GdS: Milan ‘rebuilding in America’ – the issues Furlani will discuss with Cardinale

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·06 de março de 2025

GdS: Milan ‘rebuilding in America’ – the issues Furlani will discuss with Cardinale

AC Milan CEO Giorgio Furlani has flown to the United States to meet owner Gerry Cardinale and begin planning for next season, a report claims.

Today’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Furlani will sit down with Cardinale today having headed to the USA to talk about the team and the future. It is not just any meeting – the pair don’t see each other in the United States every week – but it is not just any moment.

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Milan are in a period of trouble that has been seen only a few times in its recent history and they have complicated months ahead. Inter, Napoli, Atalanta and Juventus have a double-digit advantage in terms of points and the team are losing games, confidence, value on the market.

This meeting at the beginning of March has all the makings of an important turning point, as a potential ‘day zero’ in the planning of the new Milan.

New management

An owner and a CEO do not communicate the agenda of their meeting but some topics are inevitably on the agenda. The choice of the sporting director is a big topic, the main ahead of Milan’s planning for 2025-26.

Milan have chosen to rely on a classic SD, in contrast with the management of the last two years. Gerry Cardinale and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, his right-hand man and trusted man, have had talks with Igli Tare, Fabio Paratici and Andrea Berta.

Furlani, the key manager in the negotiations of recent years, did not participate. How did they do? Tare is the favourite but Paratici can return to the stage soon because this book still has pages to write, the decision has not been made and the internal balances at Milan are settling.

As CEO, Furlani is the manager with the power to sign and has always been involved in all the decisions. Can he limit himself to ratifying a decision made by others? Difficult. “The decisions go through me,” he himself said on Sunday evening.

Accounts and stadium

The sporting director, however, is only one of the checkpoints that Milan will pass through. Cardinale and Furlani will inevitably talk about the management of this moment of crisis.

The Diavolo will close the seasonal accounts ‘with a small profit or a small loss, in the absence of large sales’, as CFO Cocirio said in October. Speaking of the budget, the failure to qualify for the Champions League – now practically certain – is a topic of discussion, like the stadium.

Milan, together with Inter, are making important decisions and wants to arrive at the end of the summer as the owner of the areas of the old and (if there ever will be) the new San Siro.

It is the first true point of no return in an endless story, born when Furlani was portfolio manager of Elliott Management and Cardinale had not yet founded RedBird Capital.

Refoundation

The rest will be thought about, with relative calm because Milan has a lot to change. They will have a new coach, will replace many players, will modify the dressing room hierarchy.

Theo Hernandez and Rafa Leao, historically the strongest players, can leave in the summer. Mike Maignan, the other signature written in large on the Scudetto, essentially has an agreement for a demanding contract renewal.

The club will have to choose new leaders and face a decline in international image that Cardinale cannot be happy with. The ordinary administration, already not very fashionable at the club, will not be enough and the decisions will inevitably be strong and risky.

For this reason, even if Central Park in March is a spectacle, Furlani will not be in New York on vacation.