🚨📊 A quick primer on Markus Krösche, the favourite to become Technical Director at AC Milan.
•A disciple of Ralf Rangnick? Not exactly. However, Rangnick personally recommended him to RB Leipzig when he left the club, and Krösche effectively inherited his position. He absorbed the Red Bull model and helped build a highly competitive Leipzig side. Christopher Nkunku and Dani Olmo were the standout signings of the 2019/20 campaign, while in January 2020 he secured a deal for a certain Josko Gvardiol -now a key player for Manchester City.
•He joined Eintracht Frankfurt in 2021 and immediately implemented many of the core principles associated with the Red Bull model: scouting, data analysis and player trading. In four years, the club won the Europa League (2022), qualified twice for the Champions League, and — perhaps most impressively — generated a net profit of €169 million, the fifth-highest figure in world football during that period.
•Hugo Ekitiké (sold for €85m), Omar Marmoush (€75m) and Randal Kolo Muani (€95m) all bear his signature. Acquired for a combined fee of around €30m and later sold for a total of €255m.
•How does the model work? An elite scouting network comes first. Then the club focuses on refining a player's strengths and addressing weaknesses, always taking into account the environment in which those strengths can be maximised and shortcomings minimised. Everything, however, starts with a clear footballing identity. As Krösche told The Athletic: “Without a clear playing philosophy, you can't do anything.”
•It is not just about scouting and data. The attention to detail extends to sleep science and injury prevention. “We invest a lot -a lot- in the medical department, nutrition experts and sleep specialists, because everybody in our organisation is involved in maintaining a player's health and capacity to perform. When I first arrived, we had a lot of discussions about why it was necessary and why we were spending so much on the medical department and nutritional experts.”
•In meetings with players, Krösche reveals, the club maps out a long-term development pathway, analysing where a player could be in year one, year two and year three. All of this is framed within a very transparent player-trading strategy: “The last thing is that I promise a player that if they develop faster than we do as a club, and if we receive the transfer fee we believe is appropriate, then I'll let them go.”
In short, Krösche appears to be a profile broadly aligned with Rangnick's footballing philosophy, but as a more traditional Technical Director -less all-encompassing and less influential across every area of the club.
The question remains the same: would he have the time, resources and autonomy at Milan to implement a model like this?
@AntoBelloni01/
@MilanVibesIT