CorSport: ‘Destined to be sold’ – Theo to be sacrificed after becoming ‘symbol’ of season | OneFootball

AC Milan are heading for a season without any European football at all, and it will likely force them to make a ‘big’ sale to plug the financial gap.

As Corriere dello Sport reports this morning, there is an unwritten mathematical rule in football, but it usually works: when the points gap is greater than the number of games left to play, it is impossible to think of catching up.

So, whether it is Bologna or Juventus or any of the other rivals in the running (Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina), Milan – with seven games left to play – can no longer think of competing for fourth place and securing the proceeds from the Champions League.

The result: less budget for the new sporting director. Who will it be? Giorgio Furlani is pushing for Tony D’Amico of Atalanta and has flown to the States to meet Gerry Cardinale. The owner of Milan, however, thinks like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and would like to hire Igli Tare.

Failure to qualify for the Champions League would mean a failed season. At the beginning of the year, the proclamations of the management, coach and players included the word ‘Scudetto’, then reduced to fourth place, to conclude with the desperate search for any European spot.

The Supercoppa Italiana, won in January in Riyadh a few days after Sergio Conceiçao took over as coach, is certainly not enough to increase the rating for 2024-25. Being ninth place is too much to ignore, and though there is time a late surge up the table seems unlikely.

The man to be sacrificed

The ‘symbol’ of Milan’s season is Theo Hernandez. Even against Fiorentina, the Frenchman offered the usual performance full of errors. Several times he struggled with Dodo’s changes of direction, he was inattentive to off-ball movement and was wasteful when he got into La Viola’s box.

In short, too many technical errors from a single player, and there is one incident in particular that annoyed a large part of the Milan fan base. In the 41st minute, Theo and Dodo had an argument while Gudmundsson passed at close quarters, being allowed to put the ball into a dangerous area.

Without the Champions League, the club will not earn the minimum €40m in revenue from participating in the tournament, plus the riches of ticket sales for the four home games at San Siro.

Financial stability will allow the Rossoneri to survive the lost proceeds without too many problems, but these will certainly affect the budget for the summer transfer window.

It will also impact any resistance to big offers that come in for top players. Theo’s name pops up again here: without a renewal (his deal expires in 2026), the full-back is ‘destined to be sold’.