Football often throws up storylines that are almost too good to be true. In amidst all the chaos of AC Milan’s Mayday May, one such instance has arrived.
Just five days ago, Milan were about to kick off their final game of the Serie A season, hoping to beat Cagliari and secure a spot in the 2026-27 edition of the Champions League. It was the minimum objective, and it was in hand.
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Fast-forwarding even 24 hours from that point, and the red and black world had been turned upside down. They lost that game 2-1, which meant dropping from third to fifth in the final 90 minutes of the campaign, with the Europa League a consolation prize.
What followed was a managerial cull of epic proportions. Out went the head coach Massimiliano Allegri, the sporting director Igli Tare, the technical director Geoffrey Moncada and the CEO Giorgio Furlani. Justice served, some might say, after another sporting failure.
That is merely the first step though. Now, the management side must be rebuilt almost from scratch, with a process led by Gerry Cardinale and his right-hand men Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Massimo Calvelli. What would be great is if they could get one man to oversee everything, right?
Build-It Ralf
Step forward, Ralf Rangnick. His name may be familiar to many of you for reasons that we will revisit later on, but for now we know a few key facts regarding the resurfacing of his candidacy.
Firstly, several reliable sources are stating that Milan have held discussions with Rangnick over a role as a director at the club, and there seems to be an opening. Secondly, he currently has a job: he is the Austrian national team coach, and they soon leave for the World Cup in North America.
Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, a list of demands has already emerged from the talks that have taken place. From this, it has become apparent that the former RB Leipzig man does not want to do things half-heartedly.
According to Sky, he has laid out five conditions. One of them is not too outlandish: as the technical director, he wants to be the one that will choose the new head coach to replace Allegri, thus aiding the implementation of his vision.
In addition to that, Rangnick has asked to select the sporting director that he will work alongside on the recruitment and squad construction front. Again, this is not a particularly unusual request, given technical director is equivalent to a Director of Football role which involves over-arching control.
Rangnick’s demands include control over the scouting area and staff, which seems reasonable too. It extends to the youth sector too, for whom he wants to select the co-ordinators and coaches for the teams from Milan Futuro down.
So, this would be very much a 360° role for the former Manchester United man. He is not interested in coming in and doing things by half measures, because there is no point in compromising on such a fixed philosophy. It is known as ‘carte blanche’, or ‘a blank card’.
Four coaches and seven years ago
Some of you may be asking the obvious question: why does one man want to take on all of this responsibility? It may well go beyond an intention to ensure that every component of the project is done to his standards.
Matteo Moretto reported earlier on Friday that relations between Rangnick and Ibrahimovic are not the best. Not only could this slow down negotiations, but it is almost certain to have a bearing on what the German wants, i.e. making sure that the Swede is not interfering in any way.
The reason that we mentioned how the Rangnick-Milan links are not new is because what happened over half a decade ago may well have sowed the seeds for the stand-off we are witnessing right now.
As a reminder, it was during the 2019-20 season that Milan seemed set to part ways with Stefano Pioli and bring in Rangnick in an all-encompassing role. CEO Ivan Gazidis had pushed for it, seeing him as a visionary who would be the coach and handle the recruitment, plus other components of the club.
In the end, Pioli’s side picked up form at such a rapid pace that the Rossoneri pulled the plug on things altogether. However, Ibrahimovic had made his thoughts known in an interview with Sportweek in July 2020.
“We’ll also see what’s happening with the club. If this is the situation, to be honest, it’s unlikely you’ll see me at Milan next season. Ibra is not a player for the Europa League and Milan are not a club who belong in the Europa League. Who is Rangnick? I don’t even know who he is.”
Parla #Ibra a #Sportweek: “ho avuto un faccia a faccia con #Gazidis necessario. #Rangnick? Non so chi sia. Se le cose stanno così difficile che rimanga. Non sono un giocatore da #EuropaLeague e il #Milan non è un club da #EuropaLeague”
Boom..
— Pietro Balzano Prota (@PBPcalcio) July 9, 2020
Who is Ralf Rangnick? The answer, Zlatan, is that he is the man that you are trying to convince to take on the responsibility of rebuilding the club you represent, six years after you downplayed his body of work within football.
In an ideal world we could presume the best, i.e. that these are professional people and that it will all be water under the bridge, with such an opportunity still appealing to Rangnick regardless of flippant previous statements.
However, we are dealing with human beings here, and it is impossible that the Austria boss will have forgotten what was said six years ago. Now, as Ibra goes crawling back asking to rebuild something from the ruins he ‘helped’ create’, all of the chips are stacked on his side of the table.
Thus, Ralf Rangnick will rightly as for what he wants. Next time, Ibrahimovic might just think a little bit more carefully about dismissing someone within football that he might have to call upon for a favour down the line, though that would require foresight that he hasn’t shown so far.
People make a big deal out of nothing.
Relations between Rangnick and Ibrahimovic are not the best?
Because Zlatan said who is Ralf Rangnick?
Zlatan and Rangnick probably never met each other, never talked to each other, maybe never been in the same city or country at the same time, but ralations are bad because of couple harmless statements in the media?
Accurate point on media.
Thanks for the damage control post, now people will stop seeing how bad your bosses are and will start blaming the media for everything. Outside of the journalists that RedBird picks to do interviews in front of, they are fine, objective and trustworthy professionals.
The vicious campaign and demonization of Ralf Rangnick by the Italian press before he even set foot in Casa Milan is no coincidence. It’s a knee jerk reaction from a media system that thrives on drama and personal connections. The Italian press which has a long history of acting as both judge and executioner sees this German engineer as an existential threat to its influence. Rangnick doesn’t give side interviews, doesn’t befriend journalists, and doesn’t care about Gazzetta dello Sport’s headlines. He brings a “dry laboratory” approach and carte blanche, pulling the rug out from under the traditional agents and analysts who feed off the haphazard nature of Italian football decisions. The media demonization attempts to portray Rangnick as an arrogant dictator who has come to erase the identity of Italian football, while the stark truth is that they are terrified of the success of his scientific approach. Rangnick’s success would mean the death of the traditional mindset that governs Italian clubs.
So true and so well written! The media reaction and treatment of Rangnick, show exactly how much a man like this is needed in Serie A
Great post
Well Rangnick is dry and a lot of people find him arrogant, and he has erased quite a bit of identity and tradition in his work (like for the Red Bull group which is build on what were several clubs with strong traditions).
Doesn’t mean that he isn’t a very skilled professional, but both can be true to a good extent.
Who are you brother? You haven’t commented on this site earlier, as far as i have i noticed, but you appeared out of nowhere with concise and on point insights and comments. And no, i don’t believe you are AI lol, i’m just curious as we have similar views on this whole mess.
I am so confused about how many said so badly about Milan right now.
What I mean is, yes the owner and management is no good, okay. But all media and perspectives make it more badly.
Well, my opinion is, maybe Cardinale and Ibra is bad and uncapable. But, still in business, I think Cardinale will not make Milan, his business fall down, not like Yonghong Li did. Cardinale must be want Milan value is going up, not down.
And for Ibra, as long as no Maldini, or any other players with Milan DNA in management. I think still, he is the right one for now.
I don’t know what the result in the future from this two person (Cardinale and Ibra). But, let see from other perspective (I not defending Cardinale and Ibra, and not know them personally. Just know from the news), and wishing Milan become better, and stand again amongst other elite europe teams.
This is all smoke and mirrors people. The day before he leaves for his other job, Ibra will declare that he’s hired God as coach, director of sport, and head scout. We’re going to be OK.
Zlatan 😈 OUT 🦵
This is too good, Rangnick is asking for the same things that got Maldini fired.