Anyone who has followed the saga of AC Milan since one Gerald Cardinale purchased the club when Milan had just won the Scudetto in 2022 knows that there have been systemic problems in the management of the club, starting with Gerald and ending with anyone he can ignorantly hire then blame for Milan's demise. But when he put Zlatan Ibrahimović in charge of the Milan Futuro project, and he in turn hired his buddy, failed LA Galaxy Sporting Director Jovan Kirovski, the "future" of Milan was truly doomed. In their first season in Serie C as a U23 team, they managed to take the most valuable team of all 60 Serie C teams, invest the most of any Serie C club into Milan Futuro as well, and myopically get them relegated to Serie D. Do you have any idea how tragically bad at your job you have to be to fail so catastrophically? And now, after finishing fourth in their Serie D group last year, they lost the playoff semifinal to Chievo Verona in stoppage time, and Massimo Oddo resigned this summer. Now they have lost their very first match of the season, being knocked out in the first round of the Coppa Italia Serie D with a 3-1 loss at home to ACD Sant'Angelo 1907. The future is bleak.
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| Perera jumps over Sant'Angelo defender, a perfect metaphor for how hard Futuro work and still they lose. |
Milan Futuro Cursed From Day One
If you go back to the Spring of 2024, it has been reported that Ignazio Abate, who had been the most successful Primavera manager in a very long time for Milan, was going to be given the job of managing Milan Futuro. Which would have been an organic transition, considering that many of the new Futuro Players were his successful Primavera players. However, after Abate was not willing to give playing time to Zlatan's eldest son, the petty little Swedish bitch RedBird's Senior Advisor to AC Milan instead gave the job to the completely unproven manager, Daniele Bonera. You know, the legendary defender who had merely been an assistant to Pioli for five years? (And he also sacked Abate's father in an act of pure vengeance as well.) Hiring Bonera showed poor enough judgment, but they kept him on all season long, despite terrible results, only sacking him when it was too late to save the team from relegation.
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| It should have been him. He was the future of Milan. |
As my non-football fan friend puts it, this club is more dramatic than a daytime soap opera or even the most extreme reality show. And Zlatan is a bigger villain than in any Telenovela, except that he is increasingly more hated than beloved by Milan fans now. And though they waited until there were only 10 matches left to give Massimo Oddo the chance to save Futuro in Serie C that season, he did actually do well enough with them to warrant another year with the team.
I suppose he believed in the players, wanted to prove himself, wanted to finish what he started, blah, blah, blah. And honestly, he did a very good job with Milan Futuro last season, despite having to play in Serie D. Despite so many talented players walking away for free + 50% of future sales (Furlani's not-so-magic magic transfer formula.) And despite the idea of having a U23 team becoming more like a car rental chain, where the players went in and out of the Primavera, Futuro, and sometimes first teams all season long as if they were mere commodities, not human football players.
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| What if they would have just hired Oddo 10 matches earlier that first season? |
But even Oddo, a former Milan player as well, walked away this summer. As did incredible young talents like Lontani, Longoni, and players like Liberali, the year before, who one year out will be playing Champions League football for Como. (Our Champions League spot, our former player.) And those generational talents all left for free.
Giving Away Our Future
In 2024, they started with a Futuro team whose market value was €32.53 million. The next highest valued teams in Serie C that season were Juve NextGen at €15.09 million and Atalanta's U23 team at €13.38 million. Yet it was Milan Futuro were relegated. After investing nearly €15 million into the team, far more than any other Serie C club as well. The other two U23 teams both finished in the top 10 in their groups that season. And that is notable, because Juve NextGen were at the bottom of their group early in the season. But they made their coaching change by the end of November, and immediately started climbing back up the table, finishing in 9th place.
Not unlike the first team since Maldini's departure, Milan Futuro's U23 players' market values dropped, many significantly during that year under Bonera when they played just so very poorly. Is it any wonder they wanted out? These years are so crucial for their development for their entire careers. And letting players go for free? Juventus has made well over €100 million on sales of their U23 players. Milan even gave them around €10 million last summer indirectly due to a percentage clause they had when we purchased De Winter from Genoa. So not only are we not making any money from our U23 team, we are giving money to Juve for theirs.
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| There are SO many reasons the fans wanted him out. |
But Furlani decided to let the players go when they were still raw and at their lower values, so the 50% we will get for them when they are sold is a much, much lower number than if we had kept them even one or two more years and developed them properly ourselves. Plus, he didn't even get us any initial fee, either. Just a complete failure, as one of the whole points of a U23 team is to develop young players and sell them on for capital gains. Just a complete failure on every single level.
Another Year, Another Manager
In May, Furlani was finally sacked. But he was only part of the problem. With Oddo leaving, Futuro needed a new manager for this season. After keeping the entire club in a hostage-like situation for a whole month with no CEO, no Technical Director or Sporting Director, etc., new manager Sergio Navarro Barquero was hired to coach Milan Futuro. With experience in developing young talent in Spain, as well as a couple of brief stints as a first team manager abroad, I admit this did not sound like quite the most stupid idea this management have had. Even though he has zero experience in Italy, I assume likely does not speak Italian, and would be completely foreign to the players as well, I am not opposed to progress. If it is actual progress and done in wisdom, not just because the owner specifically does not want Italian managers for the Italian club he bought located in Italy (a very disturbing potential form of xenophobia from someone with Italian heritage.)
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| Will he succeed? The odds are very much stacked against him. |
Unfortunately, it sounds like Navarro has already been faced with similar issues as Oddo was last year – the intermingling of players in training and perhaps in matches eventually as well is more harmful than helpful in attempts at team building. For example, last year, they very specifically took turns playing goalkeepers every other week. Anyone who knows anything about defenses or goalkeepers knows that consistency is a key to learning trust and creating a successful and cohesive defense. Switching out the goalkeepers every week led to both the Primavera and Futuro teams conceding a lot of goals unnecessarily. We saw a steady improvement for the Primavera, for example, in the second half of the season, when poor Bianchi was unfortunately injured, and Bouyer played consistently every single week.
First Match, First Loss: Bleak
Who knows how the season will go for Milan Futuro, or which of any or all of these dreadful problems will lead to any lack of success? What we do know, though, is that their first match on Saturday was a total and complete disaster. They were playing ACD Sant'Angelo 1907 in the first round of the Coppa Italia, a team who had finished 12th in their group in Serie D last year. And they were playing at home, too, at the Stadio Felice Chinetti.
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| Poor Pittarella had to take 3 goals in his first Futuro match of the season. |
Navarro lined up a 4-3-3 with: Pittarella; Cappelletti, Zukić, El Hadj Malick Cissè, Perera; Plazzotta, Mancioppi, Sylvano Vos; Ossola, Castiello, and Idrissi. And they were in danger immediately, with Sant'Angelo hitting the post, then Futuro conceded in just the 7th minute. 1-0 Sant'Angelo. Milan Futuro did well to fight back, and in the 18th minute, Castiello scored decisively from a cross from Perera. Now it was all level, 1-1 all.
Milan continued to create chances, with shots from Castiello again, then Sylvano Vos, and Perera all just off the mark or saved before halftime. Navarro subbed on Balentien for Idrissi and Guernier for Mancioppi in the 61st minute, and the home side continued to create chances, either just off target, or forcint Sant'Angelo's keeper to make a save, like in the 67th, when he had to dive to save Cappelletti's intense shot.
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| It was great to see Vos playing, and playing well. |
Pagliei replaced Zukić in the 69th minute, and Milan continued to battle hard. Then Luca Menon replaced the goalscorer, Castiello, and Bonomi, who had been out for about a year with a bad injury, returned to the pitch, replacing Ossola in the 77th minute. But Milan Futuro collapsed late in the game.
First, Plazzotta was shown a yellow card (one of five for Futuro in this match) for a foul on the edge of the box, setting up a close range free kick, and the visitors capitalized on it in the 85th minute. 2-1 Sant'Angelo. Then, in stoppage time, Sant'Angelo sealed the deal with a goal in the 90+4' minute. 3-1 Sant'Angelo. Brief highlights of the match are available.
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| Bonomi coming back from his long injury was another positive. |
That was it. Milan Futuro were knocked out in the very first round. It was a horrible blow to their morale in a week that they have to play three matches in just eight days, including traveling to England on Wednesday to face Everton U21 in the Premier League International Cup U21 tournament.
Then they will face Caldiero Terme on Sunday in their first league match of the season, a team they know well. It was Caldiero Terme who knocked them out of the Coppa Italia Serie C quarterfinals two years ago (yes, that's quarterfinals of Serie C, not the first round of Serie D. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.) And last season, they finished 11th in the same group as Futuro so they defeated Oddo's side 2-0 at home in October. But they served them a nice cold glass of revenge in February in their house when they defeated Caldiero 3-0 in an excellent team performance. We can only hope that Sunday's match is more February and less October, but that was then and this is now.
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| Celebrating Castiello's goal was shortlived. |
Still Hemorrhaging Talent
Management do seem to have learned something from Tare last season, that they should be tying these young players down to contracts so they cannot walk away for free. They made a number of new signings as well as renewals and new contracts for players within the Futuro umbrella: for the U18 team, the Primavera team, and Milan Futuro. However, there were a number of key exits, as well.
In addition to the aforementioned loss of both the very talented goalkeeper Longoni, who is now a backup goalkeeper at the reigning Champions League side PSG, and the striker Lontani, who went to Parma. That's right, our 18 year-old striker will get playing time for Serie A side Parma, but we couldn't even keep him tied to a U23 contract, let alone sell him for a fee. They got him for free. (Spoiler alert: he scored a brace in his first match for them in the Coppa Italia.) We gave that away for free.
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| Our 18 year-old talent scored a brace in his debut for Parma. He also left for free. |
Maximilian Ibrahimović signed permanently for AZ Alkmaar's U21 side, where he played last season, and Chaka Traorè went to Partizan in Serbia, the only player with any confirmed transfer fee, for a mere €100,000. Dalpiaz, who was here on loan with option, was not purchased, and went back to Bayern's second team. We lost both the OG elderstatesmen of the Futuro side this summer, with 34 year-old Branca signing with another Serie D side, and 33 year-old Magrassi just terminating his contract by mutual consent just yesterday.
Then there were the other young, talented players who left. Namely Diego Sia, who signed for Serie C side Dolomiti, Minotti, who mutually terminated his contract, then signed for Serie C side Renate, and Perina, who signed for Serie C side Lumezzane. These players who exited this summer still had a combined market value of over €2.5 million, and yet the club only got €100,000 for them. Do you see why financially, the Futuro project has just been one huge dumpster fire?
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| Look at Balentien, how poorly he has been managed with his injuries. It's bleak. |
If I don't sound positive about this season or the direction that Milan Futuro is headed, please forgive me. In addition to harming the development and nearly losing incredibly talented players like Comotto and Camarda who, gratefully, after renewing their respective contracts this summer, seem set to stay with the first team this season with Amorim (hopefully,) they simply cannot get one thing right. Navarro, on paper, seems like he could be good for development of players based on his background, but the non-Italian thing may be enough to take down even the best of foreign managers in a league like Serie D.
This is problematic for me, because when Maldini was unceremoniously sacked and the entire club seemed to just implode, the formation of Milan Futuro the following season (finally,) a project that had been in the dreams and in the works for years was my only real hope and joy at that point. But they managed to destroy that, too, and with it, potentially the careers of these incredibly talented young player, many of whom had been carefully scouted and developed for years in our youth system. So please forgive me when I say that when it comes to Milan Futuro, the future is bleak.
Note: For the past two years, the Primavera and Milan Futuro recaps have been posted as part of the first team posts here, but this year (hopefully) they will be separate posts for easier navigation.
This post inspired by the music of The Sex Pistol's "God Save the Queen"
Everton U21 vs. Milan Futuro
Wedneday, September 2 • 21:00 CEST (3pm EDT)
This match can be streamed LIVE on the Official Milan App and YouTube channel
Milan Primavera vs. Juve Primavera
Sunday, September 6 • 11:00 CEST (5am EDT)
This match is not being televised in the U.S.
Milan Futuro vs. ACD Sant'Angelo 1907
Sunday, September 6 • 15:00 CEST (9am EDT)
This match can be streamed LIVE on the Official Serie D YouTube channel
Juventus vs. Milan
Sunday, September 6 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)
In the U.S., this match can be streamed in Spanish on Telemundo or Peacock,
Reviewed by Elaine
on
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