The news of the AC Milan's termination of directors Maldini and Massara's respective contracts, to whom Gerry Cardinale has expressed the intention to continue without their services, was a real earthquake in the Rossoneri world that, less than 24 hours earlier, bid a heartfelt farewell to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and looked hopefully towards the future. Now, many things could change. One above all: the transfer market.
The rumor of Maldini and Massara's separation from Milan comes at a less than ideal time in terms of timing and market strategies. The transfer window officially opens in less than a month, but discussions and negotiations have already begun, with the Rossoneri already at work on several fronts. Milan cannot afford to waste time, and it can be assumed that the club already had a plan in place to compensate for the departure of Maldini and Massara.
In fact, Giorgio Furlani, the new CEO since December, will have expanded roles related to buying and selling and will be assisted by experienced chief scout Geoffrey Moncada, who will likely not have the role of sporting director de jure (technically) but will be de facto (in practice). This would explain, for example, how the Kamada operation is still close to being concluded in the coming weeks and has stalled only due to general bureaucratic issues and not because of the upheavals at Casa Milan, as has also been speculated in recent hours.
New method of working for AC Milan
Starting from this transfer window, Milan will change its way of doing business in the market. A modus operandi that will be more in line with Cardinale's ideas, implemented primarily from his experiences in American sports. In three words, the new management of the Rossoneri market can be summarized as follows: youth, scouting, and algorithms.
The first point is the green line, which, to be honest, has been the main prerogative of Milan since the arrival of the first American ownership, and to which Maldini and Massara, with some exceptions, have adhered. It is very likely that these departures from the rule will no longer be seen: operations like Ibrahimovic or Kjaer, for instance. Secondly, as a prerequisite to the youth policy, the scouting process, already very active in recent seasons, will be increased and will be even more central in the selection of profiles to focus on.
Lastly, algorithms and player data analysis will be of primary importance, following the methodology of the American guru Billy Beane, who revolutionized the way of managing a baseball franchise in America in the early 2000s, challenging criticisms and suspicions. There's even a movie about his story, Moneyball. His philosophy has already been used, for example, with Toulouse and has yielded interesting results. We will see if it can take hold with Milan, which, with all due respect to baseball and Toulouse itself, is a whole different world.
Story relayed from: Milannews.it
