With Serie A still suspended and many plans and ideas discussed Italian football might finally return on June 19th. The Coppa might restart a few days earlier and continue it’s semifinal with Milan still in with a shout vs Juventus.

Bundesliga recently restarted without any in the stands and so far has worked as well as one can expect. A few leagues like the Belgian Jupiler Pro League already cancelled the 2019-2020 season but Italy apparently can not afford to and will press ahead. A medical protocol has been set up and individual and group training will hope to succeed so Calcio can finish the season.

The still not official schedule will hope to finish the season by late August with matches mostly at night to avoid summer heat. After that the teams have envisioned a transfer window that runs through the month of September and early October before the next season can start. A lot is still unknown and Italy is not alone in it pandemic uncertainty.

Stadium plans move ahead as well and so do the daily diet of transfer rumours. How much of it can be believed especially in no physical meeting times is a good question. In Milan’s case the identity of future management is still not certain though this has not stopped many from speculating on Ralf Rangnick’s transfer plans. The German is still on a path to take over – at least in a management capacity – and bring about a real youth movement built for the future in an image that will take Milan in an unfamiliar direction. Many names have been mentioned with a few more notable ones below:

• Luka Jovic, 22 years old forward, Real Madrid. To replace possible outgoing Ibra.
• Denzel Dumfries, 24 years old right back, PSV. Finding a solution to Conti and Calabria problem.
• Dominik Szoboszlai, 19 years old midfielder, Red Bull Salzburg. Rebuild the midfield and replace the outgoing Bonaventura.
• Florentino Luis, 20 years old midfielder, Benfica. Another piece in the midfield rebuild to complement Bennacer.

The 2006-2007 Champions League was to be a form of redemption for Milan. Beating Liverpool in a final not so long after the Istanbul debacle was relief of sorts for its fan, the team and its history too.

Milan didn’t blow teams away in the groups stage. The team did finish first but lost twice in a group H that featured Lille, AEK Athens and Anderlecht. The first knock out stage was only won 1-0 (aggregate) against Celtic. A bigger win came in the quarter finals when Bayern Munich were conquered 4-2 in aggregate.

Kaka had scored many and was in form. Manchester United would be the semi final opponents with the first leg in Manchester. A not so great early sequence led to Dida, in Milan goal, unable to save and both a deflected and diverted ball was credited as a Ronaldo goal. Kaka opened Milan’s scoring with an early touched that fooled Edwin van Der Sar in the Manchester goal and made it 1-1. Few minutes before the half the Brazilian gave Milan the lead. He took on a long pass and ran towards goal on the left side, three defenders converged on in attempt to stop the solo counter. Kaka danced between them and with both a touch and a low header beat Patrice Evra, Gabriel Heinze and Darren Fletcher and finally van Der Sar. The former two collided and all in the stadium witnessed a magical goal. The lead would not survive as Wayne Rooney would score twice. The return provide some dose of magic to set up another final versus Liverpool.

After the match Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester’s legendary Scottish manager, called Kaka one of the world’s best two players and tried to sign him more than once.

Extended highlights in the video below and the goal itself starting at 4:35.

Match day one of the 1996-1997 season had Verona visiting the San Siro. Milan had won the scudetto the season before and Fabio Capello had departed to Real Madrid, for what was to be a short stint. For what would not be the first time Milan had brought in a Cagliari coach to replace Capello. Oscar Tabarez started his Milan tenure starting the following 11

Rossi, Galli, Costacurta, Maldini, Panucci, Albertini, Desailly, Boban, Baggio, Weah, Simone

At the half it was Verona ahead by one goal but the second half exploded with a Simone brace and a late goal where Weah took the ball straight from a long Verona corner to ran and dribble past defenders before beating Attilio Gregori with a low shot. Baggio would add a later fourth for a 4-1 win.

The big win wouldn’t reflect on the season as Tabarez wouldn’t even last the calendar year and a Sacchi return is an unsuccessful one as Milan end the season in 11th place.

As leagues around the world try to come to terms with the Coronavirus pandemic a return date is always on the agenda. These possible dates are and will need to keep being revised as new information arrives. Public health and measures to protect it dictate the future of the suspended seasons and to some extent football itself.

Milan have meetings planned with other Serie A teams and the league to see if overseas based players can return to Italy or can at least start to prepare more rigorously for football. For example Athletic Bilbao in Spain had brief plans to return to individual training this week but had to abandon it. Many others talk of early May return to training for a late May football but that seems optimistic. There are plans to restart the English lower tiers in early June but that may be impossible too. All these plans are for behind closed doors games so in no way football is going back to normal in the near future.

FIFA has proposed to extend contracts that would normally end on June 30th every year until the 2019-2020 seasons are concluded in each country. This would also affect the transfer window dates and depending on how far into the future seasons do end football’s growth and the growth of eSports in 2020 and beyond too.

Football teams big and small depend on revenue from transfers. Many who are already reeling due to suspension of games will have only one remaining lifeline, revenue from transfers. But how will transfers look and will it possibly be a very brief window instead of the usual late June to early September dates? Will players become cheaper or not? No one knows for sure but interestingly transfer rumours are continuing at a pace that may surprise some.

Arguably Milan’s case is more precarious than most. In the midst of a yet another rebuild with whispers that the wage bill will need to be drastically lower there is lots to do. The latest seems to be concentrated on Sandro Tonali arriving from Brescia and Milan sacrificing any or all of Gabbia, Pobega and Plizzari to get the sometimes combative but highly rated young central midfielder. Paqueta has been rumoured to leave after a disappointing recent time. Money from his exit may be needed. Gaetano Castrovilli is a mentioned indirect replacement. Ibra may leave after being unimpressed by the state of the team before the lockdown. If he does go a forward is needed and perhaps more if Rebic and Leao’s future lies elsewhere too. Arkadiusz Milik is one recently mentioned possibility. Milan need to look for a right back too with both Conti and Calabria seemingly lost causes. Donnarumma has one more year on his contract and his case needs to be cleared up before he heads into the final season of his four year deal.

Expiring contracts may be the easiest thing to manage at Milan this summer. Bonaventura and Biglia are almost certainly not returning next season.

Of course all this depends on even more than the Coronavirus pandemic. It is still not known if Ralf Rangnick is arriving and if he does how many roles he is taking up and therefore if Maldini – and Pioli – are heading for the exit in the near future.

The COVID-19 outbreak continues to suspend activities around the world. With very few exceptions football has stopped. All sports and indeed all of humanity are in uncharted territory.

Plans for a return to regular football are difficult to formulate. In the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 spread talk was of a May to June completion of the 2019-2020 Serie A season. Other leagues and competitions had similar plans. Putting a value on any return date on Heritage Sports Review or elsewhere seemed risky and it has now become even more tricky.

Increasing talk of a longer suspension and continuous need for social distancing and self isolation puts all guesses in doubt. The importance of listening to health officials is apparent to most with a conclusion to football games taking a back seat. Clubs are now postponing optimistic dates for a return to training in advance of games that would have concluded the season. UEFA – with Champions League last 16 and Europa League last 32 still yet to play – and leagues around the world simply can not risk players’ or fans’ health. A few voices still mention playing games behind closed doors but those are just whispers and hopes. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin also dreams of a season concluding properly but football is increasingly moving towards a complete cancellation of the current season to counting the financial aspects of the Coronavirus outbreak.

When July first arrives many players will be out of contract with even less certainty than others. They will be free agents until football resumes. Some may be able to secure a sort of extension, at least in good faith with their current teams but others will have to sit this out and find a new team deeper into 2020. The teams themselves will have a hard time calculating their annual numbers that depend on amortization of contracts and income from pending transfers.

Teams directly employ many at the stadiums and other outlets too. All, rich and poor, will be impacted and some teams may even go bankrupt. At Juventus the player have pledged to not collect a portion of their salary therefore saving the club upwards of €90 million. Other teams may need to follow and some will just impose a reduction unilaterally.

Others that work at clubs require help from team owners and some may receive the help from government package. One thing is for sure, this is unseen territory with many unknowns.