Former AC Milan coach Fabio Capello has stressed that Paulo Fonseca must deal with extreme pressure from the fans to deliver results and competitive football.
Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport (via Pianeta Milan), Capello assessed the presumed appointment of Fonseca as Milan coach to replace Stefano Pioli.
Capello talked about how Milan must be moving on from Pioli so that they can improve and therefore Fonseca has to immediately do better than Pioli did, which means a stronger showing in the cups and a title challenge in Serie A.
That will be hard, though, because the fans are feeling impatient and don’t want another season with minimal hope of winning a trophy.
“Fonseca will take a seat on one of the hottest benches in Serie A. If Milan have deemed the cycle of a coach like Pioli closed, the objective for whoever comes after him can only be to do better. A mission that is already complicated in itself and made even more difficult by an uphill start. The Milan fans are on the warpath. They no longer accept not winning, or rather not fighting to win. Fonseca, in order to conquer the piazza, can ‘only’ win,” Capello explained.
Capello then goes on to talk about the transfer market and the need for the coach to be supported with a new striker and a defensive midfielder, whilst Fonseca has to ensure that the defence becomes less leaky.
“The new coach will have to be supported by the club immediately. Milan will need a quality number nine. In addition to a centre forward, a defensive midfielder will be needed to provide the filter that has been lacking this season,” Capello said.
“Fonseca will obviously have to do his bit: repairing the defence, Milan’s real sore point, finding a new balance, bringing [Rafael] Leao up to the level of a champion are the challenges within the challenge that await him. Those in charge at Milan have bet on Fonseca, taking a great responsibility towards the fans, now they will have to support him, protect him. Starting with Ibra. Zlatan has been silent for a long time, the time has come to make himself heard.”
Fonseca has not yet been announced as the new Milan coach but that is likely to happen once the team returns from Australia, where they are playing a friendly against AS Roma.
Milan are in 4 comps next season.
I presume fans accept the champions league is a stretch?
The Coppa Italia is a lottery that Milan have not won in over 20 years.
The Super Cup basically doesn’t count.
So that leaves the league. To win a Scudetto is one of the hardest things you can do in football. Milan have only won 19 in 90 seasons.
There’s a pretty good chance we won’t win the Scudetto or any trophy next season
Will we sack Fonseca?
It took Inzaghi 3 seasons to win a Scudetto with Inter.
We’ve pressed the reset button. So we’re starting again. Again.
Consequences meet actions.
What does not really add up for me is talking over and over again about defensive midfielder, but not a word about attacking one. Fonseca used to play with one in Roma, Lille and Shakhtar, so he would probably like to continue that in Milan. And Milan does not have a single Attacking Midfielder.
The only one that “could” play there is Pulisic, but he seems to be more fit for a winger, and that’s all. Loftus Cheek doesn’t really fit there, neither Reijnders. And to get a good Attacking Midfielder nowadays there is a lot of money needed, yet no one would point that out.
^ (probably that comment should not be reply to your’s one xD)
It’s not only Fonseca who shall be judged next season, but the whole management and their strategy as a whole. Remember it’s them who decided to bring Fonseca out of all the available coaches out there, and it will also be them who will decide which player to bring and which (hopefully not the ones in my mind) would be sold. All of those factors will shape how our next season look like.
Now on to the season itself, there is indeed a good chance we won’t win any trophy next season, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. We were 20pts away from the champion in 2022/23 and out of the race since early january and were are now 19pts away from the champion and were eliminated from every competition aside from le EL since december 2023. Inzaghi took 3 seasons to win a scudetto, but was in the race till the last journey in his first journey and did win some “meaningless?” titles in the meantime.
For serie A, in my mind there is a big difference between tripping and missing the scudetto in April or in May and between not being in the race in the first place regardless of the ranking.
For the UCL, since this new formula supposedly makes it less likely to be in a group of death, I’d say we have no excuses not to make it out of the group stage. Then it will come down to whom we face in the knockout rounds.
The supercup doesn’t count on itself, but since we’ll be facing Juve, Inter and Atalanta, winning a title in a head to head against them is very good for the moral, that and I’m also sick of losing titles in a head to head vs inter or any of the others for that matter.
They’ve been in the job for less than a year. The first year was a success. They cashed in on a player that has turned into a big problem and strengthened the midfield dramatically. The bench is also strong. If they screw up, they will re-evaluate and go again. There is no danger of them not continuing to be ambitious, for them to sell the club for a profit, they need it to be very successful so this idea that they’ll be content with a UCL place is nonsense – otherwise Pioli wouldn’t have been sacked. Fonseca is a safe choice, while they wait for either Klopp or Guardiola, who are absolutely serious candidates for the job and both of them would jump at the chance to coach a team that is financially stable and have a strong youth setup.
Klopp and Guardiola are next level money though. If the opportunity presented itself, are we sure Milan would pull the trigger? Before or after the stadium is built?
Sorry but I really don’t understand on some of us who keep saying we only hire Fonseca to be an ‘interim’ before the likes of Klopp and Guardiola. First of all we offer Fonseca a long term project. 3 years or 2+1 is a long term base for a coach. And what makes us think that we can afford them? Be it their base salary or players / budget request. We can’t even hire Conte who’s more or less the same profile.
The management hire Fonseca simply because he’s one the safest less risky figure. A clone of Pioli. Hoping that he turns out to be the Pioli V2 as well in getting a silverware without breaking the bank. And if Fonseca fails, they’re just gonna hire another low risk profile.
“They’ve been in the job for less than a year”. They’ve been here 2 years now. But sure it was the first ‘real’ Mercato though they acted too slow in their first Mercato.
“The first year was a success.” We got dumped out of the UCL, put of EL unceremoniously, out of Copa early, never in the Scudetto race.
“..strengthened the midfield dramatically” LMAO 😂 is that why we still need a DM? Bro we lost most game due to the midfield, what are u talking about??
“There is no danger of them not continuing to be ambitious, for them to sell the club for a profit, they need it to be very successful so this idea that they’ll be content with a UCL place is nonsense”
Bro Scaroni, the club president, literally said they are only interested in top 4. His literal quote: “I have in mind that Milan must always be in the Champions League. That’s it, I have no other goals. You ask me: do you like winning the Scudetto? Yes, very much. But it is not our number one goal. ”
“Fonseca is a safe choice, while they wait for either Klopp or Guardiola, who are absolutely serious candidates for the job and both of them would jump at the chance to coach a team that is financially stable and have a strong youth setup.”
Conclusion: this has to be a sarcasm/sh!t post. There’s just no way you’re typing this with a straight face 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
Milan will not win anything next season. Screenshot this and frame it on a wall.
Its clear that all champions are leaving and we are gonna sign a big bunch of nobodies that some ‘fans’ will deem as the ‘best mercato ever’. We are back to that no-leader phase. I mean Emerson Royal? seriously?
Last time when it happened, the d3vil, the S@tan, the worse SD in milan’s recent history, he who shall not be named, actually fought the ENTIRE ownership to bring Ibra and ibra got us the scudetto. And the best player this management wants is Zirkzee, he is talented, but FAAAR from a champion.
Failure of any kind from Fonseca has much much sinister and deeper impact on Milan. By failure I mean if we sack him in the middle of season, there is no way we are making it to top 4/5 without a champion or captain to pick the team up and motivate them. Which just means Cardinale will have to make money for his loan through major player sales. It simply means Banter Era 2.0. In that case, the Entire management needs to be sacked and blacklisted Away from Football + banking in general for ruining a team that could’ve been a dominating force in Serie A and UCL.
Hope this management grows a few more braincells and at least signs a champion who knows what it means to Win and has that hunger.
Winning with Fonseca…hahaha
Zlatan being quiet? Has Cardinale put the Lion in a cage? Where’s the old Zlatan who wasn’t afraid to say what he really felt?