Journalist Antonio Vitiello believes that AC Milan’s management is incomplete by not having a sporting director, while there are a number of other figures whose roles seem confused.
The decision to relieve Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara of their duties at the end of the 2022-23 season was met with an understandably volatile reaction, and there are those that believe they still have not been replaced.
The reasons for the dismissal of the duo was debated at length, but to concise matters a lot it seemed as though Gerry Cardinale wanted a more collegial working group, with Geoffrey Moncada effectively promoted to technical director and Antonio D’Ottavio becoming his assistant.
However, on the day that Maldini spoke again (albeit not answering any questions about the Rossoneri), there remain doubts about whether the management that has been assembled can bring silverware.
Vitiello has written his weekly column for MilanNews and he took aim at the corporate structure of Milan, one which he believes does not have all of the ingredients needed to succeed.
“Milan’s start to the season has been terrible, Paulo Fonseca is already playing for everything in a few days,” he began.
“The Portuguese coach is in trouble, his ideas are not being received by the team and Musah inadvertently confirmed this after the defeat against Parma. ‘We don’t know whether to attack or stay still’. This is just one of the many misunderstandings, not to mention the Leao and Theo case.
“Either they change gear immediately or it will end badly. Milan also lack a sporting director, a field manager who is at Milanello every day to give strength to the coach’s choices and to resolve internal issues, especially with the players.
“Ibrahimovic is not a sporting director. Zlatan is the owner’s right-hand man, he is not even required to be at the training complex every day. He is not even listed in the club’s organisational chart, he is not a Milan manager but rather a Cardinale man.
“If Zlatan is away for business commitments, whether personal or representing the American fund RedBird, who is with the team? Who resolves situations on the pitch?
“Moncada is a great scout, he has always done this throughout his career and is good at reporting talents around Europe, but that is not what a sporting director does. Among the most important tasks of a sporting director is the daily management at the training ground and dealing with the critical issues of individual players.
“Furlani is the man of accounts and finance, he focuses on the economic aspect of negotiations, and not even he can cover this role. This is why we think that Milan is currently lacking a figure of this kind. Ibrahimovic could theoretically do it but in reality he is not because he has a thousand other marketing and sponsor issues to follow.”
Oh Wow! Maybe next, Vitiello can point out that the sky is blue and explain why.
Not really anything ground breaking here. It’s plain as day that we’re missing a DS as was evident from the mercato.
No 100% correct but the truth and the truth is what should be written about this Management and owner who pretend to be wanting to elevate Milan in the world of football.
No one in Seria A fears Milan and everyone want to play them instead of Juve Inter Roma or anyone else.
This is totally disgusting what the owner has done a total disrespect to players and managers who have brought glory to this club in the past!!!!!
I agree and have said million times that Milan absolutely needs a proper, experienced, qualified, competent, well connected sporting director not some ex player like Maldini or Ibra who has zero managerial experience.
But, it’s always funny to me that every time Milan losses a game or losses points, there is someone in the media that will say the reason for it is that there is no one who is at Milanello every day to supervise everything like Maldini and Massara did, creating a myth around those 2 abilities.
Do people remember the month of January in 2023?
These were Milan results during that stretch:
Milan- Roma 2:2, Milan- Torino 0:1 (10 men Torino btw), Lecce- Milan 2:2, Milan- Inter 0:3, Lazio- Milan 4:0, Milan- Sassuolo 2:5, Inter – Milan 1-0 (Leao benched for that derby).
Worst month in Milan entire history. Maldini and Massara were at Milanello. How come they couldn’t do anything to prevent or stop that embarrassment?
Few months later. The date is may 13th 2023. Milan is holding on for dear life to stay less than 10 points behind Juventus on the table so they can qualify for the UCL thanks to their 10 points deduction. It’s Week 35 Milan losses on the road to Spezia 2:0. After the game all of the players, Pioli and the coaching staff, lined up like some bad kids, in front of the whole world were getting scolded by Curva Sud.
If Maldini and Massara daily presence was so important and effective why was there a need for the fans to intervene?
The coach and especially the leaders/ captains suppose to police the locker room. Not a sporting director. But Milan leaders and captains are Calabria, Theo and Leao. That’s all you need to know about the state of Milan’s locker room if those 3 are your leaders.
Yes. I would not mind to have similar results this year, a bad January followed by a CL semi final. So we manedged the season well after all. Now, somehow i strongly doupt Fonseca can turn things around.
Agree, well said
Agree with every word. Maldini was so amazing we missed out on actual players who could’ve made a difference, bought a load of dead wood and finished 4th in the league… His next moves reportedly were hiring Pirlo and bringing in yet more dead wood like El Shawaary. Management’s mistake wasn’t firing him it was not properly replacing him.
Also won the title? Or that didn’t happen?
I agree that Milan needs proper staff, I was writing of this for the past 2 months. But how do you manage to skip the Scudetto won?
Right – the point is everyone keeps saying he “built a scudetto winning team that was torn apart by RedBird.” But finished 4th the next season….
@Z. Totally agree. I couldn’t have said it better.
I am really sick and tired of Milan hiring past players with no management experience. It doesn’t work and it is causing a lot of problems.
Inter best signing was Marotta. He is the reason why they are better than us.
I don’t even understand why Milan choose Ibra when Roma is trying to get Atalanta Sporting Director Tony D’Amico to join them. Sigh!
No sure what you understand by leadership. Probably Maldini is not the best sporting director but he had plenty of experience in Football, demonstrated leadership skills, undisputed loyalty and was a respected figure to represent the club in any forum. What you have now in charge of the club are a group that together can’t equal what Maldini represents. Cardinale talks more about the stadium than about fútbol. It is not an owner that is involved with the team as we see in other clubs. He is an investor that wants to increase the value of the club to sell it later but it is obvious he doesn’t understand what he needs to put the club back where it belongs. Look at the results since he is the owner. The fact that he has trusted in a young guy called Furlani that nobody knows proves my point. Furlani has probably great qualifications to be a CEO but has never kicked a football ball. He looks lost. Nobody respects him as a leader within the club and even worst, nobody respects him outside the club. That is something that worries me as a fan. He doesn’t inspire anyone, nobody wants to hear what he has to say, he probably was jealous about the figure of Maldini and that he was the guy everyone wanted to talk. He doesn’t fit the description of a leader under my humble opinion. Moncada could be a nice guy as well but has no leadership skills. I haven’t heard him talking, making statements or helping the players while training, and no comments about Ibra, he is himself and has been in so many clubs that everything is about him. It is not a figure that could be considered to lead the team outside the field.
This is a false dichotomy – Maldini or the current situation.
@ZionTrain above nails it. The answer is a hire like Marotta. The right leadership at DS will put the right leadership in place on the pitch.
Maldini is very well appreciated by Milan players and they were not happy when he was forced to leave the club.Bring back Paolo.a figure like Maldini is what is missing.not about management tasks
But you forgot how Maldini single-handedly wont us the latest scudetto. Never forget. 😀 😀 😀
*won
We obviously need a DS that knows how to put together a balanced squad and with the ability to select at coach that does not depend on a long stretch to experiment in order to get things going (which Milan can’t afford).
The key to progress is not simply good scouting.
To everyone that says Maldini leadership is missing.
Maldini was a technical director at Milan from the summer of 2019. By the end of that calendar year Milan was 11th, 22 points behind Juventus and Inter, and just got embarrassed before Christmas by Atalanta 5:0, with Gasperini dancing on the sidelines. Where was the leadership?
Do we remember what happened a few weeks later? Zlatan Ibrahimovic was signed. A true champion and someone who is self motivated, who dragged people with him forward, a leader. His everyday presence at Milanello changed Milan, not Paolo and Massara sitting on the benches and watching practices, or giving high 5s. Everything was on the up and up while Ibra, the player, was able to train and be present at Milanello every day. That stopped after the scudetto because he had a surgery and was recovering away from Milanello. From that point on Milan had no leader anymore at Milanello, even though Paolo and Massara were at training sessions every day.
Milan is missing a true champion and a leader in the squad. They thought that Theo and Leao would be that, but they fooled themselves. Those 2 can’t lead flies to sh!t.
If you are not self-motivated and ambitious to be better and greater regardless of anyone else, you are not a champion.
Cristiano at 40 doesn’t need someone to motivate him.
Ibra at 40+ didn’t need someone to motivate him.
Modric at 39 doesn’t need another person to motivate him.
But Theo and Leao need Paolo to motivate them.
Damn that’s too long to read, just say that you hate the guy we got it. From my window, Milan has been terrible for 10 years and the only moment we had some excitement and a trophy was with Maldini in the management. And now it’s back to sht storms similar to the banter era. That’s it.
A perfect sum up in 3 sentences. No need to write a science fiction novel.
“Do we remember what happened a few weeks later? Zlatan Ibrahimovic was signed. A true champion and someone who is self motivated, who dragged people with him forward, a leader. His everyday presence at Milanello changed Milan, not Paolo and Massara sitting on the benches and watching practices, or giving high 5s. Everything was on the up and up while Ibra, the player, was able to train and be present at Milanello every day. That stopped after the scudetto because he had a surgery and was recovering away from Milanello. From that point on Milan had no leader anymore at Milanello, even though Paolo and Massara were at training sessions every day.
Milan is missing a true champion and a leader in the squad. They thought that Theo and Leao would be that, but they fooled themselves. Those 2 can’t lead flies to sh!t.”
The facts are all there. Nothing to add.
Within the squad, it was Ibra who was a leader. But man, read some of the other arguments. Maldini is a person for which all doors are open, and he was a great asset, maybe the greatest in the previous ownership. He is difficult guy to deal with though, no wonder he did not have any role under Berlusconi, and no wonder he had issues with Cardinale (SINCE DAY ONE!!!). But man, we really really needed to replace him with adequate people. Our sporting department is non existent! And its not like Maldini did a bad job, quite the opposite. Yes there were bad moves, Origi, CDK… But he was working with limited budget, creating a core of players like MM16, Theo, Tomori, Tonali, Leao, Benacer, together with some loanies like Dalot and Diaz that we never properly replaced.
Yet Maldini brought Zlatan back to Milan although top management were against it.
And ever since there’s no one monitoring the team and support the lads like M&M did, we are booming right? I mean mostly with negative records but still.
Chill bros. Why are you attack Maldini while the article talks about the lack of a sporting director? You go out on the street and hang out with your family and friends and you put on this cool and calm and fun image. While you act like an obsessed P of S online. Maldini got fired and he will never be coming back to Milan as long as Cardinale owns the club. So please chill for your own good. For god’s sake, sometimes I wonder what has Maldini done to your families that made him your nemesis.