"I struggle to picture how, in Italy, a coach only trains while everything else is done by a supervisor." That's Fabio Capello's verdict on the potential appointment of Ralf Rangnick at AC Milan — and it cuts to the heart of why this summer feels so precarious at San Siro.
Milan sacked head coach Massimiliano Allegri, sporting director Igli Tare, technical director Geoffrey Moncada, and CEO Giorgio Furlani the day after the 2025-26 season ended. Owner Gerry Cardinale cleared out the entire senior structure in one move. Now, with June already underway and no coaches or directors in place, reports indicate Rangnick is the frontrunner for a sweeping sporting director-style role — one that would give him significant control across the club.
Capello's problem with Rangnick
The former Milan, Roma, and Juventus manager isn't dismissing Rangnick outright. He acknowledges what the German built at Salzburg and Leipzig was a genuine project — structured, coherent, almost from scratch. But Milan is not a Red Bull project. It's a club with a fanbase that has now watched two consecutive seasons without Champions League football, and the patience is gone.
Capello didn't hold back on what a third failure would mean: "I don't dare to think how the Rossoneri fans would react to a third disappointing season in a row."
The structural concern is real too. Italian football culture, both inside clubs and in the media, tends to treat the head coach as the central figure. A model where a director-of-football type holds the technical reins while a separate coach runs training has rarely translated cleanly in Serie A. Rangnick built his reputation on being that director. Whether Milan's environment — or its dressing room — allows that kind of setup is genuinely unclear. Any odds on Milan's top-four finish next season should factor in that this hierarchy question isn't resolved yet.
Leao: already gone in everything but paperwork
Capello's assessment of Rafael Leao is blunter still. After the Portugal winger publicly stated he wants to leave and try a new league, Capello said: "His words perfectly reflect his recent disengagement with Milan. You could already see it on the pitch."
More pointedly, he believes the timing is deliberate. "When a footballer talks like that, they always have something on the table. The problem is that by doing that, he takes away from Milan's strength in negotiations."
That's the real damage. Leao hasn't just signalled he wants out — he's told every interested club that Milan need to sell. Transfer leverage, gone. Whatever fee the Rossoneri might have commanded from a position of strength is already being chipped away.
As for what Milan are actually losing: "Definitely a talented player, who has been able to excite the fans," Capello said. "Leao never matured, though. He was thinking more about other things rather than football." A player who produced moments of brilliance over two or three years but never delivered the consistency his ability demanded. The gap between what Leao was and what he should have been is the real frustration — and it's one Milan's next sporting director, whoever that turns out to be, will inherit as a cautionary tale.
