The ink was barely dry on Ruben Amorim’s contract at AC Milan when the first crack appeared. Twenty-four hours after the Portuguese manager was unveiled as the new face of the Rossoneri, a deal that was supposed to lock in the club’s long-term technical direction collapsed in spectacular fashion. And at the center of it all is Markus Krosche — the man who never actually left Frankfurt.
Here’s the situation: Milan believed they had a handshake agreement with Eintracht Frankfurt to bring in Krosche as their new technical director. According to multiple reports out of Italy, Krosche was the driving force behind Amorim’s candidacy, and the two were expected to form the backbone of a new era at San Siro. But 24 hours after Amorim’s appointment was made official, Frankfurt pulled the plug.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport reports, the German club has informed Milan that Krosche is not available — no matter what price they offer. The Rossoneri had reportedly ramped up their compensation efforts in recent weeks and were confident a deal was done. They were wrong.
The fallout has been immediate and messy. According to journalist Luca Cerchione, who has close ties to the Amorim camp, it was Krosche who first recommended the Portuguese coach to Milan. Frankfurt executives are said to be furious that they were kept in the dark during those negotiations, and they’ve responded by slapping a massive financial demand on the table — one that Milan simply cannot meet. As of now, the deal for Krosche is effectively dead.
This isn’t just a backroom blunder. It’s a symptom of a deeper dysfunction that has plagued Milan for years. The club has a track record of ego battles and front-office infighting that leaves managers exposed. Now Amorim walks into a building where the sporting director he was promised doesn’t exist, and the structure that was supposed to support him has already crumbled before he’s coached a single game.
The root of the problem is simple: Milan hired the manager before they hired the architect. In a well-run organization, the sporting director chooses the coach. At Milan, the coach was chosen first, and now the club is scrambling to find a sporting director who might not even align with Amorim’s vision. It’s a classic case of putting the cart before the horse — and there’s a real risk that the next name through the door could be a mismatch for the Portuguese tactician.
For Amorim, this is a brutal introduction to the politics of Italian football. He’s now caught in a power vacuum before he’s even had a proper training session. And for Milan fans who hoped the arrival of a proven winner from Manchester United would signal a new era of stability, the past 48 hours have been a sobering reminder that some fires don’t get put out — they just get handed off to the next guy.
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