaire. He is worth 200mil lol
Excuse me you are correct. He runs a fund worth 6-8 billion. I should have said most people with power are like that.
Boehly is a billionare, you can spot the difference.
Because he enjoys his money for his ass. Not for football
He is very stupid owner!
Yeah, but it’s also says a lot about Italian football the fact that most of the super rich people or corporations don’t want to buy an Italian club..
Why would PIF go and buy a club like Newcastle instead of buying clubs like inter or Milan who were out there for the taking around the time they bought Newcastle.
Newcastle was bought 2 summers ago while Milan last summer.
Big investors stay away from serie A for a reason.
So instead of making fun of Cardinale, Italy should fix their own problems and make it more appealing for investors and players to wanna come there
I agree with you and Serie A is improving in the past few years, from what I see they are already working on that. But the price was also a bit different. They bought Newcastle for 400M. And Milan cost 1.2B. So, for 30% of the price of Milan they got a club in the strongest competition on the planet where they can promote themselves much better. And they saved 800M…
It has more to do with the conditions in the league and the country than about the price.
Milan is a global brand with rich
history, among the best clubs ever, known in every corner of the world. Not many people outside of Europe know about Newcastle.
The difference in price they could have made up through the world wide exposure and commercial profits.
Also, if it’s about the price, why didn’t Todd Boehly buy Milan for a 1.2 b instead of paying almost 4b for Chelsea? Milan and Chelsea’ got sold in the same week
Everyone watches the Premier League. That is enough. If you go to Japan or USA they will watch that, not Milan. If you want to promote something you do it on the biggest stage. Newcastle will play Arsenal, City, United, Chelsea and so on almost on a weekly basis and that is 100% better promotion at the moment. For less money. If it was the same price I’m sure Milan would be considered…
Why did Boehly buy Chelsea? You have to ask him, but since he spent 600M€ it is obvious money wasn’t an issue here. Premier league is a playground for rich people. Arsenal, Man Utd, now Chelsea, probably another club I’m not aware is US owned, Arabs have a few clubs in their ownershiip. Nice place to show off if you are rich. And Boehly is rich rich compared to Cardinale, a real billionare.
I agree with you regarding that Serie A is not on the level of PL, but it isn’t really behind other EU football leagues. You can’t only use one example and say they are doing really really bad. The thing they did really bad is state owned stadiums, none of the clubs have their own stadium except for Juventus. And they were used to big owners that spent money, that time is gone with FFP, or at least it has to be done a bit differently, covertly…
That’s the point.
The league, the way it set up, the infrastructure, the laws , the not so difficult political red tape, makes it more appealing for investors to come and put their money in the epl and England instead of serie A.
Instead of working on fixing their problems Italy and their media wants to ridicule the few investors that do wanna invest there. Where are the Italian billionaires to buy the Italian clubs?
It’s easy to just criticize and ridicule.
This is not to defend Cardinale but Italy and Italian football has way bigger problems than Cardinale
Italy being Italy they are not gonna fix a thing.. the league is way past its prime and its never coming back. Cant even build a foking stadium..
Cardinale was a moron for buying Milan and eliot got him good. real good
Exactly. Italy is its own worst enemy in this case. Instead of helping Italian clubs to get their own stadiums and catch up with the rest of the football world, they make it close to imposible for stadiums to be privatized by the clubs. Then they dont give you a place to even build a new one… lets not forget higher taxes for clubs for their Italian players lol.
I dont get why people mock why investors would choose Newcastle already of others. Newcastle is an investor dream and would be the first club I would have bought if i had that money. Premier league team with passionate fans in a one club city.
It’s a great combination.
Hmm
Given the state of Calcio it may be good everyone in Italy thinks Milan are make a mistake. Truth be told calcio has been on a downward spiral for 20 years. The league executives, club owners and even the public have been living in the past glories for so long they are totally delusional in how the modern game works. Look around Italy it’s the PL and 3 other clubs (Bayern, RM and PSG) that can spend near €100M a window and pay multiple players 10M a year. I’m not advocating for all of Redbirds moves but I can’t ignore the irony of a nation that’s failed to qualify for the last two WC (in-spite of easy group draws) criticizing redbird for breaking with the way things have been done in Italy.
Also Isak are your sources random comments on Di Marizio’s tweets?
You lost me on the final part, what do you mean? And also, agreed, increased revenue is needed for longevity.
Sorry I meant to ask your sources for these “growing reports” as much of this seems like the standard reaction to a corporate culture change. I.e. when Liverpool sold coutinho…
Ah I see what you mean! I was more so referring to the so-called ‘Moneyball’ approach and the stance on the stars of the team (such as Tonali). Basically, the culture change you mention. We all knew this was coming sooner or later, the Maldini sacking has just accelerated it.
Don’t you think perpetuating the money-ball/American owner narrative is a bit reductive? Every PL club uses this system (maybe not Chelsea who are just spending money to spend money). Bayern which is probably the best run club in the world uses moneyball as well. From what I can tell most clubs that are relevant use data driven analytics for recruitment and have for a long time. Italy has been stuck in the 90s still hungover from Silvio’s bunga bunga parties to realize none of this is new and has been standard practice in football for 10 years now…
Really the narrative the press/bloggers should be asking is why the Italian way of doing things has been such a failure for the last 20 years?
I agree with you and Serie A is improving in the past few years, from what I see they are already working on that. But the price was also a bit different. They bought Newcastle for 400M. And Milan cost 1.2B. So, for 30% of the price of Milan they got a club in the strongest competition on the planet where they can promote themselves much better. And they saved 800M…
A reply to a comment up there, the site keeps doing its thing. 😀
not to mention that the advertisement deals of epl guarantees them a constant influx of cash so it pays off the club in a fairly short time.
I don’t like Cardinale but…
We need more time to see.
First Elliott took the club and raised revenues to 260 million euros. After Red Bird bought the club revenues reach 297million. So 300 untill 350 million is possible average revenues for Red Bird to reach without players sale.
On the pitch one Serie a Championship won and semifinals in UCL.
It is obvious that Milan can’t reach semi finals of champions league every year but Red Bird can create club that can be one of best four teams in serie a….
It is all about business now. We need to give Americas some space to reach at most possible revenue which can be used for best possible squad on the pitch.
Without the money it is impossible to have our best players satisfied or bring some new one…
Bro I’m from the same side of the pond Cardinale is from and even in I know the moves he’s making are suspect and detrimental to the coun. I don’t even think this is an American thing. It’s just a stupidity thing and moreso an ego thing.
Signed quality prayer not average pray. Milan lost Turan to Inter. Would they want Inter beaten you again?
I honestly think that he bit more than he can chew here.
Had he say, purchase Sassuolo, a team who already owns their own stadium and known to sell their players for profits, I think he might just do well with his moneyball there.
However, he just purchased a team with one of the richest history in the world, who just came out of wilderness of banter era by winning the 19th Scudetto. Of course, the fans would’ve expected the new owner to continue the progression and show ambitions.
Atalanta was perfect…
Atalanta is the other Serie-A team who owns their own stadium too, so great example.
I picked Sassuolo because it might’ve been cheaper and they usually don’t make it to Europe, so maybe less ambition than Atalanta and less pressure.
Yeah, they already have a good coach who is used to his players leaving every year if an offer comes in. That is why I think they would be perfect. But any other mid table club would be fine…
Anyone know of a successful American owner in European football….?
They’ve trashed more clubs than what success suggests
usually down to their arrogance, ignorance and typical Egotistical American behaviour.
Liverpool!
Yep, great success last season…….!
Oh so your argument only takes into account last season? Then Gerry’s doing pretty good by your standards set by Liverpool last season?
They are the only ones still willing to invest in Italy for some reason, while Oil/other Money goes to EPL. It’s that simple. And it’s the fault of the Political/sporting infrastructure in Italy. SO many problems to fix…
I hope RedBird approach succeeds if only to see Calcio in Italy hopefully modernize. But my fear is this is a cultural thing in Italy, so might be a lost cause.
Gery are trash , but italian government are trash too , they want club rent stadium from them so it is too hard for italian club get permit to build stadium . EPL live match are friendly with asia night time before sleep while Serie A live match almost over midnight time thats make tv revenue for EPL higher than serie A .Asia are the biggest market for football income . With many problem in league structure there is no billionaire from middle east or europe want to buy italian club , only buyer from chinese or american want to buy italian club. Syeikh jassim even willing to pay 5,5billion euro to buy MU , with that money he can buy both Milan club & both rome club
I am sure everyone is mad at Cardinale, no denying that. What can be the possible steps for Cardinale to actually redeem things for Milan now?
first would be to demote furlani to just fire him outright so he can go fck himself.
Second, hire someone who is actually competent to run the club. Maldini was alright, but that ship has sailed. Cardinale should do his best to employ someone who AT LEAST knows what football and Milan means.
Third. Keep all the unsellable players. Theo, Mike, Leao, Ben, Kalulu, Thiaw etc.
Fourth.. Doesn’t matter what it costs.. get Guler.
Fifth. Buy at least 3 decent midfielders and one proper DM. Krunic ain’t it. And With Tonali and Vrankxx leaving, we practically have no midfield. This needs to be fix first. Worst part is, there are very few players worth the money at the moment in midfield. Anyone who can basically run in the field is now worth 30 mil for some reason.
Sixth. Buy a striker. Seal Kamada imediately. Missing out on Kamada would mean this Mercato is a COMPLETE failure.
This is one steep uphill for Cardinale to Climb. But Furlani was the biggest Mistake, there is no doubt about that. Cardinale probably thought Furlani sealed the Leao deal, I’m pretty sure he didn’t. Taking Credit for someone else’s work usually comes to bite you back in the a$$$, doesn’t it Mr Furlani?
As for the others Crying Italian football is $hit, well, Italian teams went up to UCL Final. teams are fine. What’s wrong is the Italian Politics. These fuckers are so fckn corrupted, they would $uck their own mothers dry for money. You can’t do ANYTHING without bribing your entire budget out.
Building anything in Italy costs triple the actual building costs because of the bribes needed to be paid. Everyone will milk you as MUCH as they can unless you have serious muscle/political power behind you. That’s the whole problem. It won’t change ANytime soon unless all those fckers are lined up in front of a firing squad and be done with them. So, Milan ain’t building no stadium anytime soon.
I am sure everyone is mad at Cardinale, no denying that. What can be the possible steps for Cardinale to actually redeem things for Milan now?
first would be to demote furlani to just fire him outright so he can go fck himself.
Second, hire someone who is actually competent to run the club. Maldini was alright, but that ship has sailed. Cardinale should do his best to employ someone who AT LEAST knows what football and Milan means.
Third. Keep all the unsellable players. Theo, Mike, Leao, Ben, Kalulu, Thiaw etc.
Fourth.. Doesn’t matter what it costs.. get Guler.
Fifth. Buy at least 3 decent midfielders and one proper DM. Krunic ain’t it. And With Tonali and Vrankxx leaving, we practically have no midfield. This needs to be fix first. Worst part is, there are very few players worth the money at the moment in midfield. Anyone who can basically run in the field is now worth 30 mil for some reason.
Sixth. Buy a striker. Seal Kamada imediately. Missing out on Kamada would mean this Mercato is a COMPLETE failure.
This is one steep uphill for Cardinale to Climb. But Furlani was the biggest Mistake, there is no doubt about that. Cardinale probably thought Furlani sealed the Leao deal, I’m pretty sure he didn’t. Taking Credit for someone else’s work usually comes to bite you back in the a$$$, doesn’t it Mr Furlani?
As for the others Crying Italian football is $hit, well, Italian teams went up to UCL Final. teams are fine. What’s wrong is the Italian Politics. These fckers are so fckn corrupted, they would $uck their own mothers dry for money. You can’t do ANYTHING without bribing your entire budget out.
Building anything in Italy costs triple the actual building costs because of the bribes needed to be paid. Everyone will milk you as MUCH as they can unless you have serious muscle/political power behind you. That’s the whole problem. It won’t change ANytime soon unless all those fckers are lined up in front of a firing squad and be done with them. So, Milan ain’t building no stadium anytime soon.
Gerry is taking a wrecking ball to the Milan structure so far. I don’t think he’s appointing anyone with understanding of Serie A, as he’s clearly intent on doing things his way.
Furlani was an Elliott appointment and since they still have a considerable stake in the club, I don’t think Furlani is going anywhere either. The problem is that closing deals is an art form and Furlani knows ZERO about it evidently. That’s where you need a Maldini – a name that’s relatable and respected. Look at Marotta working magic at Inter.
Not sure how drastic things need to get before Gerry directly gets his hands on this thing instead of trusting the Furlani scheme.
Considering the trajectory we are in, this summer.. the club has NO intention of making ANY worthwhile signing. Frattesi was all bull$hit as we didn’t even establish a communication with Sassuolo to begin with. Same with Chuku. Only possible target is Guler and even there we seem to be the last in the entire list of suitors. Basically after the big clubs have taken their picks, we will go for the leftovers that Moneyball will pick.. as if the big clubs are run by morons and Moneyball will make a difference in here.
Gerry directly getting his hands on this thing is gonna be EVEN worse. Furlani is thousand times better than an american hobo who knows nothing about the sport.
Hopefully we end up elliot’s hand soon enough. Fans throughout the entire world including myself surely aint willing to spending a dime for Cardinale anymore as far as I have seen from milan’s official site and merchandising ads.
Furlani has been useless so far. If Gerry fails we go back to Elliott then they “sell” us off to another investor willing to finance it through them.
The only way out is we’re sold to a sovereign investment entity.
Gery cannot sacked furlani because RedBird owe money from elliot, Furlani are the man that elliot put as CEO to watch AC Milan finance account to make sure RedBird pay the debt. What gery need one more DS to negotiate ,have charm to attract young player, can become glue between management ,coach and player like maldini but because elliot sacked boban & redbird sacked maldini make both not considered anymore for the job. Big name like kaka / sheva / pippo / seedorf ( just one of them ) are good for DS. For mercato , both furlani & moncada can identify good raw player but too slow for negotiate make rival like marotta can steal free transfer in just few hours , imagine you make many offer in 21 days negotiate but marotta only make 1 final offer and finish in few hours. Kamada ,guler,samuel chukwu are non EU slot, ACM must free their non EU slot first by selling devis vasquez
Clown with out money …..
#out Jerry Clowndinale & co
#yankees go home
#boycott tickets for next season
Please take off this clown
He is using someone else money
That is all right
But this guy and the people talking and commenting BS
they don’t know Italian culture
They don’t know what can happen
This clown made big mistake so big
Shame of Pioli, Baresi, the president of club
Who sucked Putin before
Shame of them
People will suddenly go quiet when he’s winning trophies.
You’re a clown
Zio Jerry is a Morton Di fame sell the team you pr…k
Hi, tell newspapers the main language in the world is English and they are cavemen My suggestion is don’t t rely on Italian players and build a strong midfield and forward, defense is almost at the top!
The bottom line is that Milan’s Serie A and UCL competitors will be happy, with the situation Cardinale has created. Milan is considered not a challenger to the Serie A and UCL champions
Well, I am a fan of AC Milan. But, everyday I read the news, there is none of good news for the mercato, especially after Maldini and Massara kicked out.
One by one every target are going to other competitors, like Inter and AS Roma.
Our coach Pioli, is same like Cardinale. No speak out, just silence seeing his team are not going strengthtend.
And how can Pioli can bring AC Milan better and higher than last season.
As a fan I am truly dissapoint with current situation. But, fans voice seems will not be listened by coach, and management.
It better to see the premier league ones, everyclub, even the middle club, they strengthtend very well.
They had barely recreated the Spirit of Milan in the last few seasons, and here comes the Cardinale scum to destroy it. And with those Curva Sud ultras shutting up is becoming a nightmare.