With about a month remaining, formally, until the end of the 2024/25 season, Milan has laid solid foundations for the next one. After a couple of months of soap opera, a new Sporting Director has finally been appointed: Igli Tare, who in turn identified the coach to start over with and to relaunch a project that, from a sporting standpoint, had stalled after this year's eighth-place finish and the disappointing performances in the Champions League and the Coppa Italia final.
It is precisely here that the first difference between the pre- and post-Tare Milan becomes evident. While we must wait to evaluate the work of the Albanian executive—impossible to do after just one week—it is clear how the modus operandi and timing of the Rossoneri before and after appointing a Sporting Director have been completely different. Amid the current chaos surrounding coaches—Juventus left holding the match with Conte, Inter worried about Inzaghi considering Saudi Arabia, and Atalanta having to make the difficult choice of a post-Gasperini era—Casa Milan wasted no time. Tare arrived, made his choice, and closed the deal for Allegri within a few hours.
The quality of the choice will be revealed by the pitch and time, but this is a completely different story compared to the excessive hesitation of recent seasons, which negatively impacted many sporting situations in the Rossoneri world.
A year ago, before Mister Pioli gave his heartfelt and emotional farewell to San Siro, there were still conflicting reports about the possibility of him staying. And once the issue of the coach from Emilia was resolved, it moved on to the Lopetegui soap opera, who was then cast aside after the widespread discontent from the fanbase.
Fonseca was eventually brought to Italy in July (with no club executive there to welcome him), while in the previous weeks potential opportunities like De Zerbi, Sarri, Allegri, and Conte were missed. That delay in decision-making had tangible consequences on the entire sporting year, including the late dismissal of Fonseca at the end of December, just hours before the team’s departure to Saudi Arabia for the Supercoppa.
The arrival in the club’s organizational chart of a “football man,” or “traditional,” as Furlani had described him a few weeks ago, has already borne fruit. There is no doubt that Marotta, just to give an example, in the event that Inzaghi accepted the lucrative Saudi offer, would have then called Allegri to check his availability.
In this case, however, for Milan there were no ifs, buts, or anything else: the hot potato has been left in others’ hands. Now the Rossoneri have two solid, recognizable, and respectable pillars to restart from. Tare has charted the path: stay silent, and work in silence. Without any kind of counterproductive hesitation.
