AC Milan’s start to 2023 has several key figures in the firing line and nobody is immune from criticism and potential action should the struggles cost the team a top four place, a report claims.
La Gazzetta dello Sport report that Gerry Cardinale watched the Supercoppa Italiana loss to Inter from his New York office and naturally he is not happy about the defeat and especially the manner of it, especially given it came after a collapse against Roma, defeat in the Coppa Italia against Torino and an awful first half in Lecce.
As a man who knows sport though, Cardinale also knows that ups and downs are not unusual and he fully trusts in the ability that the management have to solve the current problems. He is not pressing the panic button yet, and no extra budget is expected to be made available for the January window.
With Lazio away to come on Tuesday, Sassuolo the following Sunday, the second league derby on 5 February, another home game against Torino and the Champions League last 16 first leg against Spurs on Valentine’s Day, a difficult next few weeks beckons.
From these four weeks of fire, Milan will come out regenerated or beaten down and middle ground seems unlikely at the moment. The paper adds that fourth place will inevitably be the watershed between a dull season and a season that totally undermines a project.
Qualifying for the Champions League is essential to give continuity to the work that the management are done, in order to support the budget with UEFA prize and sponsor money, as well as convincing crucial players to remain in a competitive environment.
Milan are currently nine points away from Napoli in first and four points above the Roma-Lazio-Atalanta trio, who are pursuing with conviction. If Pioli defends his place in the Champions League – given the Scudetto now seems like a mirage – there will probably be tweaks and changes, but not revolutions.
If Milan don’t change course and continue to slide downwards, there will be tough decisions to make, the most delicate of which concerns the directors Ricky Massara and above all Paolo Maldini. Maldini and Massara were architects of the Scudetto win but finding an agreement for their two-year renewal was tense, guided by the lawyers rather than by mutual love.
On June 30, a border was drawn: the owners, as usual, retained the paternity of strategic choices (setting objectives, determining management methods, establishing a budget), while Maldini obtained decision-making autonomy within the perimeter established by Elliott first and then RedBird.
However, the summer complicated the picture because the market disappointed, given that Charles De Ketelaere, Divock Origi, Yacine Adli, Sergino Dest, Malick Thiaw and Aster Vranckx are yet to really offer a return.
Maldini did not get the ‘two-three significant purchases’ he was aiming for as per his interview at the end of the season, but the owners invested over €40m which a figure higher than that of Milan’s competitors in terms of net spend. A step forward in performances has not come, and so 2023 already looks precarious.
