A season…preview…not if you know the reference in the graphic atop of this post! (I know I probably dated myself but that’s from the Twilight Zone…I’d say look it up but there’s a link I just provided). It feels like we’re in the Twilight Zone right now with an incomplete squad, little practice time, and a game in 2 days…doo-DOO-doo-DOO-doo-DOO-doo…
Anyway, with such a late World Cup and a very delayed and slow moving market, writing a season preview at this stage, a stage with the first game just a couple of days away, just didn’t seem to make sense to me. So, I’m going to just drop a few thoughts and then we’ll get ready for the first game this Sunday. I am still planning on doing a season preview, and man do I hate the idea of doing one after the season started, but I think this summer requires it. There just isn’t enough to go to make any guess as to how this season might go.
Slow Moving Summer
Everything depends on the guy above. Leão, Amorim, Ramos. Doesn’t matter. All of it depends on Gerry Cardinale. It’s what he wanted when he fired Paolo Maldini and therefore all of my attention and any and all of my praise or criticisms will be directed at him until he dies or sells the club.
Needless to say there hasn’t been a lot to celebrate under his stewardship except the rising financial profile of the club. To be clear, overall this is good thing. You need money to get to where we all want the club to go. But Manchester United and Chelsea have a ton of money too and look at them. So, it’s important but not enough. But let’s give him his flowers for that.
So Milan is spending again. And while there hasn’t been a ton of new players, most of the ones who have arrived have cost a level or two above what we’ve typically seen the last 6 or so years. Milan got Gonçalo Ramos for €74M. Got Diego Moreira for €50M. Mario Gila for €30M. That’s over €150M just in those 3 guys. Will it be enough? Maybe. Maybe not. It really depends on a few other factors, one of them being their ability to move out dead weight and players deemed surplus or not compatible with what Rubén Amorim is trying to do, yes because they don’t have a place, but also so Milan can continue to search the market and procure the right pieces for Amorim’s system. If the season started today…and it does start in a few days…there are some square pegs/round holes that is going to make success more difficult than it would otherwise be.
What do look for between now and the end of the Mercato
Naturally as mentioned above, there are quite a few players who need to move. Until that happens, Milan’s mercato is kind of stuck in park. I don’t know how likely Milan is to get what they want for players like Rafael Leão, Santiago Giménez, Christopher Nkunku, or Fikayo Tomori. So, I’m expecting a repeat of last summer where a majority of these players leave on loans, maybe some with a mandatory buy clause but most with an optional buy clause…meaning we’ll see a bunch of these guys return next summer. Yay..?
What this does to Milan’s performance on the pitch is what is most concerning for me. Not the likely struggling out of the gates, but more that there will not be the patience to see through whatever vision Amorim has in mind so that we get to the type of football we want to see played. I’ll get to the latter part in a second.
On the pitch, along with a new scheme and philosophy, the mismatch of players especially the 2 behind the striker and 2 in the double-pivot give me the greatest concern. All the beautiful build-up vs Manchester United in Milan’s last friendly doesn’t mean anything to me. Amorim won’t find things so easy in Serie A especially vs midtable and bottom of the table teams, of which Milan travels to Torino and then hosts Venezia before the end of the mercato. Needless to say, I am NOT expect 6 points after 2 rounds.
Then, let’s say Milan makes some moves at the deadline, there will be no time to integrate before Juventus in round 3 and really Milan won’t be in a decent situation with squad integration and practice time until after the international break, with the first game after break being on October 11th vs Sassuolo. That’s 15 points on the table before there’s a realistic chance Milan gets comfortable with any new players in the squad AND with Amorim’s tactics. Points lost in rounds 1-5 are just as important as points lost in rounds 34-38…
The Grand Plan
Part of this Twilight Zone feeling is that everything I’ve been warning you all about with the Gerry era has been coming true. It’s feeling more and more like we’re turning into a Shein version of ManU and Chelsea. Doing all the same dumb shit but pennies on the dollar to how they’re doing it. Now we can add expensive buys as we start a new campaign with the 5th coach since the 2023-24 season.
This constant changing of coaches and philosophies has started to rear its ugly head in the composition of the team, namely a bunch of pieces that don’t match and not enough of at least one type of tactical approach that Milan can’t even field a full team of player who fit that philosophy. So what is the grand plan here? And perhaps more importantly, will Amorim or any coach be given the time to see it through? I think the answer here is no. I’m not expecting a successful start of the season and while I wouldn’t bet money on it, it wouldn’t surprise me if Amorim doesn’t make it past the new year.
All of this reinforces what I’m seeing that is zero evidence that there is some grand plan at play. Say what you will about Pioli or Maldini or the limited spending, but nearly every purchase fit the larger picture even if the player wasn’t some phenom or star. The results from that time – 4 straight top 4s, same coach, and a Scudetto – and now – 3 straight non-top 4s, now 4 coaches, and one missed European play season altogether – speak for themselves.
Wrap Up
Alright, wanted to share at least some thoughts before the season kicked off. And I’m still planning on getting a season preview post up in a few weeks once the mercato closes. For better or worse, we’ll have a couple of games under the belt to see how things are shaping up. I’m not holding my breath…
First league game is this Sunday at 2:45pm EST/6:45pm GMT. Be on the lookout for a matchday post.
FORZA MILAN
gillis