Right before the start of the mercato, Furlani dropped an all-time quote, “I would focus on what we need to strengthen the squad, because there have also been mistakes in roster planning. Given the way we are managed, sacrifices won’t be necessary.“

The thing about getting older is that when you’ve seen some shit once, you learn to pattern recognize it. So I’ve just been waiting for Furlani to stick his foot in his mouth again, and sure enough, yesterday we were blessed. “They won’t be the only additions we’ll make: that said, there won’t be a total revolution, but we will add pieces to the squad to be ready for the new season.“

Milan sold Reijnders to City. They sold Theo Hernandez to Al-Hilal. Mike Maignan was almost out the door to Chelsea. Emerson Royal is heading out on loan. Musah was a step away from Napoli. The club accepted an offer from Como to sell Thiaw. Morata is being transferred because it’s not a transfer window if that guy doesn’t have a new club. Bayern is courting Leao.

Most of these are fine, and reasonable moves to make. The thing is, you don’t HAVE to lie to the fans. Furlani didn’t have to say any of this. But he chose to, and so the question I want to work through in this post is “why”?

Furlani grew up in Milan, so he’s surely seen the success of the club as he grew up. Unfortunately, someone in his life let him down enough that he thought the best path to go in life would be to work in asset management with one of the most notoriously cutthroat vulture firms in Elliott.

George Orwell once said, “Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations”. He might be a money guy, but he knows that you need to play the game to a certain extent. He’s done it…very poorly before. He’s marginally competent when things are good, and when they’re bad, he’s slipping out the back door and forcing mega-agents to announce firings just to get the ball rolling.

It’s clear that an 8th place team like Milan needs a lot of retooling. The pieces don’t make sense together. But of course, Moncada is a scout, not an SD, and he’s someone who can tell you about the bark on a tree but not what the composition of the forest should be. You’d think someone who grew up with Adriano Galliani would know that you need someone steering the ship. You’d think.

So why lie about it? It’s clear he doesn’t treat his public statements as a part of informing the fan base, it’s seen more as a PR for the transfers and moves they want to make. If you announce you’re having a fire sale, you get more bids and offers. Perhaps ones that a business would be interested in using to turn a profit. Perhaps numbers that a hedge fund would LOVE to see on the ledger in black ink.

I think that’s giving him too much credit. Where I’ve landed with this is he has more contempt for the fans than he once did. This guy grew up a fan, his kids wear the jerseys, but it’s different buying ice cream when you work at the ice cream shop. He thinks he’s helping — he doesn’t seem like an antagonist who would happily go against the grain. He’s not a troll. He’s not an ego manic like Zlatan.

I think he’s a guy caught between a few competing voices. The fans want wins now. This team was not equipped to deliver that. Saying, we’re starting from scratch and rebuilding would be.. accurate, but would beg the question, “How did a team Maldini built who got to the CL semi-finals need to be completely rebuilt up from the ground in two years?

How did a team who was regularly turning a profit and making intelligent transfer moves suddenly start thinking that Emerson Royal would be anything but an Origi-level disaster? How would a team who did that face no managerial repercussions?

No one in the management has been fired. No one. They’ve been slightly re-assigned, but no one is out of a job. Not even Kirovski, who oversaw the absolute disaster that was Milan Futuro. Still has his job. Zlatan, same job. Yet there was a budget deficit so large, that the club had to sell it’s best midfielder to break even and show daddy Gerald that his investment wasn’t leaking money and becoming a black hole like the end of the Berlusconi days. Firing someone means something is wrong. And nothing is wrong. Nothing to see here.

He has to say something and he can’t say what he actually thinks. Not that it would be journalism, but he’s firmly in the need to do public relations. And much like everyone at Fox News, he’s not really there for an audience of millions, he’s there for the audience of one. And to Gerald, things are humming along. The ledger has that profit turned, and he’s one day closer to finding the eventual seller that he’s been looking for since he purchased the club.