This article is produced by Sultan Al Shammari, Milanreports.com's staff member, who shared his own personal opinion on the club's current moment.
Talking about AC Milan during this period has become tedious. All the issues the club is currently facing are glaringly obvious and do not require an extraordinary intellect to analyse.
Some try to portray this project as cohesive and strong merely because of victories in the Milan derby in Serie A and against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu in the UEFA Champions League. It’s as if Milan is a small club whose season is defined by beating these teams.
This mindset, which some are attempting to propagate in the media, must be countered.
This responsibility lies with the owner and management. To be crystal clear in this article: owner Gerry Cardinale, who resides in the U.S., doesn’t seem to truly understand what Milan is. He doesn’t comprehend what it means to be the rightful owner of a major football club like Milan. Notably, in a past interview, he expressed interest in purchasing a mid-tier club and stated he doesn’t believe in heavy spending to achieve success.
When someone with a more economic background, and little sporting expertise and ambitions speaks, it becomes evident that his goals are financial. Sports merely serve as a gateway to those economic objectives.
Who among you knew Cardinale before his arrival at Milan? Even Google seemed largely unaware of his achievements and presence. This is a crucial point for Milan fans to understand. One of the primary prerequisites of owning Milan is possessing the historical awareness to lead such a colossal entity.
All respect to Cardinale as an individual, but he must realise that Milan is not the right place for him in a sporting sense. It may very well be the perfect stepping stone to achieve his economic ambitions, as evidenced by his newfound stature, which perhaps may have enabled him to expand his goals beyond the U.S, like in recent negotiations, including his talks to acquire global companies, such as the British Telegraph newspaper.
Cardinale arrived at a time when Milan had a robust infrastructure. The previous owners, Elliott, had done tremendous work in rebuilding the club’s sporting, economic, marketing, and legal frameworks to restore balance after nearly seven years of struggles.
How should Cardinale’s decisions be evaluated, particularly his trust in Giorgio Furlani, who has no prior expertise in managing the books of a football club.
Was Cardinale’s administrative formation appropriate? Did he select the right people to manage the sporting landscape? Are the current staff truly capable of restoring Milan to its rightful place? Especially since, upon his arrival on August 30, 2022, Cardinale declared the goal of returning Milan to global competitions within five years. Yet, he has not outlined a clear sporting project.
Instead, he has primarily focused on the new stadium project among other secondary objectives.
Cardinale does not grasp the weight of being Milan’s owner or the importance of this club to fans worldwide. He is pushing ideas unrelated to football, implementing a concept derived from baseball called Moneyball. This fictional concept succeeded in movies but has a real-life success rate of barely 1%.
You cannot run an Italian football club successfully when the owner talks only about the stadium, the CEO works in the shadows, and the sporting director does not talk much to the media. Since arriving in 2018, the technical director has given just three interviews. And what about the sporting director? He seems to have been appointed merely for legal reasons related to signing contracts.
Is this what a true sporting project looks like? Is AC Milan being managed correctly?
Is there anyone addressing tactical or technical shortcomings when the coach makes mistakes? Are the players given security when facing criticism? Often, it seems that players become scapegoats when the mangars don't protect them by talking to the media after tough matches.
notable example is the recent incident between Rafael Leao and Paulo Fonseca. When the administration opted for silence instead of intervening, it missed an opportunity to support the team and ensure locker room harmony...
This approach reveals Milan signs players opportunistically, not strategically, to implement a clear sporting vision.
My advice? Cardinale needs to realise that Milan is far bigger than his ambitions. His ideas don’t align with this club, and with such a vision, he won’t be able to adapt to us, the fans of this grand entity.
Many fans await the day when Gerry Cardinale sells the club to another investor who will have a different approach than RedBird.
For us, Milan is not just a football club but an entity that gives us a sense of security and a sense of belonging. There is still much doubt about the current management’s work.
Forza Milan!
