Earlier this autumn, AC Milan manager Ruben Amorim admitted he had made several mistakes during his fourteen months as Manchester United manager. It was special that he did not budge on his principles and continued with more of the same, even though the losses came in a row, which the Portuguese now promised he would not repeat at the San Siro. This is fitting, because Milan boss Gerry Cardinale is also coming out of a learning process with several personal blunders.
Six months after being sacked from Manchester United, Ruben Amorim took on the next challenge this summer. At AC Milan, Amorim stands after 12 games with a points average of 1.75. Not particularly impressive, but if you ask Cardinale, he is quite happy with Amorim so far.
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“Yes, and I have full confidence in him. At the end of Top Gun, there’s a fantastic line: ‘I don’t want to disappoint my wingman,'” says Tom Cruise. And I don’t want to disappoint Ruben,” Gerry Cardinale begins in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.
“He is in no way in danger. I want to stay by his side. I don’t want to make the same mistakes that I have made in recent years.
After Stefano Pioli retired in 2024, AC Milan have had Paulo Fonseca, Sergio Conceicao and Massimiliano Allegri as coaches until Amorim took over in the summer.
“You can’t win if you keep switching from one manager to another. I chose Amorim. If I had made a mistake, I would admit it, but I don’t think I have. He has learned a lot from what happened at Manchester United and I hired him because he explained to me the mistakes he made there.”
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“He has the right culture and is a good leader and coach. It’s a completely different atmosphere at Milanello than the last four years, and that’s because of him. He’s learning things and the team has to find its cohesion and understand how we can rotate the players and at the same time score a lot of goals and win.”
Then we’ll see how long the Top Gun analogy lasts in Milan. For Ruben Amorim, it’s at least a good starting point with a chairman who has realized frequent coaching changes don’t solve anything. It’s the closest thing to a guarantee a coach at the top level can get.
