New Milan head coach Ruben Amorim has barely had time to hang his jacket in the office before making his first big requests to the front office. He wants Gonçalo Ramos and Francisco Trincão, both Portuguese, both familiar faces from his Sporting days. And that has people wondering just how much pull super-agent Jorge Mendes is about to have at San Siro.
The report from La Gazzetta dello Sport lays it out pretty clearly. Amorim has the full support of RedBird boss Gerry Cardinale, who handed him a three-year deal with an option for a fourth. More importantly, Amorim was given near-total control over player recruitment this summer. That kind of autonomy is rare for a first-year manager at a club of Milan’s size. But it came with a catch.
Markus Krösche was supposed to join as sporting director, the guy who handles the long-term planning and roster structure. At the last minute, he backed out. He’s staying at Eintracht Frankfurt. So now there’s no one above Amorim in the soccer operations chain, at least not yet. That leaves a vacuum, and vacuums tend to get filled by whoever has the strongest relationships.
Enter Jorge Mendes.
The players Amorim wants
Trincão is the easier get. He played for Amorim at Sporting, won trophies there, and knows the system. He’s also not exactly lighting up whatever league he’s currently in. A reunion feels natural. Ramos is the bigger deal. The Benfica-raised striker moved to PSG for big money but never locked down a starting spot under Luis Enrique. He’s 25 soon and wants minutes. Milan needs goals. On paper, it works.
But PSG wants around €40 million for Ramos. That’s real money, and Milan has to free up cash first. Rafa Leão is still expected to be on the market this summer. That’s not a rumor anymore, it’s basically a plan. Selling him would fund a lot of Amorim’s shopping list.
The problem is that every one of these moves points back to Mendes. Ramos and Trincão are both Mendes clients. Amorim is a Mendes client. And now the guy who was supposed to be the counterweight in the front office isn’t coming. That leaves Milan in a spot where one agent could end up calling shots on both the coaching staff and the roster. That’s not inherently bad, but it’s risky. Clubs that hand too much influence to a single agent usually find out the hard way.
Amorim has proven he can build something when everyone buys in. He did it at Sporting. He’ll need the same buy-in at Milan, but right now the structure above him is a question mark. Krösche’s last-minute rejection doesn’t kill the project, but it doesn’t inspire confidence either. For a club that’s been looking for long-term stability, this feels like a start that’s already wobbling.
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