Just like a deadbeat father who leaves his family to pursue his own interests, Gerald Cardinale purchased Milan, and for the most part has been absent. But now, like those dads trying to make up for lost time, he has come in and thrown his wallet and his words into Milan, trying to buy our love yet again, after screwing up worse than any owner ever has at Milan. And the worst of it is that now that things are finally moving again, most Milan fans seem to have forgotten what he did to Milan, how he abused and abandoned our family. It is a cautionary tale that fans close their minds off to whenever his wallet opens. Each and every time the deadbeat dad has come home.
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| How long will his |
You may remember that after purchasing Milan in the summer of 2022, Gerald did not make many public appearances or statements. He claims that he was trying to learn about the club before making any changes, but that is hardly true at all. First, he cut the transfer budget. Then he appointed a completely inexperienced 43 year-old investment banker Harvard bro as CEO. And immediately, there were more changes. And as if that wasn't enough, upon that tiny little ignorant Napoleon-complex rat-posing-as-a -CEO's recommendation, he sacked Maldini.
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| Gerald has always |
This established his reputation as an ignorant, narcissistic, American with no ambition of winning, only making money. But the backlash was too much for his poor little ego, and while vacationing on the island of Capri, he bumped into a Milan fan and made the ridiculous, empty promise, "Dear fans, rest assured that my investments are to take Milan to the top, and to win. I promise you!" But everyone was so excited, they seemed to forget that he had purchased a team that was already at the top, and now he was destroying them. The deadbeat dad came home, and in a drunken rage hurt his family worse than ever (by sacking Maldini,) and now was trying to buy back our love by purchasing 10 shiny new players.
And for many fans, it worked. They still disgust me, in particular the ones who turned on Maldini. You don't have to believe that Maldini was the greatest Technical Director of all time to respect his lifetime as a legendary player and captain at Milan, the second generation at that, who won five Champions League trophies and so many more titles. And seriously? You think that what Gerald has done since 2023 is better than the three years Maldini was Technical Director? Again, those people disgust me, and they deserve Gerald as their deadbeat dad.
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| These fans actually saw him for who he really is. |
Ironically, it is always those same people, who bought into papa-Gerry-spends-money-so-he-must-love-Milan, were enraged when that season ended poorly. Every summer, though, rinse, repeat. Another Year Zero, another spending spree. Milan's season gets worse each year, fans protest, Gerald spends money. If that is not a classic toxic family relationship from a deadbeat dad, I really don't know what is. But Gerald keeps trying to push the narrative that he's the good guy, like deadbeat dads all do.
This time, though, Gerald finally showed up for a few matches. It truly was like a deadbeat dad coming back, maybe he just got sober or something, but you knew there were some ulterior motives. He pretended to care, but when the team failed to reach Champions League qualification, he finally sacked his pathetic CEO, impotent Technical Director, failed manager, and unfortunately, the Sporting Director who actually did his job.
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| Did he think sacking his minions would stop the fans protesting him or something? |
Keep in mind, Gerald hates when the fans protest. But at least he finally took us seriously when there was a petition to sack Furlani that got over 50,000 signatures. I think that's what finally broke the spell the tiny, arrogant little CEO had on him. Or who knows. But Gerald did take action, just completely irresponsibly and with absolutely no plan in place to keep the club running. (Like you might expect a deadbeat dad to do.)
After sacking everyone, there was no one to make any transfer deals, not for Milan or even for clubs interested in signing Milan players or Milan players wishing to leave. There was no one to make plans for the upcoming season, not for staff, trainings, friendlies, or travel, let alone putting together an appropriate team.
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| He cleared out some of the trash, sure, but he forgot to finish the job. |
And the drama as to who he might appoint as manager and Sporting Director was so massive, no one paid attention to talks about a new CEO or Technical Director. The Rangnick Zealots returned as Gerald reportedly met with him, even though it was clear years ago that he was not a good fit for Milan. I think the day that Rangnick officially turned Milan down was the only day the Milan fan base at large saw Gerald for who he really is, their hearts were so broken.
Gerald left the club paralyzed for a full month, including waiting until three days before the deadline to register the club for Serie A next season, something that would have also impacted our ability to play in UEFA competitions like the Europa League. This was honestly the worst thing any owner has done at Milan in all the years I have supported the club. The schedule for Serie A was presented, and we did not even have any idea if we would be playing in it at the time. Newly promoted sides were far ahead of us in terms of preparation for the new season. Inter put their season tickets on sale. And Gerald and Ibrahimović were seen just hanging out in Washington D.C. at that other pathetic American narcissist's UFC fight at the White House.
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| Hanging with the haters instead of doing their jobs. |
Finally, on June 16th, it was announced that Gerald had appointed Rúben Amorim as manager. His main qualifications were that the Portuguese manager spoke English, so Gerald could communicate with him, and that he would play "to win," instead of "to avoid losing," a dig on Allegri's anti-football philosophy. So we had a manager, but no Sporting or Technical Director, and no CEO.
Nearly five weeks after Gerald's big Purge, on June 26th, Gerald appointed Calvelli as CEO (who reportedly had not wanted the position.) Calvelli at least has experience as a CEO, even though his background is in tennis and in marketing. But Papa Gerald could not simply appoint a new Sporting Director, etc. He had to go back to his corporate BS "working groups" and rename everyone's positions so that no one would know what anyone was supposed to be doing or what they were responsible for.
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| Not sure if Amorim realizes he signed a deal with the actual devil. |
He promoted Hendrik Almstadt from his position as a scout to "Director of Player Trading," as if the transfer window was a Pokémon card convention or something. And data enthusiast (putting it mildly) Bobby Gardiner was given the title of "Director of Football Intelligence," which in Gerald's Milan is a complete oxymoron. Filling out Gerald's "working group," Donato Lomonte was promoted to Head of Scouting.
So basically, Gerald is doing the same thing he did before–putting people in charge of his club who have no experience in their roles, but fit his narrative or will tell him his hair looks good or whatever. What was even the point in sacking the old incompetents, only to promote new ones? And he cost the club five crucial weeks of preparation for the new season, too.
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| Nothing makes you more popular with the |
But it's okay, because right away, he made a ginormous purchase. He spent €75 million plus bonuses to sign Gonçalo Ramos from PSG, smashing all Milan transfer records. And while many have estimated that the striker's value is at best half that price, Gerald was very, very naughty, and needed to make a very, very big purchase to win his fans back.
For the fans who were not immediately acquiesced by this purchase, he also spent another €30 million on defender Mario Gila from Lazio. Not only were these players that had been scouted and discussed by the previous management, but Gerald blew his whole wad on just two players like a child with zero self-restraint. And now, we are waiting for players to leave before we can reinforce the rest of the team. But hey, we got a very expensive striker and a pretty expensive defender, so we're all good, right? That's what a deadbeat dad would want you to believe.
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| Thanks for the solid defender, but where was your generosity the last 4 years? |
People are claiming that Gerald is finally making Milan his own, but his motivations are still self-driven, and he is still the same, petty, narcissist he always has been. This summer, when fans were chanting for Maldini's return in the same breath as they were once again calling for Cardinale to leave, the oversensitive narcissist baby owner of Milan reportedly could not help but take a swipe at Maldini, saying yet again that he's a "one man show," and incompatible with the other directors. Maldini shut him down in his simple reply this time, but it is worth revisiting his thoughts on this accusation from December of 2023:
On the narrative that Maldini was an 'individualist,' not a team player, he pointed out that Cardinale confused individualism with taking responsibility. "I have never shied away from confrontation: confrontation stimulates ingenuity and opens up different viewpoitns. We are often surrounded by people who always tell us we are right: having friends or colleagues who challenge your certainties is a blessing... Those who have played football at a high level are less afraid of failure, having ben judged every three days throughout their lives. This represents a great advantage and has a great impact on a company, but it may not be appreciated by those who are not open to discussion and do not even share the idea of answering for their own mistakes, which for me is very normal, healthy, and dialectical of any self-respecting management group."
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| Gerald still does not understand what it actually looks like to work together. |
The irony here is that as Gerald was in talks to buy the club, while Milan were playing a Champions League semifinal for the first time in decades, Maldini famously spoke out about the management (then Elliott) not having communicated with him about the sale of the club, let alone he and Massara's contract extensions. Gerald came in and was even more disrespectful, not only renewing their contracts at 10pm on June 30th, as they were about to expire, but then never speaking to Maldini or replying to his email about the sporting plans for Milan. Who was actually the "one man show," and "incompatible with the other directors?"
And that is to say nothing of the fact that Maldini was the guy who built the incredible synergy amongst the club, bending over backwards to appease the business side of the club and get everyone on the same page, and bringing all the components of the sporting side together into harmony, all working together toward a common goal. And that synergy produced the first Scudetto in 11 years, a title that Gerald has done everything possible to tarnish and destroy. The truth is that Gerald does not understand what working together is, much less have any clue the type of person he needs to hire to work together. He thinks that hiring people that speak his language rather than the native language of the club is "working together."
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| How American is that, to make his employees speak his language? |
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| At what point does someone tell him he's just trying too hard? |
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| Please, just take the summer off. We'll all be better for it. |