Cardinal, it’s time to decide: all the pros and cons of Rangnick

Ball in their own half of the pitch, construction from the bottom – very from the bottom – looking for the best way to escape the pressure and give life to the attacking phase. The game metaphor is good for describing Milan’s current moment, forced to exit theimpasse and to build. This is what Gerry Cardinale is called to do, who has taken control of the situation personally and must give a face to the four seats vacated simultaneously the day after the collapse against Cagliari. “Building” is not a casual verb, it is one of the terms on which the entire career of Ralf Rangnick is based, who regardless of the role – on the bench or in management – has never limited himself to carrying out company directives: he has used his model and his vision. And yes, at this moment the ball is right in the Rossoneri’s half of the field because it is RedBird who these days has to decide whether Ralf is the right man for the reconstruction of the Devil. He gave Cardinale his conditions and his are usually non-treatable conditions. Complete package, take it or leave it. Gerry reflects and puts pros and cons on the table. There are several, in both boxes.

pro

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Rangnick is not an executive, manager or planner. Or rather: it is, but not intended as a single entity. It is an entire operating model, developed and perfected over the decades thanks to his experiences both on the bench, in the management of a single club, and in the management of an entire group (Red Bull). He is therefore perfectly capable of bringing an overall vision of the management of the sports area, precisely because he worked there wearing different clothes. Objectively, it would be a great strong point in a context like the Rossoneri one where it is necessary to start practically from scratch in many aspects. Rangnick’s particular ability is to keep the cornerstones of a club’s sporting area linked under the same umbrella: transfer market, scouting, development of the youth sector. Another point in common with RedBird is the strategy: the German has refined his professional background by successfully developing a model – the Red Bull one – which expressly provides for self-sustainability based on research, creation and development of talent at home. Translated: the tempting world of capital gains opens up, which are not always necessarily the only final goal, but certainly constitute an interesting option. Cardinale, then, in Rangnick would find a recognized and recognizable “dominus”, who wants to choose coach, sporting director and head of scouting, who brings with him a staff of people he trusts. In theory, a single block that should avoid misunderstandings, arguments and differences in planning vision as has happened several times this season.

against

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Some of the “pros”, however, also bring with them “cons”. The staff, in fact, is decidedly large in purely numerical terms. Overfed: the more people between Casa Milan and Milanello, the more salaries to pay. The project is expensive. And then there is the biggest unknown of all: relying on a monolithic work group, i.e. headed by a single figure, also means running the risk of having to start from scratch again if things unfortunately don’t work. In the traditional Italian football system, we are used to seeing a coach who is fired if the results do not arrive, or a sporting director fired if the market has not performed according to expectations. But here we would be talking about an integrated system where everything is interconnected. If the project didn’t take off, Milan would find themselves an empty box just like they are now. It is also on this that Cardinal is reflecting a lot. Just as he thinks about internal balances, burned by the year just ended. Rangnick, in addition to being an authoritative figure, is also an authoritarian character: when he arrives, he arrives to command. Contradictory: a little. The other big question therefore concerns the willingness, or otherwise, of the RedBird number one to put the choice of coach, sports director and scouting manager in the hands of just one man. Then, of course, the last word would be Gerry’s, but the moment you decide to rely on Rangnick, you choose to rely on a well-known model with few compromises. So take it or leave it. The time to decide has truly come.