Motta precedent tells Milan what to do [Bonus Article]

Following CEO Giorgio Furlani’s power trip to New York, where he held meetings with Milan owner Gerry Cardinale, the pursuit of a sporting director has suddenly become much more complicated. While it’s right to preach caution, the Rossoneri don’t have all the time in the world, which is something that the immediate post-Stefano Pioli era taught us.

Just a week ago or so, names such as Igli Tare and Fabio Paratici were being thrown around as the key candidates for the sporting director role at Milan. Fast forward to now and it’s clear that they are merely two of many options, with Furlani putting his foot down in recent days. So, is the media clueless or is the Rossoneri management really that divided? A bit of both, sadly.

With fan interest dropping for each day that passes, given the struggles on the pitch and the dull remainder of the season (aside from the Coppa Italia), it was always going to be an onslaught from the media regarding the future. As such, we have to take everything with a pinch of salt. It doesn’t mean that everything isn’t true, far from it in fact, but how can the media know if Milan doesn’t even know?

Initial rumours suggested that Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gerry Cardinale, an unexpected yet expected duo in this case, had held meetings with three sporting director candidates in London. The story has since been altered slightly, with Geoffrey Moncada supposedly hosting the meetings alongside the Swede and not Cardinale. Makes sense, seeing as Cardinale rarely is present.

When you consider the fact that Ibrahimovic and Moncada have a very good relationship, from being at Milanello a lot, you would almost be surprised if they hadn’t looked at sporting director candidates together. Or I guess one man didn’t have the same line of thinking, namely Furlani. I’m sure the trip to New York was planned in advance, but the timing is certainly worth noting.

Just a few days after the rumours started flowing regarding the aforementioned meetings with sporting director candidates, Furlani flew to New York and came back with carte blanche (including telling Ibrahimovic and Moncada to sod off). It’s so good the media couldn’t even make it up! It’s incredibly worrying to read as a fan of the club and many alarm bells are indeed going off.

Decide who decides, then decide!

At this point, I don’t think any of us are surprised to read that Milan have issues within the management. I would like to think that the situation was a bit clearer before Ibrahimovic’s arrival, but that’s not even true. Antonio D’Ottavio, our former sporting director, had to leave simply because he misunderstood his role as well - acting with a bit too much liberty in the eyes of the others.

Having said that, Ibrahimovic’s role has indeed made matters worse, which we perhaps should have seen coming. Zlatan is Zlatan and he won’t change, as has been made clear so many times before. “I’m the boss, everyone works for me” are declarations that perfectly sum up his persona (and delusion in this case). And no, you can’t say that you were joking Zlatan, we know you really weren’t!