Gerry Cardinale and Stefano Pioli Milanello

SM: Cardinale’s message to Pioli and the Milan squad – “Count on me and my team”

AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale sent a message to Stefano Pioli and the squad today ahead of the first day of preseason preparations.

The summer vacations are over for the vast majority of the Milan team and they will begin their work ahead of the 2023-24 campaign with a training session at Milanello at 17:00 CEST this evening.

It has been a turbulent summer thus far to say the least with Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara no longer the directors, with no Zlatan Ibrahimovic to grace the team with his presence and with Sandro Tonali having been sold recently as well.

It is vital that there is a sense of unity around the club as president Paolo Scaroni mentioned in an interview published this morning, because a bounce-back season is needed domestically.

Below is the message that Cardinale sent to Pioli as he spoke about in his first press conference of the summer, which was then transmitted to the squad.

“I want to wish you and the team all the best for the start of the new season. Please know, and let our wonderful players know, that I am working tirelessly to make sure you are equipped for success,” it began.

“I want to win everything and we can’t do it unless we have a project to build on. Count on me and my team; we’re counting on you, our players and the support of our fantastic fans. Thank’s my friend.”


Want bonus content including exclusive information, deep-dive analysis pieces, podcasts and news round-ups? Subscribe to our Substack and try a week for free.

Tags AC Milan Gerry Cardinale Stefano Pioli

43 Comments

  1. Bro really needs to address the elephant in the room but his ego is too big to do that. He’s the boss after all, right? It’s going to leave anaddressed issue which will grow increasingly larger when things don’t go right… for ppl to start hit back as to why he fired not only two directors but let’s call it for what it is as well…two icons one the most legendary for AC. But alas he ain’t going to do that.
    He also needs to hire a PR person or something because we’ll all be watching with scrutiny as to how this transfer window unfolds and so far we’ve only gotten two players that are “new”: Romero and Pulisic (I actually think Romero is going to be a surprise FYI). The other two were targets from the previous directors …targets for depth ie bench..not starting XI.
    We sold Tonali so we lost defensive technicalities in midfield (as well as another potential future Milan icon) and we haven’t replaced him yet. But….. according to Gerry they’re working on equipping the team for success. Ah mean, I’ll wait, once more, for the end of the Mercato but so far ………Swimmingly!

    1. So by your standards the season is already lost and Milan are already relegated? Great. I guess it’s time for you to find a new team and more importantly a new blog!
      You sound like a petulant child complaining about birthdays gifts…

      1. Where did I say the season is lost before it starts. Relegated? Wtf 🤷‍♂️ . I don’t believe ppl in these comments section read the entirety of posts, perhaps because two paragraphs are too long for them lol 😂

        Here’s my TLDR then: Gerry should himself or a PR firm address the firing of two legends. There’s no major difference in targets acquired so far in the transfer window hence the previous point. We lost technical quality which haven’t been reolaced. Finally it’s too early in the transfer window to judge

        There, better? Sheesh

        1. I am coming to see this past month that reading and comprehension is a challenge for some commenter on this forum. And am not even trying to be offensive.
          They don’t bother to read and digest the gist of the matter before jumping into erroneous conclusions.

          Like our good friend above.

      2. Learn how to read man. No where in his comment he mentions that the team is relegated already. All he is saying that he will wait for the end of the transfer window and see where we are. And yes they gotta add some talent in the midfield. Even pioli has mentioned that we have to replace tonali with a proper midfielder. And yes, im skeptical of cardinale, doesn’t mean that i will stop watching the team. Hell, ive rooted for this team way before you could walk proprably.

      3. Reading, but not only. Reading and comprehension is very very important.

        Where did you read that he moaned about Milan going down the drain.

    2. Toulouse and the other Jerry’s clubs probably received the same message haha but don’t underestimate Jerry’s PR, see how some fans are ecstatic despite this huge mess. They managed to make us believe that Ruben and Pulisic are Michael Ballack and Ronaldinho.

      Something confuses me somehow. He’s saying the club has to build a project to win. That’s a ridiculous thing to say when you just won one scudetto and went to UCL semis. He’s already lowering expectations, thinking like “please wait for my stadium Jerryland to be built so I can sell for huge profits, then so long good luck”. They fired M&M for incompetency, now they assess the team is not ready to win. So M&M got fired because they won with a team not ready to win? Fired for overachieving their job haha

      1. You managed to think that Milan is finishing 18th and are gonna suck for the rest of your life till Redbird is gone

        Amazing how you convinced yourself of that when NOTHING HAS BEEN PROVEN. Its AC Milan not AC Maldini, thats why match going fans still bought season tickets

        1. What? Are you high or something? You managed to think what I managed to think haha there is a huge difference between winning trophies and finishing 18th. I’m not saying we will be relegated but I’m concerned about Jerry sending a message literally saying “first the project, second the trophies”. That’s not something you want to hear after a scudetto and UCL semis in two years.

          Hence I would correct you, nothing GOOD has been proven. A lot of dubious decisions have already been taken.

          1. Dude is not high, he didn’t write one normal comment in his life, he just makes up stuff he wanted someone else to say. And he calls everyone else negative at the same time. Hahahahahah, Boulden is my favorite guy here.

        2. @Boulden, why are you always out for blood like a thirsty vampire looking for a victim? You re-interpret what people post like a crazed junkie high on Cardinale’s fart.

          It doesn’t matter what anyone says. The signs don’t look good, but it really doesn’t mean a thing until the season kicks off. It’s no longer about Maldini or Tonali. It\s about Milan, and yes, there are those who expect things to go south, I think it should only serve as a motivation for management, the coach and the players to do better.

          Fans can think what they like about new signings – if they hit the ground running and do well, they will be embraced and the fans will sing their praises. However, if they don’t do well, it’s only natural that fans will say, well we told you so.

          I don’t think any true fan wants Milan to fail just because Maldini was sacked. Even if they do think that way, it’s just an emotional response because they are disappointed. They’ll outgrow it once the management and new signings step to the plate.

          You must admit that building an entire new midfield is a major task and people have a reason to be skeptical. I once asked in an earlier post: who and starts in the double pivot now? Will Pioli play Pobega and Krunic who have been here longer and probably understand his philosophy? We’ve seen great improvement with Krunic playing there from last season.

          Or does Pioli start Krucnic alongside RLC? Who among them dictates the tempo of the game?

          Or is he going to start with two new signings, RLC and whoever is signed next?

          A whole lot depends on how the mercato goes and how fast the signings are made to facilitate proper pre-season integration. So, people have genuine reasons to be concerned. It’s “OUR” and we want to win. It’s all about Milan.

          Forza Milan.

        3. @ boulden Would you plz stop with your crab. Not for once you made any sense in this forum.. dont take things personally here, everyone has their opinion. How old are you again?

      2. It’s boggles my mind too. I think they’ve set themselves up for issues later on down the road because the results of last few years are going to haunt them, it will stick in the minds of and and the ppl attached to it would be none other than M&M.. It might have actually been better for them to say that they wish the team well internally or something. In the long run fans will use this against them. There’s no way we’re doing a UCL semi this year (barring MBappe and Vini coming of course) so how much better can u realistically do and given the seeding when we get dumped out of group stage into Europa then we’ll hear the uproar.
        He’s hiding or pretending to not to address exactly why they got fired. So all we can go by is as u said, incompetence. You can fool some fans with that tripe but any logical fan can see through the BS

    3. You again . You like to start war between 2 faction of fans here. After everyday see your comment ,im thinking bartolomeo & martin not that bad comparing to you. I suggest you to changing your club before hate fullfill your heart dude

      1. Haha peace man we root for the same club, we just express our opinions and we disagree these days but we are not enemies. Hopefully you’re right and everything will be alright and we’ll win the Champions League and IKWYDLS, Martin, me and all the fans worrying right now are wrong about this ownership, let’s see but there is no need to hate each others.

      2. Me???
        Bro, do you have anything meaningful to post? Here I am trying to post something different than what the usual banter is about and you come here with a comment that doesnt really add value to the discussion. I’m slowly learning you guys don’t read. If u don’t like my comment you can also just move on …🤷‍♂️ You post alot of garbage imo but I don’t tell you that because well…that’s just my opinion. But now you know 😁
        Cheers

        1. The last part is facetious btw. U post well enough, but the other point remains.
          I don’t believe u can look at Boulden comments each and day and have a problem with mine

        2. Of course boulden,bo,dejan or other that mocking maldini fans are wrong too. I read their comment too. Both side need to live on peace. This comment site have no effect to the club , that is why you and boulden or the other fighting for what ? . I dont mind you say im post garbage but atleast i never mocking club that i support in comment section .Have a nice day dude

          1. Bro how am I mocking the club? Because I said they need better a Public Relations team after all that’s been going on and I disagree with how well the transfer window has been going by saying swimmingly???? Come on now. That’s child’s play compared to other comments here.
            Look at the reply from Nelli, how can he deduce that I want Milan to be relegated from what I wrote? U understand the craziness? I usually avoid that nonsense

            And no u don’t post garbage most of the times. I was saying that to be facetious hence I caveated it after because ppl cant pick up saracasm online. Ur actually right in the middle, quite neutral except your curva comments but it is what it is. I don’t entertain Boulden especially and a couple others because there’s no middle ground like what we’re doing here right now…I usually comment by myself or reply to others but not get into it… except maybe for stats where i have actual advanced experience in.

    1. No it doesn’t, Milan founded by an Englishman, Milan most successful team in Europe not Italy, Milan’s greatest stars are Bazillion, Dutch, and Swedish in addition to the couple Italians. Italy has been dragging Milan down for decades with their atrocious bureaucracy and poor business acumen not to mention that this generation of Italians is literally the worst footballing generation ever. Two missed wc in a row, honestly the last thing Milan needs right now is more Italians. Saying this as an Italian…

      1. “…in addition to the couple Italians…”
        You’ve got to be kidding me.
        What we say speaks volumes about what we know.

          1. Are you really comparing the 90s to now? Back then you can look around any team and it was stacked with players of that club’s nation lol

            and Italy is horrible at the moment, 2 back to back missed world cup and you think Italian players is the key to Milan’s success now lmao

          2. Boulden You clearly just twist and turn what i and others say, as you usually do.

            Our best teams of the 1980ies and 1990ies was far better than those of the 00s and yes there was different rule sets in regard of foreigners in teams.

            Sure italian football isnt the same as back then but you gotta start somewhere and italy actually won the last euros. Ive posted here for many years and has reiterated many times before that i can live with a team of not so many italian players for the time being as they are generally overpriced compared to those coming from abroad but in the long run we deffently should have a far larger ammount of italians in the team as its creates coherency which is an important part of the sport.

            But that wasnt even the question as nelli wrote in addition to a couple of italians which clearly is nonsense

      2. Couple means 2. At one point the rule was a maximum of 3 non-Italian players in the first team. Quite more than a couple.

      3. No offense but I Def know from research that more than a “couple” of Italians has contributed to Milan’s success.

        It’s quite the fallacy to say only a couple Italians.

  2. Any news on the stadium? Or they will just bring that up everytime they find themselves in the hole. Time will tell where we will be down the road.

  3. So, our little tapeworm couldn’t even visit his players and convey a message to them himself? What an owner we have. lol

    And we are supposed to believe his literally ‘trust me bro’ message? WTF? Why should ANYONE trust him? So far he got us two injury prone dudes who are gonna die in training under Pioli on day 3 and a noob Lazio Reject while selling one of our best players when Roma and Inter literally built a team to challenge scudetto.

    1. I noticed that “count on me” comment as well, he should hope he succeed and so should we but yeah i agree he hasnt really done one thing to make us trust him and he has the audacity to say so.
      I’ll wait with my judgment after the mercato has finished but im still pretty furious about how he has handled the club up untill now, He bought the club at the wrong time last year which caused a great slow down in that mercato as it was first finalized by late august and now when we have earned a load of cash in the last year he sells what should have been a main stay and sacks maldini. I think maldini basically was sacked because cardinales ego is too big for anyone being bigger than him which maldini was and still is. We will see how it goes but if milan has an underwhelming mercato and we start out badly in serie a then i doubt he will feel the love of any milanistas for long and we might even see a few burning usa flags in the stadium when reality and its
      consequences is understood by everyone.
      I dont trust him and even a good mercato will hardly change that by now-

      1. Of course it was ego. There is no other reason for it anyway. Last mercato was a disaster to people who knows nothing about Football. But just the rise of Thiaw made last Mercato a success and recouped EVERY penny spent on CDK. But Since Maldini was fired, I consider that chapter to be closed. The problem is the post Maldini Period.

        Every ‘moneyball’ target comes with 4 other suitors better than the dumpster fire that is our Milan now when it was supposed to find hidden gems to get with no competition LOL Top flights in Europe ain’t looking as easy as our tapeworm thought now doesn’t it? .. so I don’t know WTF we gonna do with this $hit AI if we cant get our targets anyway. All the while we sold our best midfielder who created the most chances of all the midfielders in the UCL.

        Furlani pretty much failed every negotiation so far. We got RLC in the exact price Maldini had agreed with Chelsea before. Got pulisic who is injury prone at 23. Lost Thuram in 5 minutes to Marotta. Losing out on Chuku as well so far because we had the brilliant idea that we should wait for the player we want. AZ wont lower a single penny for Rejinders because they won’t have to sell. Gundogan left for Barca. Guler chose real.

        The mercato in my opinion is already underwhelming. Kamada, Berardi, Thuram, RLC and Baldanzi would’ve been the ideal mercato besides our existing players and most of those deals were done almost. With some sales we could’ve reinforced the backup positions or even gotten SMS/Chuku.

        Now we got ‘SPORTIELLO’ who Maldlini signed. RLC who Maldini agreed terms with. So basically, so far all Cardinale did is sign pulisic whose career ended before it began hoping a miracle happens and Romero who isn’t considered a player by pioli because he is 18 lol

        But hey, don’t say that to Cardinale fanboys here.. lol According to them, Pulisic who had 20 injuries and 6 spells out by illness by age 23 and Romero is a VERY exciting mercato lol

        1. I wouldnt say that the thiaw deal recouped all the cash that was spend on cdk but cdk could still come good or get sold. Of course lives moves on but i nevertheless consider his sacking an open wound.

          I agree if the moneyball approach were as great as they believe it to be it would make a lot more sense finding hitting gems that isnt on any clubs radars. Theres deffently a point there especially as the club is stingy in regard of how much we have earned and the fact the we sold tonali on top of it.

          It can certainly be argued that maldini had had already done all the footwork for those deals. I do think if pulisic can finaly stay injury free he could still come good but its not really a player i would have moved for either.

          I think its way worse than underwhelming for now but i was also more refering to the end of the mercato.

          I wouldnt have minded thhose players joining while keeping tonali.

          I think rromero is a technically talented player who could turn out good and there is only a low risk as he could be sold or loaned out while increasing his value and abilities.

          Yeah its deffently not an exiting mercato up untill now and they will have to do a hell of a lot better to to change this from a fiasco to become a success,

  4. ‘Please know, and let our wonderful players know, that I am working tirelessly to make sure you are equipped for success’

    FVCK YOU CARDINALE!!!

    You didn’t work tirelessly you mf’ker. What you did was fired Maldini and Masara, SOLD Tonali against his will, and now you and your clown got what, one unknown free transfer player and one player with glass legs?!

    Again. FVCK CARDINALE!!!

Comments are closed

Serie A Standings

Live football scores . Current table, fixtures & results.