SM: Trust remains in Pioli and the Milan project from ownership

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale has remained close to the team during the start of the season, and he does not consider Stefano Pioli’s position to be in question.

As is to be expected after such a large and bitter defeat in the derby against Inter, there has been some calls and even some speculation that Pioli should be removed from the position of head coach.

As our colleagues at SempreMilan.it report, these rumours were immediately silenced and then officially refuted by owners RedBird Capital. Instead, Cardinale reiterated his total trust in the coach and the project.

Trust and patience

This summer, Milan made a significant acceleration in their development plan by strengthening the squad with 10 signings, an almost total change that cannot be dismissed after just four games.

The derby against Inter highlighted a clear gap with the Nerazzurri, but the trust placed in the team and Pioli does not waver even given the upcoming important commitments.

Milan needs time to allow all the new players to come into operation, so while the derby was a bitter defeat it must not and cannot bring into a question a project in which the owners, management and players themselves have invested everything.

What it would take to make this trust waver is unknown, but another negative stretch like January or March earlier in the year might test the patience of those higher up.

Tags AC Milan Stefano Pioli

43 Comments

  1. Good luck with that trust thing!
    Pioli’s time at Milan ended last season when failing to beat Inter
    This season though he started with not winning a pre season game
    Oh I know he has a new team bla bla
    I say Di Zerbi is still in waiting!

  2. We have recently Lost against all the big teams except Tottenham and Atletico Madrid and Napoli.

    Recently Lost against arsenal
    Recently Lost against Chelsea
    Recently Lost against Man u
    Recently Lost against city
    Recently Lost against Bayern
    Recently Lost against Dortmun
    Recently Lost against PSG
    Recently Lost against Real
    Recently Lost against Barcelona
    Recently Lost against Liverpool
    Recently Lost against Juve.
    Recently Lost against inter.

    Newcastle upcoming
    We can’t just continue like this.

    7 coaches to consider
    Conte
    Ibra
    Sheva
    Kaka
    De zerbi
    Simione
    Naglesman

    We will never recover our glory If we don’t consider our past heroes who have the DNA of the team and experienced good coaches .

    Thank you Pioli but you must go together with you Messi Krunic .

    1. Dude throws out names of people who aren’t even coaches as an option.
      You okay buddy?
      The only real option is de zerbi and even that at the end of the season

        1. I hoped for mine 2 but i guess I’ll have 2 go into football first and make a name for myself.
          My childhood bff is an amateur coach atm.

    2. Only de zerbi and nagelsmann are interesting, ibra and kaka is not a coach, conte and sheva are not better than pioli, Simione is a bad coach, i hate his playing style even pioli is better.

        1. Yes, re Conte vis-a -vis Pioli, BUT people need to understand that Conte, and any coach who prefers a 3-5-2 formation is going to mean the end of Leao. LEAO DOES NOT DO WELL INSIDE, and he does not do a lot of defensive pressing. 3-5-2/5-3-2 is a formation without wingers. So, it will mean selling Leao for 100m+ (and probably selling Chukwueze as well), and then yet another transfer revolution next summer to bring in “Conte 3-5-2 players”. The next coach needs to be able to play 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. That’s what we’re set up for.

  3. Please define “strengthening the squad”, this is confusing just two days after an historically embarrassing loss.

    Frattesi and Thuram are new players for Inter but it seems like they won’t require patience from the fans. Anyway our mercato was the best in the history of football because baseball lover Jerry and banker Furlani said so.

      1. Of course. Last season we didn’t sell any of our key player to fund our mercato. And imagine the embarrassment of having sold key player and go buy 10 players for just getting the same (if not worse) result than last season. I really hope it doesn’t happen tho.

        1. Losing the derby 5-1 and now five times in a row is unacceptable, and 20 years ago would have resulted in a sacking. That said, the summer market can’t be judged until all 38 games have been played. THAT said, if after all of those transfers the results are the same, and the only thing that wasn’t changed was the coach, well, then I think we know what the problem is….

      2. We’ll see. Mercato is not good because you think so but because it brought results or first team players that will be that for a long time. If they finish 5th let’s say, is that a good mercato?

  4. I am sure I will regret making this comment but here we go…

    I understand the importance of the derby, no question but the overreaction to the first loss of the season, albeit an embarrassing result, is bizarre. Milan started the season with 3 wins out of 4. Looking at the table, not a terrible start having already played Inter and Roma. Not the biggest Pioli fan but to call for his head at this point seems premature.

    1. Roma without all the best players. They can still win the title but I don’t believe in this midfield and I think they will fail against better players every time. Not even Jesus would make them better.

      1. I don’t think the issue is the midfield so much as the rigidity of the tactics and slow pace moving the ball around. This has been the issue for the last 2 seasons and has not seemed to have changed much.

        I also agree about the Roma match being an inaccurate barometer for success but so is a loss against Inter 4 matches into the season after the international break.

        1. Why are you not mentioning the most important fact, half of you seem to ignore it. 5TH DERBY IN A ROW LOST. And it is getting worse and worse, not better. That is the “barometer” for success. Getting worse every season against Inter.

          Also for the “slow pace moving the ball around”. They brought in these 2 players, the “new Gullit” and RLC to speed it up. I have said multiple times they are average at best. You will see I am right by the end of season.

          1. Sorry, the league and European tables are not the barometer for success but record against one team is?! I get the derby is important but it is entirely possible to be successful while simultaneously losing to one or two clubs.

    2. Yea I’m not calling for his head but there are serious questions being asked. And I think that what it is really.
      Also, the people who were saying to calm down after the summer spending are here still posting and the ones who called it the best transfer window in 10 years are noticeably missing. That’s just what it is

      1. The extreme reactions on both sides here are just shocking (people hoping Milan lose so they fire Pioli). I think most of us can impartially come to the conclusion that Pioli’s rigid tactics and team selection should be questioned. As someone wrote a day or so ago, we all knew who would play and how they would line up well before the match. My point is it should take more than just one match to make any conclusions.

        In defense of those who go missing from the comments, the vitriol spewed by some on here is a big deterrent to posting. I know I post far less than I used to for that reason. Rather avoid personal attacks over a difference of opinion.

        1. I hear you.
          I can be angry at decisions but never wish my team to lose or someone to lose their job. I just can’t see myself. As you said, man Im so close to calling it a day on this site. Its very hard to comment here. If you say simple things like let’s see how things go or that we haven’t been tested, that somehow gets hated on. Anyways let’s hope for better results soon

        2. The toxicity in the comment section has exploded the past months. So disappointing really. To be fair, especially the anti-Maldini’s here have been bullying every single questioning, concern (let alone criticism), creating enemies in fellow fans. If you like/appreciate/cherish Maldini, you MUST hate Furlani/Moncada – and vice versa. If you imply that a certain move was not perfect (let alone bad), you are “AC Maldini”, not true fan, a hater.
          On the other side, any good move of Furlani/Moncada is received as a threat of Maldini’s legacy/success. As if we NEED some failures to appreciate Maldini’s success.
          It’s unthinkable that both can be good (in different ways).
          And then what happens in comments? We win, they appear, the “others” disappear. We lose, the opposite. Pathetic.

  5. Aside from changing coach, I’ve begun to think more on the claims by some that we need more Italian players, and particularly ones that are Milan fans, and I’m beginning to agree. I have a friend from Pavia, who lives in Milan and is an Inter fan. I was messaging with him after the game and I mentioned how Inter has Bastoni, Acerbi, Dimarco, Darmian, Frattesi, Barrella, all Italians, all starters and all nazionale players (except for maybe Darmian). Even Sensi and Audero have been called up to Italy. All of them understand the league, the football culture and the importance of such games. He agreed, and also mentioned the most of those players support Inter too. I had an epiphany. And now I think getting rid of Tonali was a massive mistake. If we needed to sell a player to generate funds, it should have been Maignan, who would have fetched a similar price. I’m not rejecting the summer transfers, I just think Maignan (or Theo if there was no market for Maignan) should have been the sacrifice, not Tonali.

    1. Bingo, said exactly this about selling Mike instead or even Tomori, maybe after Leao/Theo for serious funds. I’d prefer to sell Mike, he’s injury prone too and keeper position you can “live with”. Kinda like what Inter did with Onana

      1. Wild thoughts, wild theory…

        But considering Gudogan response before the UCL final to the question about his next move, I think with Maldini around there may have been a chance he could have ended up at Milan instead of Barca.

        Could Thuram have ended at Milan with Maldini around?

        If Tonali had stayed, would a midfield of: Tonali, Krunic, Gudogan and Kamada be better than better than what we presently have?

        Just wild theories. Anyway, it’s just one loss so far. It’s not like the season is over. Pioli has all the time to prove doubters wrong. After all, he said got the type of players he wanted.

        1. First, Maldini has nothing to do with my point. Had Tonali remained, and Maignan been sold, we would and should have carried out much the same transfer campaign with the difference being instead of both RLC and Reijnders arriving, we’d have ONE arrive, with the funds that went to the other going to the replacement GK (Mamardashvilli? Vicario?). So we’d still have gotten Okafor, Pulisic, Chuk, new GK and one of RLC or Reijnders. So our midfield would have been RLC-Krunic-Tonali, for example. The whole point here being that we need an Italian spine, with players who understand calcio, understand AC Milan and even more ideally who support the club, like Tonali. This is not about Tonali vs. Reijnders or Tonali vs. RLC as players per se.

        2. Lol nice theories Nino. Yes it’s just one game, albeit a game that’s worth more than the points assigned. But yes we still have loads of time. Best this defeat happens now than later on in the season at a more crucial junction. We have time to recover and beat them in the return leg. We should really be fired up for that and should be them next time
          Btw, if Gundogan had arrived we’d still be in the 4231 setup and it would have been Gundogan Tonali double pivots, SMS and Berardi as Cam and RW. Pretty good imo but these are what ifs too so there’s that

  6. I really hope we lose every match from now on until this fat f*ck is forced to sack Pioli.
    Enough is enough. I don’t wanna hear “trust in Pioli” anymore. He has to be gone.
    I want to see Newcastle destroy us 5-0 or more.
    The sooner Pioli is gone the better.

  7. Even though I don’t like Pioli, I can’t be happy seeing Milan trashed. I certainly can’t wish for Milan to lose because I want Pioli sacked.

    1. You have to make sacrifices for the greater good when you have such a boneheaded management.
      If I were a Milan player right now I would do my best to sabotage every Milan match so that I get the stupid coach sacked.

  8. I don’t think Milan could have pulled off all those summer signings and a new coach in one window, because the players were brought in accordign to Pioli’s specs.

    I think Furlani is well aware of Pioli’s limitations but he will get this season to either keep his job or be relieved of it. Either way, it would make more harm than good to bring a coach in midseason.

    With Inter in the form they are in, it’s hard to imagine taking the Scudetto from them, but a lot will depend on how we do in Europe to decide Pioli’s fate.

    FORZA MILAN ⚫️🔴

    1. Inter v. Juve for this championship unfortunately. Napoli is looking like sh!t under Garcia (See how a coach makes a difference? All the same players from last season minus Kim, and they look bad going forward, not defensively.) We will be working for top 4. Hopefully we will make it, but also hopefully management decides that 3rd or 4th place 20 points behind the league winner is not good enough and the Pioli era ends in June.

  9. There is only one coach who would elevate us to the next level – Jurgen Klopp!
    Having him as our coach is my dream and if the owners are ambitious they must go for the top level coach in the first place.

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