AC Milan entered March with momentum after a derby win over Inter and briefly held a Scudetto push with a gap over fifth place reaching nine points. Performances deteriorated as management infighting rumors grew, and results dropped sharply. In the final 10 league games, Milan earned the fourth-least points of any Serie A team. The season ended with a home loss to already-safe Cagliari despite an early goal by Alexis Saelemaekers, costing Milan a move from third to fifth and a Champions League spot. Within 24 hours, Gerry Cardinale dismissed the head coach, sporting director, technical director, and CEO, leaving a near blank canvas for a rebuild led by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Massimo Calvelli.
"Things were going so well in early March, when the derby win over Inter reignited the Scudetto push. At times, the gap over fifth place - and thus the cushion inside the Champions League spots - was as high as nine points. As rumours grew about infighting within the management and as cracks in the performances widened into chasms, Milan's results dropped off a cliff. In the final 10 games of the season, the Rossoneri picked up the fourth-least points of any team in Serie A."
"Everything culminated in the final round of the league season. Milan simple needed to beat an already-safe Cagliari side at San Siro to fall over the line and secure a Champions League spot, something that was at least the minimum objective and provided a platform to build from. Things were going so well too, after Alexis Saelemaekers scored inside two minutes. Yet the game ended up being emblematic of a troubled and toxic final 10 weeks of the campaign as Cagliari turned the scoreline around, with the players looking helpless and crestfallen as jeered rained down."
"The end result was a loss and a drop from third at kick-off to fifth at full-time. Everything had been thrown away in the final stretch, leading to talk of massive upheaval in the management and a project basically started from scratch. The changes did not take long in coming. Less than 24 hours after the curtain closed on 2025-26, Gerry Cardinale fired Massimiliano Allegri, Igli Tare, Geoffrey Moncada and Giorgio Furlani. The head coach, sporting director, technical director and CEO went in one fell swoop, which is almost unprecedented at top clubs."
"Now, there is virtually a blank canvas left, one that Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cardinale's new other right-hand man Massimo Calvelli have been instructed to get to work on. Where exactly"
Read at SempreMilan
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