Chapter 126 Planning Ahead

Due to serious injuries to key players, AC Milan did not perform well in the 35th and 36th rounds of the league, with one loss and one draw, accumulating only 1 point and being overtaken by Inter Milan in the standings.

At this point, the top four teams in the Serie A standings are Inter Milan with 78 points, AC Milan with 76 points, Fiorentina with 67 points, and Juventus with 65 points.

With only two rounds left in the league, Inter Milan overtook AC Milan by 2 points in the standings, which made everyone at Inter Milan excited for a whole week.

Inter Milan were defeated 2-1 by Cagliari in the 37th round of the league.

Now it's AC Milan that's excited.

With the Champions League final approaching, AC Milan received three pieces of good news.

The first piece of good news is that the club successfully persuaded the Italian Football Federation to postpone the league match against Roma in the 37th round to June 4th, allowing ample preparation time for the Champions League final.

The second piece of good news is that, due to Inter Milan's loss, the point difference between the two teams remains unchanged at 2 points. With Inter Milan having only one round of league matches remaining and AC Milan having two, AC Milan can still overtake Inter Milan and lift the league title trophy this season if they win all 3 points in their remaining two league matches.

The third piece of good news is that Fino, Kaká, and Nesta have all recovered from their injuries and have returned to training, making them available for the Champions League final.

For the Milan dressing room, the first piece of good news led to another piece of good news.

Due to a change in the schedule of the 37th round of the league, Maldini's farewell match has changed from an away game against Fiorentina to a home game against Roma. If Milan wins both rounds, Maldini will lift the league title trophy at the San Siro, bidding farewell to football, the San Siro, and his home fans with the Serie A championship.

This is what the Milan dressing room is eagerly anticipating; the teammates are looking forward to a grand ceremony to bid farewell to this Milan legend.

On May 26, the day before the Champions League final, Ancelotti led the entire AC Milan team to Rome to prepare for the match the following night and conserve their energy.

Milan borrowed Roma's training ground for their final training session.

Before dinner, Galliani, Braida, Leonardo, and other club executives visited the players' hotel to encourage them. Berlusconi, busy with official business, would not arrive in Rome until before the match the following day.

Galliani conveyed Berlusconi's decision to everyone.

"Our performance this season has been outstanding, dominating both the league and the Champions League. This is inseparable from the hard work of every player and staff member in the locker room. Mr. Berlusconi has decided that if we can lift the trophy for Milan in tomorrow night's Champions League final, the club will provide a generous bonus! All players, coaching staff, and personnel will share the €2 million bonus, and in addition, each player who plays in the final will receive an extra €250,000 bonus!"

"Long live Milan! Long live the president!" the players and staff cheered.

Everyone loves honor, and money is naturally indispensable. This year's prize money is a quarter more than the prize money for winning the Champions League in 2007, and no one is not excited about this news.

Galliani walked among the players, skillfully hugging, patting, and praising each one, quickly making everyone smile and creating a wonderful atmosphere.

"Fino, our Milan's little genius, I believe you will definitely score a goal tomorrow night!" Galliani walked up to Fino and patted him on the shoulder.

"Thank you for your blessing," Fino said with a slight smile.

“You will be the future of Milan, if you want,” Galliani said meaningfully, before turning to the next player.

After hearing Galliani's veiled meaning, Fino sighed softly to himself.

Let everything take its natural course!

Galliani has mixed feelings about Fino.

On the one hand, he was pleased that Milanello had produced another superstar, a testament to the excellent results of Milan's youth training; on the other hand, it was precisely Fino's Rossoneri heritage that made him feel the need to plan ahead, especially after learning that Maldini intended to groom Fino to succeed him as Milan's captain in the future.

These superstars, who emerge from Milan's youth academy and have been rooted in the club for many years, will inevitably enjoy immense prestige and command a huge following among the team and fans. Such highly respected legends are someone he must be wary of.

This inevitably brings to mind the struggle between Galliani and Knights Table, which involved little personal emotion and more of a clash of management philosophies.

The Knights Table's philosophy is to control and unite the entire team through the influence of Italian players within the AC Milan squad (preferably from Milan's youth academy). The Knights Table itself occupies the top of the locker room, representing a traditional family-style power hierarchy.

Galliani, on the other hand, is a professional manager who wants to manage Milan using modern corporate management models. He believes there should be no privileged class in the locker room, and that players are all equal employees who should just focus on playing well and have no right to interfere in the team's operations and development.

When the Knights Table was first established, AC Milan was in dire need of rebuilding, foreign players were playing passively, and results were stagnant. At that time, the Knights Table was beneficial to Milan's development. Especially after Berlusconi took over Milan, he tacitly approved of and supported the existence of the Knights Table.

It was under the leadership of the Knights Table, coupled with Berlusconi's relentless investment, that Milan's performance improved rapidly and gradually reached its peak. As chairman, Berlusconi also accumulated a great deal of prestige in Milan, which helped his political career to go smoothly, and he even became the Prime Minister of Italy.

At this time, Galliani was no match for the Knights Table, which had Berlusconi's support.

But around the time of Baresi's retirement, the situation changed.

The Knights Table's enormous influence in Milan made Berlusconi wary, and at his behest, Galliani began to work to dismantle the Knights Table.

After Baresi's retirement, Galliani gradually purged Italian players such as Coco, Rossi, Albertini, and Costacurta. Maldini, the second-generation leader of the Knights Table, lost his right-hand men and could only fight alone.

Around 2003, Berlusconi was embroiled in legal troubles and gradually faded out of AC Milan's actual management, only appearing as a spiritual leader, while Galliani began to take sole control.

Under Galliani's suppression, the power of the Knights Table has been greatly weakened and can no longer be compared with the Baresi era. After Maldini retires, the Knights Table will completely become history.

Galliani is on the verge of victory.

If his struggle with the Knights Table was a clash of management philosophies, then his struggle with Milan legends like Baresi and Maldini was a pure power struggle.

After Baresi retired, Berlusconi publicly stated that he hoped Baresi could become AC Milan's Beckenbauer.

This alerted Galliani, who was the de facto ruler of Milan and could not tolerate someone else snoring beside him.

He must find a way to prevent highly respected legends from taking over the club's management after retirement and taking away power.

Due to his exclusion and manipulation, Baresi was never given a substantial role after retiring and eventually had to go to England to seek employment. After returning to Milan, he could only remain in the youth academy.

Now that Maldini is nearing retirement, he will not give Maldini the opportunity to enter the club's management.

Having learned from these two previous experiences, he became very cautious in his view of Fino, who also possessed the red-black genes and whose future was clearly bright.

Galliani was initially pleased with the rise of the team's young stars, but as Fino's growth rate repeatedly exceeded his expectations, he began to regret his decision to establish Fino as the future core of the team. If Fino were allowed to continue to grow stronger, he might become even more troublesome than Baresi and Maldini.

Compared to Baresi and Maldini, Fino has a natural advantage: he's a striker, a prominent position that makes it much easier to build popularity and prestige, giving him a greater edge in winning awards. Based on Fino's performance this season, his chances of winning the Ballon d'Or at the end of the year are very high.

There's no one in Milan's youth academy who doesn't idolize Maldini. If Maldini wins over Fino, and Fino unites the locker room to promote Maldini, then any plan by Maldini to promote Fino would be shooting himself in the foot.

He didn't even dare to gamble on Berlusconi's attitude at the time. The more Berlusconi liked Shevchenko and Kaká, the two Ballon d'Or winners, the more likely he would like Fino.

By then it will be too late to get rid of Fino. Once Fino wins the Ballon d'Or, the resistance to selling him may be even greater than selling Kaká, because Fino will have the triple buffs of AC Milan genes, future captain, and Ballon d'Or winner.

Therefore, if he wants to eliminate potential risks in advance, this summer break is the best time; it will become increasingly difficult in the future.

He wouldn't allow Milan to produce another Baresi or another Maldini!

When Leonardo takes over the team next season, the Brazilian contingent can continue to be supported, just as he has done in previous seasons, to weaken the influence of the local contingent.

As for results, he didn't think selling Fino would have much of an impact on Milan's performance.

Good players are like flowers in a garden; they bloom for one season, then another. After Shevchenko left, Kaká rose to prominence, then Kaká declined, then Fino rose to prominence, then Fino was sold, and Milan still had Pato.

Pato is also a very good player. He is young, talented, and performs well. He was a strong contender for the Golden Boy award last year. He is just another Shevchenko, another Kaká, and another Fino. He can definitely be developed.

If it weren't for Fino's strong rise in the last two years, he would have taken over the core of the attack after Kaká.

Besides, if you have money, why worry about not being able to buy good players?

Leonardo has extensive connections in Brazil and has already scouted many talented players, such as 17-year-old Neymar, whom he could bring back next year.

Galliani has not yet made a final decision on whether to sell Fino.

According to his information, Fino and Maldini weren't very close and didn't see each other much in private. This reassured him a little; perhaps he should give Fino a chance to show him some goodwill.

Therefore, when Florentino probed about the possibility of Fino's transfer, he gave an ambiguous answer, thus inadvertently passing the message to Fino's agent team.

Upon receiving the news, Mendes couldn't contain himself and took the initiative to contact him, while also giving Fino a warning.

Whether or not to sell Fino depends on Fino's future performance.

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A note from the author: Teachers:

I'm sorry, but I've been going through some major changes in my life recently, involving moving to a new city to start over, finding a place to live, moving, and changing jobs, all of which are quite troublesome. So I won't be able to update daily in August, but I'll try my best to update weekly.

I will try my best to resolve the real-world issues as soon as possible, and resume daily updates by September 1st at the latest. [Heart]

Since there will still be occasional updates in August, I won't be issuing leave requests anymore; I'll just issue an announcement.

I apologize again, and thank you all for your support.