Details are emerging of Adriano Galliani’s crisis talk with Milan – third place or mass sales and wages slashed.
The Vice-President has had several meetings with the squad since their UEFA Cup elimination at the hands of Werder Bremen, a 2-2 result that came despite the fact they were leading 2-0 at half-time.

Galliani visited the side on Friday evening and held them in for a long and frank discussion that laid out the ground rules.

According to the Corriere dello Sport, he told the players that anything less than third place and an automatic Champions League qualification would see massive changes at the club.

Top stars would be sold and the existing wages slashed to match other sides taking part in the UEFA Cup.

Milan had stood by their players after failing to qualify for the top competition this term, but another failure simply would not be tolerated.

Another financial burden has been heaped upon the club, as Ancelotti reportedly told Galliani that in order to get the team back on track, he needed time to train regularly at the Milanello ground.

This means lucrative midweek international friendlies, such as the one set for Wednesday in Qatar, will be abandoned.

It is now very likely that even achieving third place will not be enough to save Ancelotti, who is set to move on after eight years at San Siro.

There is a list of candidates to take over, all of them former Milan stars such as Frank Rijkaard, Marco Van Basten and Roberto Donadoni.

The Corriere dello Sport claims the successor has been chosen in the form of Leonardo, the Brazilian who currently works with the club as technical area activities manager.

I just read this on Channel 4 Football Italia. Not quite sure how reliable it is, but i sincerely hope we finish fourth if its true

Well, it's quoting Corriere's take on things - Corriere tends to be a bit more lurid than gazzetta. That said, there were articles all over the Italian press yesterday about the meeting between Galliani and the players and they did all agree that he told 'em (more or less) 'finish 3rd or else', implying that it's now on the players to perform or they'll be held accountable.

It was inevitable. I just can't see why we had to reach this level of performance to do that... pressure should be applied as normal at such a professional level.

While I agree with Galliani finally letting the players know they need to start improving.. slashing wages? Yeah, that'll help us improve.

Can't blame the players when the manager is holding them back.

We need a shakeup in management before we start on the players.

Good! Finally galliani is doing his job!


Either play at the caliber Milan requires or get the f*ck out. Like I said earlier, I would keep kaka and pato and put the rest of the squad available for transfer.

Do you honestly think those players deserve the wages their getting? At another top club most of our players would have been sold a long time ago with the way they have performed.

Galliani's latest ultimatum comes off as lip service until something is actually done. It's not the first time he's given a speech to the locker room and nothing later came of it during the offseason.

yup, but only time will tell.

Nope, I don't think most of the players deserve what they earn.

But if we cut wages down, players will leave and our transfer record over the last 3 seasons is awful, so replacing these players isn't going to be easy.