It would be fair to say that the news of Julen Lopetegui emerging as the favourite candidate to take over at AC Milan has brought about a passionate response.
As Tuttosport (via MilanNews) write this morning, the name of Lopetegui has split Milan in two. On the one hand there is the club who chose the Spaniard as the new coach for the next season, on the other the fans who have immediately sparked their protests against his possible arrival.
Gerry Cardinale was ‘surprised by the reaction of the AC Milan fans’ as per the report, and ‘not indifferent’ to the rather vocal expression of disapproval that came about on social media, like the petition against him titled ‘NOPEtegui’.
While the former Real Madrid and Spain boss has dispelled all the doubts from the management – which includes the trio of Giorgio Furlani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Geoffrey Moncada – the owner has been forced to slam on the brakes.
There is a three-year deal worth €4m net per season on the table for Lopetegui but only Cardinale will be able to give the green light to close the deal, having been ‘caught off guard’ but the negative response of the fans.
What about the alternatives? Antonio Conte is not being considered, while Thiago Motta is but Juventus have a clear advantage. Francesco Farioli of OGC Nice, Mark van Bommel of Antwerp, Paulo Fonseca of Lille, Marco Rose of RB Leipzig and Sergio Conceicao of Porto remain on the list.
There is now a state of reflection going on at Casa Milan while they evaluate other options, they know well that the choice of coach is fundamental for the short and long-term future of Milan, so they want to get it right.
De Zerbi?
You do know that De Zerbi team concedes a lot of goals and defense wins titles right? I don’t understand why you guys are so hyped about this overrated De Zerbi when his team loses big and concedes a lot of goals.
Better than lopetegui
What is fascinating about de zarbi really , can’t understand the hype .
Played fantastic football last year with brighton pep was chocked(cant spell)injuries and games in europe this year have slowed them down but de zerbi has great potential and are an exciting option
Gerry and his gang have no idea about football or what this great club is about. I am sick of American bankers trying to turn Milan into a cash cow for Gerry and friends. They will destroy this great club and most of you have bought into the propaganda which America is so good at producing!
Gerry and his American friends should leave Europe and go back to the New York Yankees
👆
👏 well said bro…..some stupid analytic somewhere will have said that Conte or Zidane are too expensive and that you don’t need to pay X for a coach when there are so many available for Y..I mean on paper ex Real Madrid and Spain coach…’wow’ let’s not investigate further that he didn’t last a season at Madrid and was awful….
Guys we need to do a basic finance course. I think you don’t understand exactly how the fund is generating cash from the club. Not saying in any way or form that they are making the right decisions, but their goals entirely match our goals. The only big way they will get green out of Milan is through bringing the evaluation up. That and the stadium construction contracts. Basically they get cash from businesses that can be separated from the football club, but the huge opportunity is to increase the club value and at some point sell at price above the market value. So they need good players, they need titles, etc.
No they need a desirable sellable asset like Ashley created with Newcastle. Ashley was never prepared to invest, and won no titles but had Newcastle with a good balance sheet. The better the balance sheet the more attractive the sale. This can be achieved by selling stars. They don’t need top star players, that’s exactly what moneyball is, replacing top expensive stars with lower paid, cheaper ones who can match the numbers across the aggregate
You said the one thing Cardinale KNOWS he can get. A stadium. The rest doesn’t matter when he sells us.
If they milk the club for money, as you people think they’re doing, the value of said club will inevitably drop. And then you make a big – when you sell it.
So yeah. It makes zero sense to do, from a business point of view, what you people keep saying they’re doing..
Also the club was plenty destroyed already, somehow since murcians came (elliot) we are looking better than ever before in the last 10 years. Go figure. Not a fan of muricans myself, but yoh people have no fûcking idea how to run anything. All you want ia big spending and trophies. But you gotta work yourself up to be able to spend big… especially with the giant financial gap between Italian and English leagues
Are you all familiar with the James Pallotta era at Roma? where they won nothing, sold their best players and only aiming for top 4? How can we not see the similarities?Gerry and his American friends should leave football and go back to the New York Yankees.
They did win something? It was kinda a big deal for murinho at the time…
They can easily use that previous Pioli card. When most of the fans echoed #PioliOut before he even signed.
Get Sarri. Most noteworthy of all the available coaches being bandied about, Conte excluded. Not ideal for PR sake, but atleast he’ll get the job done…
Why do journalists insist on this stupid description ‘former’? How about a discussion of what is?
Is Lopetegui’s failed tenure at Real Madrid that much more worthy of mention than Pioli’s failed tenure at Inter? Madrid is a powerhouse because Franco made it that way. It has had virtually no history of innovation, just big spending. It’s appointed plenty of failed coaches.
How about former Inter and former-Milan–scudetto-winning coach Pioli? What about former Juventus coach Pirlo?
They think it provides context but what it really seems to do is put them in the mindset of narrative acceptance.
What’s wrong with Lopetegui, the former Madrid boss?
Whether the fans can articulate it or not, they have an instinct for when they are being treated like fools. Delivering them Lopetegui is treating Milan fans like fools. They’ve seen this guy before, he was a bald Italian who came in 4.5 years ago to stabilise things. 4.5 years later it is time for an actual progression.
I suspect that also tied up in all of this is that identity crisis that Italians seems to suffer from (which is not a surprise given all of the years of commie and EU fasc**t rule). Yes, a majority of the best coaches in the world are Italian. Yes, a majority of the best up and coming coaching in the world are Italian. Yes, it has basically always been this way. And, yes, it is insulting that the fans are faced with international mediocrity in place of the proven or up-and-coming Italian coaching talent.
Hansi Flick is available
Absolutely! why wouldn’t we go after him!!!!
Frank above is a f**king Genius! 🤣🤣🤣
LMAO at the idiotic sentiment that Gerry is only in it for the money.
What football club owner isn’t??? Who purchases a club to lose and bleed money?? Zhang? ADL? Who?
Every club owner wants to make profits at the club. But so many fail at it. Look at Chelsea’s, ManUtd’s even Inter’s debts…. WHAT?! LOL!!!