Ruben Amorim addressed Rafael Leao’s future, Luka Modric’s arrival and his own decision to take the Milan job in his first press conference in Perth, as transcribed by Andrea Ramazzotti of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
This is the first proper window into how Amorim is thinking after a summer of noise. Leao’s name has been floated in exit talk, Modric has signed as a free agent at 39, and Milan are rebuilding around younger players with no European football to cushion the transition. The tour of Australia is where those threads start to come together on the pitch, and Amorim was pressed on all of them.
On Leao, he refused to feed the speculation. “For me, the team is the most important thing. I’ll talk to Rafael, Ramos, Saelemaekers, and all the players returning from the World Cup to explain what we’ll do,” he said. “I know there’s a lot of talk about some of our players, but they’re ours as long as nothing changes.” The message was that everyone fights for a place and the rules apply to all, which is the standard line of a coach who does not want a transfer saga defining his pre-season.
Modric got the warmer treatment. Amorim wants his football built on possession, and he sees the Croatian as the man to run it. “Sometimes it’s not how fast you run that matters, but how fast you think. And he’s really good at that,” Amorim said. He framed the signing as a deliberate piece of squad-building rather than a marquee name for its own sake, arguing that young players need experienced ones around them to succeed. Modric may feature in the friendlies in Australia, though Amorim left the door open on his exact minutes given he is only now arriving from international duty.
The most revealing part was on why Milan turned to him after his sacking at Manchester United. Amorim said the club wanted a specific style and recognised he plays that way, and that his time at United, failures included, was part of the pitch. “They chose me not only for my successes, but also because my experience at a big club like Manchester United helped them better understand who I am,” he said, adding that his conversations with Gerry Cardinale carried weight. He mentioned speaking with Massaro and Baresi to understand the club’s history, and leaned on the fact he has supported Milan since childhood.
He was honest about the gamble. “We want to take risks by focusing on some young players and rebuilding. You could say it’s a risk for the coach too, but I prefer to take this risk.” He also knows how he’ll be measured: “I know that you will judge me based on the next match.”
There was even a note on the suit, swapped in for the tracksuit at his staff’s urging, with Amorim nodding to Milan as the city of fashion. That is the easy part. The harder question is whether a Modric-led possession game can lift a squad with no continental football and a striker in Leao whose future is still, by the coach’s own admission, only settled “as long as nothing changes.”