GdS: Coach, director, players and stadium – Cardinale facing big calls in June | OneFootball

AC Milan’s early elimination from the Champions League has left just one major objective to fight for this season, before some big judgements follow.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport write, the idea behind the five signings in the winter window was to provide a boost to the squad’s ability to compete across multiple fronts including Europe. Instead, not long after the excitement of deadline day came the jeers at full-time in Milan-Feyenoord.

San Siro was a stadium in shock, unable even to even jeer that loudly because of how surreal the elimination was, one that actually began in Zagreb, continued in Rotterdam and was completed on Tuesday night.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, RedBird Capital and Gerry Cardinale are silent, but they are observing carefully. The club have said goodbye to about €20m in revenues and it is an unpleasant blow to the international prestige of the club, which Cardinale holds dear.

The reason is simple: Cardinale aims to grow the commercial side of the club especially in front of the American audience, with the New York Yankees partnership being the most illustrious example. To do so, he obviously needs support in sporting terms, i.e. with positive results.

From this perspective, a team that loses their spot in the biggest club competition by failing against Dinamo Zagreb and Feyenoord is an own-goal, even if the global charm of the Devil always remains immense. Prestige and money, at these levels, go hand in hand after all.

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No official reactions from the ownership filtered out the day after the game, and not even unofficial ones. There has been no comments of any kind but rather things are postponed until June, when an overall assessment of the season will be drawn up and Cardinale will make his conclusions.

It is a heavy silence, especially given that the majority shareholder – who gave the green light to an ambitious mercato to improve the squad – expected a different outcome. In financial terms the winter window was not big in terms of net spend, it must be said, with outgoings almost entirely covering signings.

The Supercoppa Italiana pleased Cardinale, and if the Coppa Italia were also lifted the appreciation will be double, but the real objective between now and the end of the season is obviously to qualify again for the Champions League club.

That is a complicated challenge, especially now that it is more likely the final place to qualify will be fourth and not fifth due to the difficulties of Serie A clubs and the damage to the league co-efficient. After that, the ownership will analsze the scenario relating to the coach.

This is the starting point for next year. Conceiçao will be judged based on sporting results and after the terrible exit from this Champions League, if Milan were not to find a place in the next one, the chances of a separation are far from small.

It must also be considered that Conceiçao has a contract until 2026, but the club can activate a clause that allows them to end the deal in June without additional financial penalty, so they are protected financially.

After that, those in charge should move on to appointing a sporting director. After Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara left, Milan tried to compensate for their absence with an internal reorganisation that initially involved the CEO Giorgio Furlani.

However, they now seem to have realised that a figure is missing who knows the role well, such as how market dynamics work and preferably with experience conducting the toughest negotiations from transfers to renewals.

Last but certainly not least, the squad will have to be further reshuffled. Several players are already on the fringes of the project (Samuel Chukwueze and Luka Jovic, for example), then many will return from loans (Noah Okafor and Ismael Bennacer).

For others it will be necessary to spend to keep them (Joao Felix and Kyle Walker) given that they are on initial loan deals, and then there are those who are destined to change clubs and will have to be sold for the best price possible (Theo Hernandez).

In all this context, obviously, the owners’ attention for the new stadium remains at its maximum: finally getting to the stage of building a new home – whether it is San Siro or San Donato – would allow an economic strength that would no longer depend only on UEFA money.