Trading revenue for serenity [Newsletter]

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Jun 18, 2025

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🤔 Dodged the Club World Cup… Or?

We have to preface this by saying that Club World Cup qualification would have been extremely valuable for Milan. The revenue is significant (around €20m guaranteed) and given the lack of Champions League football next season, it certainly would have helped. On the other hand, one can’t help but feel a tad pleased that the Rossoneri didn’t make it.

I keep asking myself, what would have happened if Milan were in the tournament? Would the management still have hired Max Allegri and Igli Tare? Or would Sergio Conceicao have remained for a little longer? Inter parted ways with Simone Inzaghi before their trip to the United States, so it can be done, but I’m not so sure a so-called baptism of fire would have been right in this case.

Reports also suggest that the tournament has been somewhat of a fiasco in terms of attendance so far, due to a mix of low-level games and inconvenient kick-off times (yes, even for the Americans). All things considered, Allegri and Tare having more time to prepare the squad for next season feels like a necessity at this point, and the Club World Cup certainly would have disrupted that.

🔜 Calm before the storm

Following what was an intense two weeks or so, with some clubs attempting to do business in the mini-mercato ahead of the Club World Cup, things have certainly calmed down a bit. That feels like a good thing, as although Milan need to be swift with their actions this summer, it’s never ideal to rush into transfers. Especially since a lot of mercato opportunities come later on.

Having said that, once the transfer window opens for Serie A clubs on July 1st, we should start seeing a lot more from the Rossoneri. Allegri and Tare are already working on several operations, such as Luka Modric and Granit Xhaka, so it’s possible that we could see some official announcements shortly after the window opens. With the pre-season fast approaching, we almost need to see that.

Speaking of which, another pre-season friendly was announced recently as Milan will take on Chelsea away from home in August. There will be quite a lot of opportunities for Allegri to see his players in action, as such, and the hope is that most of the key signings will be able to participate. It was the exact opposite last summer under Paulo Fonseca and we all know how that turned out. Bring on the storm!

📋 Milan Bulletin

Below, we have collected the most important Milan news from the last week, including our longer reads and newspaper reports.

📰 Latest News

Milan Futuro have now been officially condemned to playing in Serie D next season after Serie C registration was completed. It is expected that the project will remain largely unchanged, with Jovan Kirovski keeping his job, Massimo Oddo sticking around and Igli Tare having a bigger say. In transfer news, a Swedish teenager is apparently close to joining.

Milan have announced another preseason friendly as part of their preparations for 2025-26, as they will face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It is the day after a friendly versus Leeds United at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on 9 August. The Rossoneri will also face: Arsenal in Singapore on 23 July, Liverpool in Hong Kong on 26 July, and Perth Glory in Perth, Western Australia, on 31 July.

On Tuesday, the verdicts were delivered to those arrested and questions as part of the investigation into the Curva Sud of Milan and the Curva Nord of Inter. A total of 90 years in prison sentences were handed down, with the leaders of the two groups getting the bulk of that, and the two clubs received some reparations too.

Mercato round-up: Igli Tare flew to Germany to submit a bid for a Leverkusen star, an initial offer for a Valencia midfielder has been rejected, more talks with Napoli are planned over a €25m sale, Dusan Vlahovic’s arrival is a concrete possibility, while an Italian at Spurs and a Brazilian at Monaco are targets for the full-back roles.

🔍 Longer Reads

Our longer reads from over the past week include a look at the situations of each returning loanee and the decisions Milan are likely to make, why the Rossoneri’s summer has been a lot of smoke for little fire (in mercato terms) and a Devil’s Advocate on the promising early signs filtering from Allegri’s second beginning.