AC Milan are heading for a season without any European football at all, and it will likely force them to make a ‘big’ sale to plug the financial gap.
As Corriere dello Sport reports this morning, there is an unwritten mathematical rule in football, but it usually works: when the points gap is greater than the number of games left to play, it is impossible to think of catching up.
So, whether it is Bologna or Juventus or any of the other rivals in the running (Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina), Milan – with seven games left to play – can no longer think of competing for fourth place and securing the proceeds from the Champions League.
The result: less budget for the new sporting director. Who will it be? Giorgio Furlani is pushing for Tony D’Amico of Atalanta and has flown to the States to meet Gerry Cardinale. The owner of Milan, however, thinks like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and would like to hire Igli Tare.
Failure to qualify for the Champions League would mean a failed season. At the beginning of the year, the proclamations of the management, coach and players included the word ‘Scudetto’, then reduced to fourth place, to conclude with the desperate search for any European spot.
The Supercoppa Italiana, won in January in Riyadh a few days after Sergio Conceiçao took over as coach, is certainly not enough to increase the rating for 2024-25. Being ninth place is too much to ignore, and though there is time a late surge up the table seems unlikely.
The man to be sacrificed
The ‘symbol’ of Milan’s season is Theo Hernandez. Even against Fiorentina, the Frenchman offered the usual performance full of errors. Several times he struggled with Dodo’s changes of direction, he was inattentive to off-ball movement and was wasteful when he got into La Viola’s box.
In short, too many technical errors from a single player, and there is one incident in particular that annoyed a large part of the Milan fan base. In the 41st minute, Theo and Dodo had an argument while Gudmundsson passed at close quarters, being allowed to put the ball into a dangerous area.
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— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) April 5, 2025
Without the Champions League, the club will not earn the minimum €40m in revenue from participating in the tournament, plus the riches of ticket sales for the four home games at San Siro.
Financial stability will allow the Rossoneri to survive the lost proceeds without too many problems, but these will certainly affect the budget for the summer transfer window.
It will also impact any resistance to big offers that come in for top players. Theo’s name pops up again here: without a renewal (his deal expires in 2026), the full-back is ‘destined to be sold’.
Theo Hernandez is not Milan biggest problem.
We had Hernandez for 5 season and still so many bad results even with him in best shape.
Biggest problem is defence with Tomori Thiaw and Pavlovic, than midfield with Musah Bondo
He was unsellable before this season and you have yo think that with a manager who can organise a defensive strategy he would become unsellable again. His defensive awareness has always been poor – you have to protect that so he can focus on his strengths or you will have a player that is underperforming. Same with Leao – peak Leao had Tonali covering his ar$e. We need to stop trying to make him defend and simply protect him.
That said (about Theo), sometimes the damage is done and a clean break is best for all parties. Standing around arguing while the space he’s supposed to defend was being attacked was one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen on a football pitch in a long time.
Whatever the ‘right’ decision is, we’ll probably do the opposite 😂 so let’s wait and see.
Theo have gone 3-4 years without any competition for starting spot. On top of that he play almost every game to the end. No wonder he is spent and have no motivation. He have been way to bad but if you continue to start players even when they make big mistakes they will get comfortable and never learn.
Being tired and unmotivated is one thing, but diving, getting stup!d red cards and arguing with a player during an attack is simply inexcusable. This is Balotelli level of lack of discipline.
Offloading Theo sends a message to the players. Shape Up or Ship Out. Period.
Milan have had excellent finances for years I don’t think one season out of Europe is going to be the death of the club it certainly didn’t kill Roma, I don’t mind a season out if it means cleaning up the internal mess properly. Honestly the squad is still very strong so not too many new players are needed and we have a lot of deadwood that needs to be moved on