Too many gears cause a jam: How Milan’s complex hierarchy works and the issues faced | OneFootball

As AC Milan continue to be linked with umpteen head coach candidates and as many striker targets towards the end of the season, the management and in particular the chain of command has come into question.

Antonio D’Ottavio, Geoffrey Moncada, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Giorgio Furlani and finally Gerry Cardinale: this is the decision-making process that are involved in making the big calls at Milan. Their roles, in order: sporting director, technical director, senior advisor, CEO and owner.

It is important to outline that from the start, because Milan are preparing to experience an intriguing summer which will see the birth of a new project after the now-certain dismissal of Stefano Pioli at the end of the season, a choice made after too many big-game failures.

In the background there is the complicated situation off the field with the investigation by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office regarding the sale from Elliott Management to RedBird Capital and the existence of a potential ‘mole’ within the club.

The accusation in all of this complexity is that there is a risk of overlapping in the decision-making chain. Furlani, Ibrahimovic, Moncada and D’Ottavio are the key players who – in hierarchical order – will have to agree on how to move forward next season.

What is the current chain of command? Moncada and D’Ottavio work with the scouting team and consult the algorithms to select players they deem to be attractive in view of the transfer window.

Ibrahimovic is the first filter, the one who selects which objective to pursue, then Furlani has the responsibility of making everything financially sustainable. That is the penultimate step before handing everything over to Cardinale for the final signature.

Unclear roles

However, increasing the number of gears also increases the risk of jamming. This seems to be the reason why to date Milan’s strategy regarding the appointment of the next coach appears far from clear.

Thiago Motta, Julen Lopetegui, Maurizio Sarri, Antonio Conte, Paulo Fonseca, Sergio Conceicao, Ruben Amorin, Mark van Bommel and Roberto Martinez are not just names fired out by the newspapers. Many of these have also actually been contacted by management, a huge and varied list that reflects the various thinking heads within the leadership.

In addition to slowing down the decision-making process, many brains also bring with them differences of opinion and judgment. For this reason, Milan currently sees itself overtaken in the race for Thiago Motta, the true first choice for the post-Pioli era, by the much more clear and structured Juventus.

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This is a problem perhaps ‘exacerbated’ by the addition of Zlatan, even though he is a recent added dynamic. Even last summer though Milan ended up having to often change their minds during the battle for players due to the non-linear management strategy which saw Davide Frattesi, Marcus Thuram and Mehdi Taremi all disappear at the photo finish, and to rivals Inter.

In fact, the Bianconeri and Nerazzurri have a clearer and more solid organisational chart with one, maximum two, ‘decision-making’ managers who can open and close a negotiation even in the space of a few hours.

Not Milan, for the Rossoneri every operation is an ordeal. Analysis, counter-analysis, technical and financial evaluations must come first and then, only then, can they sit down at the table to deal in concrete terms. This cumbersome process can also capitulate at any moment if a veto comes from those above in the hierarchy.

A huge mercato

Yet despite this, last summer Milan closed with 10 signings, a sign that things are perhaps slow to happen but at least they do eventually happen in the end.

Looking down the list of players that arrived during the last summer mercato, it is easy to put a positive spin on things too. Luka Jovic was the deadline day alternative to Taremi who has scored nine goals in all competitions, most of them off the bench. Noah Okafor has also been limited to mostly substitute appearances, but has scored six times.

Christian Pulisic has been the real flagship of the window with 13 goals to his name – the same amount as Rafael Leao – then Ruben Loftus-Cheek has also made the most of making the hop over from west London with 10 goals. Tijjani Reijnders has been a virtual ever-present too, so there are glimmers of hope.

However, we also cannot skirt around the facts. Okafor, Chukwueze, Musah, Pellegrino, Jovic, Romero and Terracciano have been little more than supporting players, if not quite big disappointments.

This is not because Milan did not adequately evaluate the purchases made, but rather precisely because they studied them too much. Some of the names listed were second, third or even fourth choices that ended up joining because whoever were in front of them on the target list went elsewhere, for various reasons.

This is a problem which, we fear, is repeating itself today with the appointment of the new coach and which will undoubtedly also be replicated on the transfer market. Milan therefore faces the summer once again as a chaser of objectives and results, in the hope that in a few years the club will actually be leading the way again.

Conclusions

This is the biggest summer in Milan’s recent history. Choosing a new head coach to lead the team for years to come is a very important choice that needs maximum consideration, though it is the first big call in guiding the project forward.

If that were then to be replicated in the pursuit of a new club-record signing for the striker role, the pursuit of a midfielder, a centre-back etc., then the gap to Inter will not be bridged because they start from such a position of strength.

In recent months Cardinale has announced ‘evolutionary’ changes at Milan which – at least at present – seem to have made things more difficult instead of streamlining. The proof will always be in the pudding, but too many cooks can spoil the meal.