bonera milan futuro

Mazzara: Background on ‘original’ Abate plan emerges as Bonera struggles with Milan Futuro

Photo by Claudio Villa/AC Milan via Getty Images

Milan Futuro fell to an embarrassing defeat in their first home game of 2025, which might force reflections on Daniele Bonera’s position as manager.

The Futuro suffered their worst defeat of the season yesterday, and not just in terms of the scoreline but also the way that they were completely taken apart inside the first half, admittedly against an in-form team.

Bonera’s side found themselves three goals down after less than 15 minutes and four goals down by the break. Eventually, they would lose 5-1 as the second half wasn’t much better. This has led to reports that the management are pondering whether to chance the coach.

Pietro Mazzara has published his weekly column for MilanNews and in the final paragraph he spoke about the situation related to the Futuro, including the role of the head coach.

“A deep reflection must then be made on Milan Futuro. The humiliating 1-5 suffered yesterday against Torres accentuates even more the poor ranking of the second Rossoneri team in group B of Serie C,” he began.

“But it is the entire management of this very important project that absolutely needs to be reviewed. The 12 million invested at the beginning (which will then be even more with the January market) are not paying off today.

“The original plan, it is no mystery, was for Milan Futuro to be coached by Ignazio Abate who would have continued the excellent work done in the Primavera in the two previous seasons with a semifinal and a final (unfortunately lost) of the Youth League.

“The change of plans, due to the disagreements with Ibrahimovic, has brought Daniele Bonera to the bench, who is probably paying for his inexperience in such a delicate role in a real league like Serie C.

“And more than a few doubts, among all the insiders, arise regarding who is leading – without experience in Italian football – such an important project that cannot afford to fail.”

Tags Daniele Bonera Ignazio Abate Milan Futuro

11 Comments

  1. Ibra should drop all this animosity with Abate. He was meant to be the future of Milan and these were the steps he would’ve ideally taken

  2. In my view, Futuro coach should be entirely under head coach control, possibly part of his coaching team. We need no more than mediocre results in the C-league, which should be given with the players we invest in. However, the players need to be ready to play in the main squad at any given time. So far Bonera seems to not be up to the task, so maybe we do something before relegations?

  3. What’s with Cardinale and hiring people with no experience for important roles?? It seems to permeate throughout the organization. Bone-error should have never coached that team for a project that was deemed as very important. And one which is at risk of we get relegated. He had zero experience. At least try him out in the Primavera first….that league will alway be there. And hire a proper coach for the project. They need to stop these stop-gap /internal hires with the hope it turns out well.

  4. It’s shocking that for an important of a project as they claim the Futuro to be, they put a man in charge as incapable as Bonera. Truly Shocking.

    1. Let me edit your statement: “It’s shocking that for an important of a project as they claim [AC Milan] to be, they put a man in charge as incapable as [Ibrahimovic]. Truly Shocking.”

      I think this is the problem. Bonera is just taking a chance being offered to him, because who wouldn’t. This is a failure of management.

  5. I don’t know how many of you are aware of this: If Milan Futuro gets relegated to Serie D, it will need to dissolve and close down. The league doesn’t allow second teams to play in Serie D. It’s only in series B or C. If Milan Futuro can’t continue, it will take several years for the league to reconsider it, and that would still be subject to some other team dropping out to open space. And if another Serie A team (Inter?) jumps on it and starts a second team too in addition to Juve and Atalanta, then we are out for the duration because only one second team is allowed per each A, B, and C Serie C groups, so there’s a maximum of 3 second teams for the Serie A teams, and Juve and Atalanta already occupy two of these spots, and they are not getting relegated. Atalanta is in fourth place in group A, and while Juve is also in some trouble in 16th place in group C which is the last relegation playoff spot, but they are recovering fast and have won 5 of their last 6 games, drawing the other one so they got 16 points out of the last 18 possible points. They are now only 1 point behind the last team in the safe zone; If this continues, they will also comfortably survive.

    This is how essential it is to get these Futuro boys to survive relegation, and obviously with Bonera in charge, this is not happening so it is extremely urgent to fire him and get a proper coach to help the Futuro boys.

    After all the investment, if we suddenly lose Milan Futuro for several years or for good, all these promising young players would be at risk and would likely leave AC Milan for greener pastures. This is a full blown disaster waiting to happen, and yes, it is the fault of Ibrahimovic who picked a fight with Abate regarding his son, thus putting personal interest over club interest, which is thoroughly unprofessional.

    Gerry Cardinale needs to fire Ibra, fire Bonera, and hire a proper Futuro coach. Gerry had to step in when his incompetent minions were stalling with the failed Fonseca project; according to insisting rumors, Gerry was the one who finally stepped in, overruled his minions, and ordered them to fire Fonseca and to specifically hire Conceição. Now he needs to do the same for Futuro.

    We could beg Abate to return but he’d be crazy to accept, especially because Ibra is still at Milan. Abate is doing well coaching another Serie C team, Pescara, which has a chance at promotion to Serie B, currently within the promotion playoff zone.

    Meanwhile Futuro is 7 points below the salvation zone. Yeah, right. Abate is not coming back.

    1. This is exactly what I meant by saying we are risking this important project.
      And btw those people who like to do the whataboutism and compare to Juve need to focus on what’s in our own backyard. Juve next gen ‘relegation’ battle is different to ours. If they win their next two games they’re in promotion playoffs position. If we win our next two we’re still in relegation zone.
      At least if an actual coach was coaching our boys we’d know it wasn’t the coaching aspect that was the issue. Instead we don’t even know if it’s due to age of players or lack of professional coach because we opted for Bonerror. And we’re in the middle of January where we can make moves.

  6. Years back, it was circulated that Ibra and Abate were best buddies, with Abate even hanging out with Ibra in the US, Ibra wanting Abate to come over to PSG way back then, e.t.c.
    A fallout of this magnitude: Abate resigning because he didn’t see Ibra Jnr as being good enough for his team is serious. Well, Ibra’s ego has had all teams in a slump. Ibra jnr has proven to be no magician and quite average too.
    Like it was said about Daniel Maldini, no one would know Ibra’s son except for his father. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. father & son combo should both leave.

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