AC Milan, one of the top clubs in Europe for so long have found themselves in something of an identity crisis, players not performing to the levels they should, the results being absolutely abysmal and poor choices overall have got them there. A closer look points directly at the management, who since their arrival, has blown up the clubs plans on multiple occasions, proven they don’t care about the club or about winning trophies, it is all a vanity project to them.
There is zero leadership at Milan. The current state the club finds itself in, is similar to the one only a decade ago, but it is also different. How can it be so different? Well for starters, 10 years ago, Silvio Berlusconi had control over the club, and he took the club as far as it would go, but it needed a change, a fresh vision because the mid table finishes of that time were just not good enough.
What happened next when the Chinese ownership came in, they made statements about bringing the club back and all that. Empty promises, which caused Milan even more headaches as the financial state of the club was getting worse, so much so that they weren’t able to play in teh Europa League one year. So much mismanagement from them. Soon after, because the debts were too large, Elliot Fund took over the club. To their credit they cultivated a team of individuals that knew Football and could bring the club back to where it was.
Paolo Maldini, Ricky Massara and Ivan Gazidis all worked together for a common goal. Get Milan back to the top, and it was not an easy process, as so many players had to be moved on, coach changes, the works. Stefano Pioli was brought in, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was brought back to the club. The middle of the 2019/20 season, things started to shift, and when the season returned from hiatus in 2020, Milan were one of the more successful teams to finish that season, the table didn’t show it, owing to an extremely poor start, but got back up by the end of the season to show some serious promise, and grab European Football. The following season was even better, falling just short in a Scudetto charge, finishing in second behind Inter, and getting back into the Champions League after 7 long years.
Then the 21/22 season, the league title was achieved, all the work that everyone had put in together to bring the club back to prominence had been rewarded. The ownership group of Redbird took over after that season and didn’t put anything into getting Milan to the next level, such as Champions League winners next. The 22/23 season brought about mixed results as the league they just finished top 4, but made the Champions League Semi Finals once again, which was a fantastic achievement.
Maldini who was sporting director made comments after the semi final defeat that investments needed to be made, and he was right. This is where things fell apart. Not even a week after the season ended, Redbird fired Maldini and Massara, mistake number 1. In the transfer window, they sold part of the midfield and top quality player in Sandro Tonali, mistake number 2, and then thought it was wise to bring in essentially a whole new squad. They went on to finish 2nd in the league, owing to Pioli’s relationship with the squad. But it was a failure of a season, being dumped out of the Coppa Italia, dropping into the Europa League and getting knocked out of that later on too.
Piolo’s leaving was the end. But the truth is, Redbird have been setting up Milan to fail, and putting up the wall of, profits. Now, Milan are sitting in 9th, beaten by Feyernoord in the Champions League, and it doesn’t matter who has been brought in, they have been set up to fail. Paolo Fonseca, wasn’t given anything to work with, now Sergio Conceição is being blamed, when he clearly is not the problem, he came in and beat Juventus and Inter in back to back Supercoppa games, won so many trophies with Porto. The fact is, nothing will change until this management is gone, Redbird are killing this club, all down to lack of leadership, lack of care and no willingness to learn.
Now all of a sudden, they apparently see that changes are needed, but in the end, the mindset is still the same, they don’t care about on-field results, only about turning a profit. That’s the only reason they brought in Santiago Jimenez, and Joao Felix, while they are top class players, there is only so much they can do when there is no willingness from the management to work towards a common goal. It all stems from the top, and Milan are not the only example here, Manchester United is a perfect example. Now the question becomes, will they shift? Or will they stay the course?