Will Milan Win in the Windy City vs Real Madrid?

After a surprising 3-2 friendly win over Manchester City in New York on Saturday, Milan head to Chicago, also known as the Windy City, to face Real Madrid. Milan also launched their new white away kit while in New York, midmatch, actually, along with Manchester City and Puma, part of an initiative called "City and Milan for Change." That was not the only change in that game, as fans saw more signs of the team's metamorphosis into Fonseca's new style of play. Fans are excited about the win and so many passes, but we cannot forget that we lost Sportiello to a freak hand injury even before the match, and Florenzi is facing arthroscopic surgery on his knee for an injury during the match. There have been some roster changes, too, but the question remains: will Milan win in the Windy City vs. Real Madrid?

Will the arrival of the new players help Milan to victory? Or at least no injuries?

Milan Meets Man City in Manhattan

Milan arrived in New York Thursday evening and immediately got to work Friday morning, continuing their preseason training and beginning their promotional fun in the city. Captain America, Pulisic, was called to return to duty a day earlier with an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday evening, then on CBS Mornings with Zlatan Ibrahimović on Friday morning, both to help promote this match. Manchester City have already been in the U.S. for a week, and have already played their first match, a 4-3 loss to Celtic in North Carolina on Wednesday. So they will have less jet lag, and will be looking for revenge when Milan meets Man City in Manhattan (technically, it's at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, but that ruins the whole alliteration thing.)

Ready or not, here Milan are.

The Summer Calm Before the Storm

The long-awaited, overspeculated, and definitely over hyped arrival of Paulo Fonseca raised a lot more questions than answers. From his delayed arrival, his unusual living situation, to the questions all Milan fans had from the moment his name was mentioned with the club: Is he actually the right man for this job? His debut friendly match, a 1-1 draw with SK Rapid Wien last Saturday, did not really answer any of those questions. (Well, other than what do players look like after they've returned to training and have done double training sessions for two weeks?) And worse still, there is the question about whether the club is even setting him up to succeed, as they have signed exactly one player so far, with less than a month left until Serie A kicks off. But the team leaves for their U.S. tour on Thursday, and from that point, it is a whirlwind until the season actually begins. So, while it feels a lot more like frustration than peacefulness for us fans, this is probably the last bit of summer calm before the storm.

Maybe Milan fans should demand a signs of life video of these three, with their lack of transfer activity.

Rapid Response: Milan's First Summer Friendly 2024-25

Milan have traveled to Austria to face SK Rapid Wien for our first friendly of the summer season. If this seems quick, it is, as Fonseca has only had two weeks to train the players he has available, not including those who played for their national teams since the season ended. But the team are leaving on Thursday for their preseason tour in the U.S., so this will give the new manager an idea of what he has to work with until the other players return. For Milan fans, what would have been an ordinary preseason friendly becomes our first chance to see what Fonseca has been working on with our players, a type of rapid response to the big changes.

It's a friendly, but all eyes will be on him.

Zlatan Ibrahimović: Falling From Grace

Zlatan Ibrahimović has always considered himself a god to the Swedish people. And perhaps to football in general. And I think many of us mere mortals would agree. Despite having many controversial incidents and one of the most hated agents in all of football, he scored goals and did things on the pitch that could only be described as divinely inspired. For Milan fans, he is particularly special, because with his nomadic footballing career, Milan is the only club he ever came back to. His tearful retirement tribute showed that he was perhaps human after all, but it is his latest job, working for RedBird as a Senior Advisor to Milan, that has seen him falling from grace.

Cardinale may be the only one who still looks at Zlatan that way.

The Paulo Fonseca Era Begins

More than three weeks after the official announcement was made, on Monday, we finally got to meet our new manager, Paulo Fonseca. Normally, the manager is present when the club makes the announcement, but instead, we got a 90 minute Q&A with Ibrahimović that offered us very little new information, other than the official new manager announcement. Fonseca's contract should have begun July 1st, but he and his staff only arrived in Milano on Saturday the 6th of July, homeless and with ill-fitting clothing and very poor fashion sense. Not exactly making the best first impression for a new job. But fans are so distracted by the club's lack of mercato signings, that no one seems to be talking about the new manager's questionable lack of basic professionalism as the Paulo Fonseca era begins.

Still a bit disheveled the second day, but better than the first. Improvement is good.

Milan U23: The Future of Milan

After much speculation, the official announcement of Milan's new U23 team, Milan Futuro, was made this past week. The FIGC confirmed the acceptance of Milan's application to play in Serie C, and then it was determined that Milan will play in Group B next year in central Italy. All the details continue to be released, but this is an excellent step forward for Milan. Having these young U23 teams, or B teams as they are also called, helps to connect the gap in player development between the Primavera and first teams. Milan Futuro players will train with and potentially also make appearances with the first team, keeping important young players within the club and allowing them to continue to help build the future of Milan.

Some of Milan's rising stars can stay at Milan and still feature in the first team.