Since 2022 the club has been experiencing constant disagreements between managers with the owners only worrying about the profit and loss account. Here is the descending parable up to today’s crisis, awaiting a new turnaround.
As in an eternal Groundhog Day, which burns managers, coaches, players, dreams and results and in the end also risks burning money, because without sporting results even economic plans suffer. Welcome to Milan where for four years, cyclically, those who lead Milan seem interested in everything except the good and the history of one of the most glorious brands in the world. A descent into hell made up of divisions, hidden or open struggles, personalisms and wrong choices with a single common denominator: wearing out the patience of the Rossoneri people.
The sensational protest on the night of the home defeat against Atalanta is only the last chapter of a novel of horrors. Since the happy days of winning the Scudetto number 19 (May 2022) Casa Milan has lived in the precariousness of a confrontation between currents in which synthesis is never found if not in the progressive downsizing of ambitions, value and results in the field. All while on the other side of the Naviglio the cousins of Inter are winning and seem the antithesis of what happens in via Aldo Rossi: solid, lucid, with a solid and continuous management, finally also economically sustainable.
From Maldini’s last minute contract to… D’Amico: four years without peace
A merry-go-round that is still very hot, with the renewals of Paolo Maldini and the sports director Ricky Massara signed at the last minute precisely because with the championship having just been won it was impossible to do without it. Creaks already evident then, showdown postponed only for twelve months until 5 June 2023: fourth place in the table, Champions League semi-final lost against Inter, dismissal letter for Maldini. The reason? Too individualistic, guilty of having burned money in the De Ketelaere coup and, in general, of not adapting to the collegiality required by the working group organized by Giorgio Furlani on behalf of Gerry Cardinale.
The rest is history. The triad Furlani, Moncada, Pegs immediately in difficulty, the arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in December 2023 with the never entirely clear role of senior advisor to the owners, a sporting director (D’Ottavio) hired only because he was mandatory by regulation, a so-so season in Europe (outside the groups) and saved from second place in the championship before the new spring of fire: Ibrahimovic center of the village (“I’m the boss”), Conte discarded after chasing Lopetegui – rejected by popular acclaim – to take Fonseca and finish at Conceicao.
Result? Mid-table, depressing European path, the small satisfaction of the Italian Super Cup snatched from Inter and Furlani’s final summary: “Failure season, various mistakes made and they will have to be corrected”. So, off to a new round of merry-go-round which ended with the choice of Igli Tare as sporting director not before having chased Tony D’Amicounder contract at Atalanta, and Fabio Paratici, still disqualified for the capital gains case at Juventus. The third choice, in short. And with him Max Allegri to ensure that he understood the mistakes of the year before.
How it went a year later is news. A team that was competitive for a long time and then suddenly shut down at the beginning of March, a bad summer market (through everyone’s fault) and a winter market characterized by two thinking heads with players treated without the knowledge of the sporting director and the coach and then faded due to physical or technical problems. And while the results began to become worrying, the rumors about Tare’s imminent farewell, the candidacy of the usual D’Amico, Allegri never clear in closing the possibility of the national team and the people who rightly began to really not be able to stand it anymore.
Cardinal increasingly central (and less and less present)
In the meantime, Gerry Cardinale liquidated the Singer family by closing the vendor loan and relying on the Canadian fund Comvesthas won (for now) the political battle on San Siro and extended the horizon of his commitment to Italian football. Which, however, he attends little and not without gaffes given that he continues to think he is managing a form of entertainment – as his president Paolo Scaroni confessed -, while in reality he manages the history of a club always accustomed to competing for victory.
Cardinale comes to Milan every now and then, takes a tour and has some photos taken. Everything remains in the hands of Giorgio Furlani who the fans can no longer stand because in their eyes he embodies all the malaise. And it is the center of the carousel which from the outside appears to be a gigantic clash between opposing egos in which each aims to prevent the others from overshadowing, even at the cost of invading the other’s territory of competence. A virus that has now also attacked sports projects.
Milan, four years of failures on the pitch
The result is that from May 2022 to May 2026 Milan won an Italian Super Cup and in the championship accumulated a virtual gap of 57 points from Inter (332 against 275). He burned four coaches – Pioli, Fonseca, Conceiçao and now Allegri -, spending a lot and badly on the transfer market: 503 million euros (source Transfermarkt) with a negative balance of just under 200.
What if he doesn’t get there qualification for the next Champions League? It would be an economic and sporting disaster. How Cardinale reacts to the prospect of being without the richest Europe’s revenues was seen a year ago: sales and cuts to cover the “hole” and avoid budget imbalances. Except that today it would mean going and putting our hands on Casa Milan’s silverware by handing over to the next (Italian?) coach a team that is hardly stronger than Allegri’s.
By the way, who will choose sporting director and coach? And will Furlani stay or will the pressure of the protest convince Cardinale to choose another plenipotentiary, probably to make him do the same things Furlani does? The fourth chapter of Rossoneri’s groundhog day is only just beginning and the underlying question is another: is there anyone who really loves Milan?
