Between Truth and Rumors

This year is beyond strange for so many reasons. Serie A would have been wrapping up its final matches this weekend, and instead has just received the okay to return to team training. While the government and sporting agencies are doing their best comedy routines instead of just making things happen, the media has decided to return to normalcy of their own accord, cranking out the rumors faster than COVID-19 masks. This year, however, there is a far greater distance between reality and the clickbait they create. No one really knows what is going to happen, but reality will more likely fall somewhere between the current truth and the rumors.

"I would love to be a kit manager"

Milan fans are addicted to change. If one thing does not go exactly as their unrealistic expectations were meant to go, then they are fine with change. They encourage change. They scream for change. Let’s change everything. Manager? Gone. Bring in someone else unproven in Serie A. Sporting director? Why keep what was working? Ownership? Wait, they are a $37 billion vulture hedge fund, and seemingly all powerful. Apparently, they can stay.

Also, the CEO. Because even though he has lost more sponsorships than he has brought in and created losses of €146 million last year, Milan’s highest losses ever, fans are somehow okay with that level of incompetence and mismanagement. When the balance sheets were analyzed, the significant losses were reportedly due to the lost sponsorships, the creation of the Milan app and other social media changes, as well as the refurbishing of Milanello and the dressing room at San Siro. Which is just what we needed after so many years of ownership changes and financial incompetence. So no change there, let’s keep that incompetence.

It's C-E-Oh, not C-E-€Zero

The big news this year is surrounding the changes in the technical sector. With Boban having been sacked for telling the truth about Gazidis’ deceit, and Maldini’s job possibly hanging in the balance, the German Ralf Rangnick has been reported to be brought in the back door by Gazidis. Initial reports were that he would come in and coach, with poor Pioli not even given the courtesy of a fake news sacking, he just gets ignored altogether.

Rangnick has been linked with the manager job, a scouting position, the sporting director, the director of the technical sector, as well as many combinations or all of the above. That hasn’t stopped everyone from the armchair fan to reputable people in the industry to weigh in on what a great ________ he’ll be at Milan. There are so many rumors and yet the only clarity from the club came from Gazidis, denying all of the rumors while sacking Boban, and Maldini last week, apparently with the club’s blessing, publicly criticizing Rangnick for going public while Pioli and the players are still trying to finish out the season. Somewhere between truth and rumors and criticism and denials, maybe Milan will sign Rangnick as the new kit manager next season. Who knows?

Maybe this shoutout was unauthorized?

The players in and out rumors are all directly dependent on what truths come out of the management rumors. If Maldini leaves, there are very few players guaranteed to stay. All of the players signed under his two years back at the club have directly credited his influence in bringing them in. Ibrahimovic was particularly upset by Boban’s sacking, and is unlikely to stay unless Maldini does. Then there are players like Gigio Donnarumma and Romagnoli who could easily be in a better team with Champions League action and have stayed through countless changes at the club, with the team never reaching promised objectives. Not that fans are realistic about the potential player exits, they are just excited to bring in more new players.

Most of the players linked to Milan in the rumor mill are not surprisingly linked from Red Bull Leipzig or other Rangnick connections. The irony is that we don’t know if Rangnick is even coming, what capacity he will arrive in, let alone if and when there will be a transfer window this year. With the virus forcing everyone to rewrite everything every day, right now, every summer transfer rumor is clickbait. Not even the clubs know if and when transfers will be allowed to take place. But the media outlets need to eat, too, so feel free to click their links.

They came in so young, and have stuck with Milan through thick and thin

Speculation has always been a big part of football. The media makes their living on it, and keyboard warriors have their accounts suspended for abuse surrounding rumors. This year is different, though, because not even the people in charge know what is going to happen yet. So while fans comfort themselves with rumors to obtain some sense of normalcy, the truth is there is no normalcy and probably won’t be any for a while. Milan fans are probably safest looking for answers between the truth and rumors.

This post inspired by the music of Ministry’s “Lies, Lies, Lies”