Antonio Conte returns to San Siro tonight and will take on the role of villain for the AC Milan fans, but things could have been very different.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, there was a time when San Siro was home for Conte, when he was the head coach of Inter and he managed to turn the sceptics into believers, making them forget about his Juventus past.
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Conte is a coach who is a guarantee of success and quality of work, who is capable of getting into the heads of his players and getting the best out of everyone. He brought the culture of success back to Inter, he started a path that Simone Inzaghi is carrying forward today.
He went to Napoli to rebuild in his own way from the rubble, speaking little and working hard. The results are already resoundingly evident: in just over two months he has brought new hope, and they are four points clear at the top.
At San Siro the Salento-born coach returns looking down on everyone from above, with an eight-point gap over Paulo Fonseca’s Milan, albeit with the Bologna postponement contributing to that. And to think that when Stefano Pioli’s departure became clear, many wanted Conte.
For some sections of the fanbase, he was the only guarantee of an ambitious and competitive Milan. However, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Giorgio Furlani never really opened up to this idea, preferring – as the Swede later explained – ‘a coach and not a manager’.
Essentially, Ibrahimovic implied that the personality of the former Chelsea boss and his past as a manager in the Premier League could have influenced the club’s choices and were perhaps not aligned with the new American project.
February 21 2021 was the day of his last Milan derby, a 3-1 win that meant overtaking Milan in the standings and would catapult them to a comfortable Scudetto win in the end. Today it is early, but a win would sound like a warning to the league that Conte is back, and to win.
Conte’s Napoli looks great, but we have to remember this match is the first time Napoli faces a top tier team. Inter, for instance, already played us and Juve.
Napoli too have already played Juve.
I feel we would win, despite it’s going to be a tough match, this a big litmus test for Fonseca and the boys, they should live up to expectations.
Whatever happens tonight, I see Napoli as the main favourites to win the Scudetto this season. They have Conte and no European competition.