Why Milan won't replace Pioli with a world-class manager [Bonus article]

Stefano Pioli’s position at Milan has been under heavy scrutiny in the last few weeks. The results in the league have been subpar and the injury issues haven’t made things better either. Looking ahead, and maybe foolishly so, who could replace the 58-year-old? Excluding names, what sort of profile are we talking about?

If there’s one thing that Gerry Cardinale and RedBird have made clear, it’s that the fundamentals of the project must be respected. Player trading - which we discussed in the interview with Felix Raimondo - is one of them and patience is another. But without getting into the nitty-gritty, let’s resort to an umbrella term: financial sustainability.

Cardinale is fully committed to driving the sustainability wave in European football, setting an example with Milan. Granted that there are some advantages to having a brand like the Rossoneri, the American wants to show that the strategy in place can work for big clubs too, and not just ‘feeder’ clubs.

We must pay attention to Cardinale’s project, therefore, and the work that has been done at Milan so far. Many new partnerships have resulted in a commercial boom, the management has been streamlined (you know what we are referring to) and direct comparisons are no longer being made with the top European clubs.

What do we mean by that last part? Well, if Paolo Maldini called for further investment to compete with these clubs, the new directors are not focused on heavy spending at all. Instead, they are working 24/7 on their unique business model which obviously revolves around money, but in a completely different way.

So, how does this tie in with the potential next manager? While we perhaps were a bit more diplomatic in our last bonus about Pioli and the future, we’re going to go out on a limb here and say that a world-class manager is highly unlikely. For lack of a better term, prominent perhaps is a better way to put it, since there are hidden gems with world-class qualities.

There are several reasons for this, in truth, but everything revolves around sustainability. We have picked out three factors below that are essential to this discussion, and to conclude we briefly touch on the profile that is suitable for Milan.