AC Milan are getting more and more tempted by Lille coach Paulo Fonseca with the Portuguese having a very impressive season in Ligue 1.
As has been reported by Calciomercato.com, the Rossoneri view Fonseca as a very credible option to replace Stefano Pioli when the Italian eventually leaves the role at the end of the season, barring a surprise.
There are a whole host of names linked with the job at the moment, such as Thiago Motta, Sergio Conceicao, Roberto De Zerbi, Julen Lopetegui and many more.
Fonseca has done so well this season that he is expected to be named the Ligue 1 coach of the year. They were floating in mid-table when he took over but Lille are now are now looking very likely to qualify for the Champions League which will be an excellent achievement.
Lille have got 22 clean sheets in all competitions this season, a figure bettered only by Inter across the top five European leagues.
They have also gone 22 matches without losing at home this season, and Fonseca has helped develop many young players like Lucas Chevalier, Leny Yoro, Bafode Diakite, Carlos Baleba, Angel Gomes and Ayoubb Bouaddi.
These factors are hard for Milan to ignore and Fonseca is right in the frame.
There is so much we don’t know as the fan base. All we do is huff & puff and vent and yap. We act like we know everything and have all the answers but 99% of its have no ideas what we’re talking about, myself included.
I do hope the manager is up to the task and have a plan. And I sincerely hope that they don’t change their decision based on fan pressure, because that would be idiotic and contradictory. Especially given how Mini was let go.
If there’s anything we have learned under Cardinale, it’s that if they make a decision, they go with it, regardless of public opinion. So I hope they stick to their guns, and if they decide that Lopetegui is the man to lead us, then they go with it. The fanbase will come around, they always do.
I do hope that this is resolved soon, so that the transfer strategy is better defined, and we know how we are to proceed forward. But the coaching appointment will tell us a lot about Redbird‘s ambition.
FORZA MILAN ⚫️🔴
You don’t speak for the fan base. I for one won’t come around to it and I’m very confident that the majority of the fan base feel the same way.
Whether you like it or not if that man is appointment people will bash him online and they will criticise him for every lose and they will put the blame on him when things don’t go our way the same probably worse then pioli.
If it comes to that I think it’s justified because if we are in a situation where we under perform because the management values saving pennies more then increasing the quality of the team then they got exactly what they were looking for.
The management under those circumstances deserve to be criticised. The coach deserves to get criticised. We all can see where this is going from a mile away.
You said the fans don’t know what they are talking about. You may have missed the fact that allot of these fans have more football knowledge and have played and watched and followed the team a lot longer then the people making the decision.
Just because they are in the driving seat doesn’t mean they know how to compete in f1. The point is you undervalue the football knowledge of the fan base and over value the people making the decisions. Cardinale didn’t even know milan won 7 champions league. The guy doesn’t even have knowledge about the product he bought. I don’t understand it really. What reasoning do you have to think cardinale is fit to make decisions in a sport that children know more about? Because he has money? You think that’s how it works?
Before Pioli was appointed, everybody wanted him out. After Pioli won the Sudo, everybody was singing his praise.
That’s the fickle nature of the fanbase. If Lopetegui starts winning, everyone will come around. If any coach fails, no matter who it is, then he’ll get criticized. Fan base reaction in the bigger scheme of things really doesn’t matter or influence major decisions like that.
As a fan base, we can only huff and puff about the things we see, like tactical decisions, or lineups, or things that happened during a game. But behind the scenes, we have absolutely no idea what is going on, nor what coaches are considered, and based on what criteria, and what demands they have. So we don’t know what parameters are management has to work with. But we sure like to bitch and moan about it a lot.
As to Cardinale, it is simple. Idiots don’t buy football clubs for over $1 billion. He is in this position because he knows what he is doing on the financial level, and has a long-term vision and strategy for this club. At least that’s how I perceive it based on his interviews.
That said he is fit to make decisions of that caliber. I’m sure he understands that this is the first coaching appointment of his tenure, so my guess is he would want to avoid making a mistake. He has his network in place, whether we agree with it or not, so that’s all we have to go by.
I think we don’t all share your logic of « if someone is filthy rich therefore he should be respected and he’s not an idiot. » Musk and Trump approve. Please give one example of something good that happened during the past year while Jerry is more involved with the club. It’s all mayhem.
We’re not talking about Trump or Musk. We are talking about Cardinale. I am not saying he should be respected. I am saying he needs to be given the benefit of the doubt, because last summer they pulled a heck of a transfer campaign and improved the squad. And have gotten further along in the Stadium project than Berlusconi ever had in his tenure. Cardinale hasn’t shown to be a failure yet.
His original question was “is cardinale fit to make sporting decisions”. And my point is if you can get to the point of buying Milan for 1.2billion you probably have a plan and a greater vision for what that 1.2billion can turn into. And while Cardinale might not now how to pick a coach, he put in a network in place that is supposed to do that for him.
They haven’t failed to date. But this will be an important decision. So I will continue to support RedBird moves until they turn it to sh|t.
Mmh thanks for the reply but we as fans definitely have different conclusions.
Jerry is just a gold digger. With OPM. He smelt a good opportunity to make a huge profit with Milan. He doesn’t know anything about football but he knows that if he builds a new stadium, like he was involved with the new Yankee stadium, the club’s valuation will skyrocket. Meanwhile it’s just sustainability to keep the asset worthy. He doesn’t care at all about trophies or having the best team.
I was at San Siro last year for Zlatan’s retirement. Very emotional, people were crying, Maldini was alongside Furlani-Judas. Two days later it’s chaos. One year later it’s mayhem.
Also I don’t think this team is better than last year. Yeah we have a bench in offense, mostly targets from M&M actually, but even Udinese has a better midfield than us. The team is poorly built because there is one goal that is sustainability, speculation, buy low sell high, etc. Wall Street mentality. No top team in Europe has won anything with that mentality.
You won’t come around to Lopetegui if he brings silverware to the club? Of course you will. Only the results tell us if a choice was intelligent or not, and nobody can see the future.
Far too balanced and reasonable for my liking. What we really need as a club (and on this site) is more firmly-entrenched opinions and more adolescent name-calling.
Well said and 100% agree.
These are all rumours untill official so I won’t get stuck into it.
But there’s one thing this management need to take into consideration – when was the last time a foreign coach won Serie A or had any big success with Italian club? Not since Mourinho’s treble with Inter.
There is always a first time for everything. The coaching world has also changed significantly over the last decade or so. Nationality/style/success don’t necessarily correlate. A foreign coach could be the beginning of a new trend or the continuation of an existing one. We won’t know until it happens.
In last decade no foreign coach won anything with Italian club. The likes of Conte, Spaletti, Allegri, Inzaghi, Pioli were winning. Allegri, Pioli and Inzaghi came closest in CL. Fonseca failed with Roma so no thanks.
Is Lopetegui a man who will change that? I don’t think so. So things haven’t really took off in coaching world of Italy for foreign coaches in last decade and it does not look it will anytime soon🤷
Or you could just suck it up and bring in a manager who has actual promise like Motta and De Zerbi, but of course that’s too ambitious for cardinale…
#nonsenca
What has Fonseca achieved that makes him a candidate to manage a major club? Won the Ukrainian league with Shakhtar and finished 5th with Roma. Not exactly amazing.