Less than six weeks ago, Milan were on top of the world, having just won the Scudetto. The €1.2 billion sale of the club to RedBird and Jerry Cardinale threatened to turn everything upside down, but Elliott promised fans a smooth transition. In spite of a massive deal with Puma announced yesterday, there are important contracts expiring today and Blue Skye suing Elliott and threatening to delay the sale of the club. It seems that more money just makes more problems.
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| Who will stay and who will go? |
Most notably, Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara's contracts expire today at midnight. Their renewal has been widely reported to happen any day for weeks. But after Maldini made it very clear that he wanted more decision-making power at the club (probably because Gazidis kept going behind his back and doing horrible things,) rumors emerged about Elliott's possible lack of approval of this concept as well as Gazidis' future at the club. Either way, the contracts have not been renewed. With Gazidis just returning to Milano from New York yesterday, it will be curious to see what happens by midnight tonight.
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| Five more years of obnoxious kits and colors |
A new five year deal with Puma was announced yesterday worth €30 million per year, more than double our deal from last year. It includes naming rights for Vismara, the training center for the women's and youth teams, which will now be called "Puma House of Football." That puts us significantly ahead of Inter, whose Nike shirt sponsorship is worth only €12.5 million per year. With our Emirates, Bitmex, and Wefox sponsorships, it makes our our entire shirt sponsorships worth €56 million per year. This is a tremendous amount of new revenue for the club, which is very positive.
On the flip side, Blue Skye Financial Partners, the minority investors in Milan, are suing Elliott, accusing them of operating with "malice and deceit" by holding talks behind closed doors and not holding a proper bidding process before selling the club. While Blue Skye claim this violated their minority holding rights and want damages, which could block or delay the sale of the club, Elliott seem confident that it will not interfere with the sale or delay it in any way.
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| Selling out the women and children |
While there are reports that Ibrahimović has signed a low wage 6 month contract to keep him at the club while he rehabilitates from his surgery, nothing has been announced by the club. There have been rumors of agreements with Roma for Florenzi as well as extensions for Messias and possibly Mirante and even Romagnoli that have flooded social media over recent weeks, but nothing official from any sources. The sale of the club combined with the lack of renewal of Maldini and Massara has prevented other contracts from being resolved, which allows those players to potentially be available as free agents or be returned to their clubs.
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| So many contracts, so little time |
All of the good news about increased income and value of the club, whatever positives that the sale of the club may have, there seem to be more complications and more problems from all of it at this point. Milan have already missed out on two of their longest-linked transfer targets due to all of the delays. What was supposed to be a smooth transition is looking to be a bumpy ride, risking to lose the most important asset of the club: Paolo Maldini. I would rather the club were losing revenue and dropping in value than losing the man that has given AC Milan back its identity.
This post inspired by the music of Garbage's "Fix Me Now"