Sacking Paolo Maldini, selling Sandro Tonali to Newcastle United and now reportedly pursuing Inter star Romelu Lukaku, are Milan’s new owners actively trying to infuriate the fans?
When Suning and Steven Zhang took over the Nerazzurri side of San Siro, they were careful to retain a uniquely Italian flavour to the directorial staff, Beppe Marotta in turn focusing largely on home-grown players and coaches to form the backbone of the Nazionale. They were determined to keep hold of the Inter identity, just to make it a little more, well, Internazionale.
Elliott Management had done the same at Milan when effectively repossessing the club from Yonghong Li, but Gerry Cardinale and RedBird have gone in on the club with a sledgehammer. Serie A sides want to be more like the Premier League, but this is taking all the worst elements and scrapping the good ones.
It cannot be a coincidence that RedBird have been so blatant in their smashing of all things sacred to the supporters. Club icon Maldini fired. Lifelong Milan supporter Tonali sold to Newcastle, the nouveau riche outfit that out-bid them for Sven Botman a year ago and had seen their initial attempt at getting Nicolò Barella rejected outright by Inter. Now meeting with Lukaku’s entourage to poach a striker who has done nothing but profess his love for the Nerazzurri colours.
In tactical terms, it makes sense to pursue a centre-forward in the Lukaku vein, but they have got to realise that there are others out there who would bring far less baggage and come cheaper too. This feels deliberate to make a point. Stick with us on this and you’ll follow us anywhere.
Perhaps they see it as like taking off a bandage, do it quick and get all the pain over with. Don’t get me wrong, €80m for Tonali is a ridiculous sum and they couldn’t exactly ignore it, but this does feel like part of a wider approach to removing the core identity of the team. Will the new identity be better or worse? Will modern fans truly care as long as they can get back to winning silverware?
The outcry over Maldini’s dismissal did not last very long. Just as Newcastle fans initially upset at being taken over by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia quickly got over it once they qualified for the Champions League. Others simply didn’t care in the first place, gleefully attending matches dressed as sheikhs and gloating about being able to buy any player they wanted. This is what football has become. Perhaps we need to get used to it, but liking it is a different matter.
It is at least rather amusing to see Premier League pundits and supporters suddenly upset that Saudi leagues are offering insane wages to players and skewing the market, as if that isn’t what they’ve been doing to European football for the last decade. Italian teams showed this season by reaching the finals of all the major tournaments that they can battle the economic clout of the other leagues with ideas and smart investment. They didn’t win, but just being there and making all three games so very close proved it is the right path. I hope at least some stick to it.
Twitter: @SusyCampanale
Remember last year when everyone was acting like Cardinale was better than the Bahraini group. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 Keep that energy up… be racist thats what you get.