Igli Tare has addressed the media to explain exactly how he plans to operate at AC Milan, including potential sales and signings.
Normally someone new to a job might get a bit of time to settle in and devise a strategy before beginning to get to work. This has not applied to Tare, who has been very busy from day one as Milan’s new sporting director.
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In fact, even his first day consisted of many meetings rather than casual coffees and greetings, but he has not had much of a choice. There are many areas of the team that need work, with sales to complete and signings to make ahead of a season that cannot go wrong.
He worked quickly to secure the return of Massimiliano Allegri as the head coach, allowing Milan to get off the coaching carousel early and feeling content, but there is much more to do even before the end of June.
Tare faces the media
Tare spoke during a press conference held at Casa Milan in which there were several journalists present to ask questions. His comments were transcribed by MilanNews, and we have translated them below.
Tare began by greeting the journalists present….
“I’ve been at Milan for two weeks now. I wanted to thank the entire club for the welcome that made me feel like an integral part of this group right from the start. It’s fundamental for me to start with desire and determination.
“I arrive at a club with such a glorious history and it gives you a huge responsibility, to give your all and above all to help bring this club where it deserves to be, to the top of Italian and European football.”
What characteristics do you think the team will have at the end of the transfer window?
“I have had the opportunity to get to know all the problems of the past year first hand but I don’t like to go back: I would just like to take inspiration from the mistakes of the past year to try to transform it into a situation that will never happen again.
“From this point of view, in this first phase of the market we have tried to understand which are the exits of this team, which are the players who can arrive. We have had many meetings together with the staff, with Zlatan, Moncada, with Allegri.
“We have met several times and I think I have clear ideas: it will not be a revolution of the team but it will be a way of trying to specify specific roles to try to return to being competitive for the next season where we will have more time to work during the week, which is also useful for creating the foundations for the future project of this team.”
What was missing from the squad last year? Did you try to find out? Will Modric arrive?
“We analyzed this thing here and one of the shortcomings of last year was a clear leadership in the team. Maybe I don’t know the dynamics closely but I think that the purchase of Modric serves precisely this purpose: he is a player who is an important figure in world football.
“I spoke to him in person and I saw him as a boy who still has a lot of desire to be competitive. His arrival is fundamental to be a point of reference for a team that needs players of this form.
“There will not only be him but also one or two purchases that will be part of these experienced players but will be a driving force for young players with great prospects.”
What do you think of Xhaka and Jashari?
“The starting point is that the midfield will be the department where we will intervene the most. This is something we have analysed with the coach on the profiles and characteristics that this team needs.
“The names you mentioned are alternatives, players of great value but in the end we have to make the right choice based on what we need. We believe it is important to increase the quality of play of this team.”
On Theo Hernandez, what was your thinking on this?
“Theo’s qualities are well known, a player who has given so much to this club. All these evaluations also start from a desire, on his part, to seek a new experience.
“We welcomed it with a normal thing because with my arrival and that of a new coach we will try to build a team different from the past years. His transfer is not yet defined, we are working.
“I understand that there is a rush to give the news but you must understand our difficulties, things change every minute and every hour. It is something in progress but it is not yet closed, we have to wait.”
Furlani says there won’t be a revolution, but there are the departures of Reijnders and Theo and the possible one of Maignan… will Maignan stay?
“Maignan is not leaving, he will be at Milan next season too. There was interest from a Premier League club but in the end an agreement was not reached, knowing that Maignan is a point of reference not only on the pitch but also off it. We decided to focus on him and look forward together.
“The market is unpredictable but for us he remains a fixed point of this team. We need to convey a bit of enthusiasm and for this reason we are trying to understand what is needed to improve this team: they will all be players functional to this project to increase the quality of this team that was already strong.”
Did you speak to the leaders and what mood did you find?
“Seeing the experiences of other clubs that have had bad years and immediately came back the following year, the same can also happen to Milan.”
How do you judge the situation in attack? Is Gimenez the number one striker? Will you seize other opportunities like Kean or Vlahovic?
“We plan to intervene on the wingers in the event of any exits. As for the centre forward, we are looking for another player to compete with Gimenez, who I consider an excellent player but who has had a normal Italian impact, of settling in, from a very different football like Dutch football.
“Therefore we have maximum confidence in him but we also need to make another intervention on the centre forward role.
“We are taking the necessary time to understand what shape the team will take but we have clear ideas about what type of player he will be, with the characteristics of a true centre-forward who can make the difference inside the area: this has been missing since Giroud’s farewell.”
What are your thoughts on Leao’s future? Have there been any offers? Do you consider him essential?
“I think Leao is a true champion: few in today’s football decide matches on their own. He is a fundamental player for our team but also for our project.
“I had the opportunity, and so did the coach, to speak seriously with him and I had a nice surprise: from the outside you may have a different opinion but when you get to know him you find a very competitive guy, his questions were about how the team will be strengthened.
“I consider him an important pawn in our project: he has everything to become a true champion. He has always shown it but I think he hasn’t shown what he really can yet. Offers? We haven’t received anything yet: the interests are all market rumours.”
Can’t Allegri and Milan develop Musah?
“I think Musah is an excellent player, but we are looking for profiles with characteristics that are useful for the project we have together with mister Allegri. We are looking for deeper midfielders in a three-man midfield.
“Musah does not have these characteristics, he can play in a two or three [man midfield] but with other characteristics. This is the real reason why we want to do something different. We are also evaluating the intervention of another player in midfield together with a striker.
“We will sign a right-back and a left-back. In the event of a sale we will also intervene on the wings and in central defence. The same goes for the attacking wingers. We must be focused on doing the best possible for the team and being protagonists.”
How did you get Massimiliano Allegri?
“After my arrival there was this need to intervene immediately. From the first contact I had with Allegri I perceived that he cared a lot about this club: he had a very deep knowledge of the problems of this team.
“Thanks to a blitz by me and Giorgio [Furlani] in Lugano where we had a long meeting together with Max, we made sure that in 48 hours he made a quick decision and accepted this project of ours.”
What kind of Milan do you have in mind? What kind of team should we expect, in terms of identity and attitude?
“It’s not just a question of formation but also how the team must play. We discussed it at length with Allegri: we have clear ideas of a compact team that must dominate the games, with players who have great ball possession.
“One of the reasons why we are intervening in midfield is also because the purchase of a central midfielder or someone like Modric raises the technical level of this team a lot. We must try to be protagonists right away: this championship can give us great satisfaction.”
With Allegri, are you aiming for a second star?
“The history of this club says it all. When you work for Milan, the first objective is to create competitive teams to win trophies. I also tell it with great enthusiasm: it is an honour to work for a club with such a glorious history and together with the coach to give the maximum to achieve this objective too.”
What is Camarda’s future?
“Just yesterday we had a long discussion about the future of our young players, including Camarda who will have an important role in the future of this club.
“We made the decision to loan him out and we closed an agreement with Lecce where he will go to play for a year on loan with the hope of returning to us as we all hope.”
How did you experience the waiting period before arriving at Milan? What message do you have for the fans who protested?
“It’s part of our job to wait: when it comes to such an important club, even the choices have to be carefully thought out. I have realized a dream of coming to work for the club I supported as a child: it’s something extra that gives me something more to give my all and reach the goals.
“It’s not a cliché. I have experienced many protests in my experience: I know that for us it’s an extra responsibility to give something more, from the big defeats great victories were born.
“Napoli’s experience teaches us: we must learn from the mistakes made in the past and try to make as few as possible to be competitive right away.”
For the full-backs, do you have a precise identikit? Do you like Zinchenko?
“We have a precise identikit, we want above all young players with great prospects who are functional for our game system. These are things that we have studied with the coach: we have clear ideas and in the next two or three weeks there will be a follow-up to these negotiations.”
Are we moving forward with Pulisic and his renewal?
“He will be a key player for next season: I will have the opportunity to discuss the renewal with Giorgio at the right time but right now we are only focused on the team.
“I think he was one of the most positive players last season and he is one of the pillars of the season to come: he has a central role in this group.”
How do you replace a player like Reijnders?
“It’s difficult to make comparisons but I think Milan have a player like Loftus-Cheek who is one of the most complete midfielders in the European panorama. He can be a key player for Milan next season: we must try to manage the injury situation better, but the player’s value is beyond discussion.
“He can also be replaced with some new additions with different characteristics to Reijnders, also because we want to play with a three-man midfield that can be transformed during the game.”
The striker competing with Gimenez, will he have to be familiar with Serie A?
“We are evaluating both in Italy and outside Italy: it is a question of characteristics and for our team’s game it is fundamental. He must be a player with completely different characteristics to those of Gimenez who is not a centre forward like Giroud: we must be good at completing these two things together.”
What are your emotions when you arrive at Milan?
“I really like the sense of belonging, I really care about transmitting it to the team. The history of the club is fundamental and representing it in the best way on and off the pitch. We need to go back to basics, have players who identify with these colours.”
What did you talk about with Modric?
“The first thing he asked me was if we were a team built to win the championship, we are talking about a champion who comes from Real Madrid and has won seven Champions Leagues.
“I understood that he wants to come immediately to be a protagonist, it will be fundamental for what he will transmit to the team in terms of mentality and personality, of leadership.
“It would also be a great thing for him to have a season as a protagonist, taking into account that there is also the Club World Cup.”
Did Allegri ask you anything in particular?
“I am in contact with him daily, even more than 4 or 5 times a day. He is aware of everything we do for the team. We only spoke about characteristics and opportunities that come up every day.
“His game system is very clear: first there are certain roles and then the rest will be completed at the end of the market.”
Is one of your tasks to convince Furlani to fork out €40-50m for a striker?
“For the role of the striker, also speaking with Zlatan, this team lacks a characteristic: having Gimenez who likes to open up on the wing and then go inside, the team lacks a centre-forward who stays inside the area and who is very good at holding the ball, who makes the team push up, especially if he stays inside the area.
“There are various options and it’s not a question of price but of characteristics: there are also opportunities during the transfer market and I don’t hide from taking them if I’m convinced it’s the right thing to do.
“Then the pitch will tell. Sometimes there are players who have cost a fortune and then haven’t performed, others have done the opposite. For me it’s just a question of role, positions and interpretation.
“With Max we decided to be careful but firm and make the right choice at the right time. First of all, the position we care about most is the midfielder, we’ll sort out the rest.”
On Moncada, are you working with him?
“I have known him for more than 3 or 4 years. He is a collaborator who will be with me to make these important choices. There are few in the world who know the players like he does. He is part of our project.”
That’s actually quite a ballsy interview.
He either genuinely has quite a bit of power or he’s getting sacked for speaking out of turn 😁, but let’s assume it’s not the latter.
There was zero balls in this interview. A scripted PR stunt.
I like how he talk and analysis things. Perfectly know what he want and what he want to do.
I just hope the management wont come in his way.
This is a great interview by Tare. Midfielders and full-backs are correctly identified as the priority. There is emphasis on young full-backs being brought in. Tare also describes a clear profile of striker we are chasing and goes on to clarify whether certain players are staying or leaving. Finally, we get some clarity. This is what I have been crying out for the past two seasons, a clear plan with set targets. The next challenge is taking the right steps to obtain these targets .
Great interview, thanks for posting this. Very open and blunt.
Most key takeaway for me there is that we’re planning on a three man midfield, so likely a 4-3-3 or a 3-5-2 default.
Still not convinced that blowing 40-50M on a striker like Vlahovic is a good idea, but he seems clear in his objectives.
Vlahovic is in his last year of contract, that’s why we can get him for around 25 mil. And that’s exactly the market opportunity Tare talking about above.
Yes, but he’d also be very unlikely to move here without being our highest paid player and does he really have the right to be so? And that surely would mean we’re basically giving up on Gimenez being any more than a bit part player despite spending 35M on him a few months ago.
Yup the ball is on Vlahovic’s hand now whether he’ll accept the wage cut ot not. Tare clearly stated that we need a striker to compete with Gimenez, with a different characteristic. So my guess is that the name should be rather a decent and established name.
I agree with you. I think Lucca is the player we should be looking at, and would probably be available for around the same price, 25-30M. Or just keep Colombo as the no. 2, and bring in someone like Immobile as the no. 3. Then if Gimenez has a so-so year, but assuming we qualify for the CL, make striker the main priority next summer with a minimum 50M budget.
Vlahovic don’t fit in that profile. we are searching for a zlatan/giroud dominat striker who can controll and hold the ball in the area.
This was a staged interview at Casa Milan with scripted questions and no counter arguments and no real journalism.
No one asked the important questions:
-If you claim that you got many things wrong last season, why wasn’t any one let go for incompetence?
-what is the project?
-why was Reijnders sold after your declarations of not having to sell anyone?
-why was there a turnaround on San Donato?
-When will Elliott and RedBird f**k Off?
Excellent questions!
I am sad to say it is impossible to have any enthusiasm or belief anymore.
They could have said – we are sorry for last season, we got things wrong. We are keeping our stars.
We will sell the fringe players and invest where needed. We want to win
With Tiji leaving, how can fans get excited about any new player or building a team?
Why did he need to be sold?
You fool.
Tare is Sporting Director.
How can you ask him a about stadium project?
How can you ask him about Furlani’s declaration which was made before he came as SD?
How can you ask one who’s just appointed why other employees were not let off? Or when his current employer is getting off?
Common sense ain’t common after all.
Moreover, If you think he didn’t answer the sporting project, you must be so elementary in life.
Because if you paid attention, you’d realize that Furlani was at the same interview answering questions as well.
Unless you think that maybe Furlani wouldn’t be qualified to answer those questions?
Maybe get your information from more than one source before you start calling people fools, Einstein.
Better still, as a real journalist that you are, go setup an interview with them and ask them whatever godamn question you have.
Lowlife.
Great interview. He seems very direct and have a clear idea on what to intervene and improve. Really glad to hear that he (and Allegri) will ‘start’ building the team from the midfield. We all know that’s been our problem from 2 seasons ago. Looks like Allegri is so involved in the project too, which is great.
The only thing I don’t like is when he described RLC lol.
Midfield is definitely first priority. Agree on the RLC comments. I just don’t have any faith he’ll be healthy for more than 19-20 games a year, other issues aside.
I do think we will see a bump up in quality from Fofana. First year in Serie A is always difficult. Also coming off the Euros and playing a ton of games he looked cooked by March.
Summer off, fewer games and a year of experience in Serie A will all help him. And I think we remember Reijnders’ first year. Average to good, but not Man City worthy. It takes time.
You saw clear ideas?
I read Tare’s words and Furlani’s words and there’s no unification. There are two people saying different things without a pattern.
Example: Moncada
Furlani: He remains out Technical Director with an excellent scouting system from France and other countries…
Tare: “He is a collaborator who will be with me to make these important choices…”
Furlani is still steamrolling in BS while Tare is trying to throw Nutella on s**t.
We are still going nowhere. Curb your enthusiasm.
Another foolish take, are a Sporting Director and a Technical Director of a club not supposed to work together? Even though the Technical Director also works closely with the Head of Scouting.
You, sir, are dense. And if you don’t know how to read between the lines, or gauge a tone of what is being said, then maybe refrain from looking like a bigger fool?
You must be nuts.
Go masturbate on stupidity.
I’m glad he has a plan, whether it is the right one or not time will tell, but for once we are targeting players based on the system we want to play.
I don’t agree that Gimenez is not a penalty box striker, he is certainly not pacey enough to be a support player.
Also, RLC a complete midfielder? Complete cr^p perhaps.
Concerning we are considering keeping him.
Seems like we want 3 defensive midfielders and defensive full backs, so lets be prepared for some very dull football
Imagine RLC playing 70% of his games the way he played against PSG last season. Pipe dream maybe, but that performance is possible. As to the defensive football, at this point I don’t care as long as it gets us back into the top 4. Allegri won’t stay forever.
The problem with RLC is his inconsistency and injuries. We need to move on, he’s not good enough
Tare sounds like he has a plan. But do we even have a project? What is the project? What is the goal for the next few seasons? Top4 meddle? CL participation but irrelevance?
I’ll just assume you’re playing devil’s advocate, or last season’s failures really hit you so bad.
You mean you don’t know?
A plan comes into place when a project has been designed.
Read properly below:
“With Allegri, are you aiming for a second star?
“The history of this club says it all. When you work for Milan, the first objective is to CREATE A COMPETITIVE TEAM TO WIN TROPHIES. I also tell it with great enthusiasm: it is an honour to work for a club with such a glorious history and together with the coach to give the maximum to achieve this objective too.”
And that answers what questions exactly? They have been declaring the same objectives every year they have been failing.
You asked a question, here you got it.
If they fulfill their objectives is another conversation entirely, heck even Inter milan never set an objective to win the league this season.
Sure, this sounds good, but Furlani still runs the show. And in his portion he stated, ” the goal remains the same- to compete…”.
The goal is not to compete. The goal is to win. Competing is a given when your goal is to win. We competed last year, according to Fur Face, and the results speak for themselves.
I think stating the goal must be to win the league is a fools errand. There are many teams in a stronger position than us right now, by saying “we need to win the title” all we’re doing is putting unrealistic expectations on the current crop of players. Some people benefit from over-ambition, others suffer from it. IMO we need to take the pressure off the team as it felt like all year last year the pressure was turned right up.
Nonsense. Napoli finished 10th in the 2023/24 season before winning the serie A title this season. Milan finished 8th this season. With only one day per week we should be fighting for the scudetto not aiming for 4th place.
All of the top teams have changed coaches and they are all playing more games per week than us next season. So we should be able to compete for the scudetto.
Nonsense, we won our last Scudetto without stating it as an objective, despite when we were well ahead in the lead, we never stated we had it as our objective to win it.
You think sporting objectives are like in your 9 to 5 jobs?
It’s good to take pressure off the younger players, especially the ones coming in, let them settle in, let them grow into the objective naturally through good performance and victories week after week, that way they set the objective themselves with the help of the experienced players.
The fact that they didn’t state that as an objective, John (not fool), is that for Elliott that was never an objective. That Scudetto was a byproduct of the work of Maldini, Masada, Gazidis and Pioli. Along with a core of players who believed in their mentors at the club.
Neither Elliott nor RedBird care to win, no matter how many fancy words they throw out at scripted interviews. Their objective is always profits and capital gains until they can sell to someone for more profit.
And if you think anything outside of that, then you must not have been paying attention for many years now.
“That Scudetto was a byproduct of the work of Maldini, Masada, Gazidis and Pioli. Along with a core of players who believed in their mentors at the club.”
Well, as much as I can remember, those players who believed in their mentors were being whooped right, left and center until a certain Zlatan came and gave them belief.
Whether you credit the Scudetto win to Maldini or his ancestors or you discredit Elliott or Redbird all you like, the path to follow is being followed this season, we cannot expressly declare publicly to win the league.
But, you don’t need to stress it, I know guys like you in here. If the management had declared our objective is to win the league this season, folks like you would give a thousand and one reasons why it was a wrong declaration.
They can talk all they want, buy the likes of Jashari etc. but the pattern tells us they will ship them out in a two seasons time for double. So don’t get too excited or attached. There’s no project in place but players ROI.
If they’re in a position to ship a lot of players out for double then it means we have a lot of players shining. I’d prefer that to having a bunch of players on our books who are worth less than their official value and salary.
All big teams turn over and sell players. The issue here is not having enough of those stars in the first place.
This makes no sense. Of course we don’t have enough stars because they keep selling them for profit
This is it, we are building nothing. It’s impossible to get excited about anything now as we know they will sell our best for profit as with Tonali and Tji, 2 guys who were happy to stay and we could have built the team around.
So even if we find the next R9 we are just a stepping stone. It’s a very very sad place to be as a Milan fan
That was a reply to Ted
This is all fine and dandy but his hands are tied to a certain point in the sense that he will have to self finance all these acquisitions he talks about.
Furlani isn’t going to put a lot of money into this and even if Tare manages to raise the capital, Furlani will still have to “dip in” with his authorizations in the case of Jashari for example.
So Tare is dependent on who he’s able to move out in the window to build the club he intends. Elliott isn’t interested in building a winning side. The primary objective is to build a side “good-enough” with players who have a potential for Capital Gains and sprinkle in some “financial dead wood” like Xhaka and Modric.
Winning sides generate more profits, but require more risk and investment. Elliott is risk averse. They will never take great strides with this club while they are around.
So basically Tare will have improv his way with this team to turn it into something. That’s why it’s hard to be enthusiastic moving forward.
-“How do you replace Reijnders?”
-“We have Loftus Cheek”…
Good Luck with that.