Two days after AC Milan’s defeat to Napoli, the Italian media are continuing to repeat the notion that not hiring Antonio Conte was a mistake.
This morning’s edition of Tuttosport (via MilanNews) writes that Conte was the coach that some Milan fans had been loudly calling for over the summer. He showed up at San Siro on Tuesday evening with his Napoli side, winning 2-0 and going 11 points ahead.
In doing so he effectively excluded Paulo Fonseca’s team from the race for the Scudetto, given that the gap in points would be eight even if we presume that Milan win their rescheduled game in hand against Bologna.
Of all the names linked to replace Stefano Pioli, Tuttosport state that Conte was the most convincing not only from the point of view of experience, but above all of character and discipline, something that seems to be a bit lacking at Milanello.
Milan decided to go for Fonseca which surprised and divided the fans, many of whom expected a more high profile name. However, RedBird Capital didn’t want an outspoken profile on the bench, but in the end what counts are the results.
Conte, unlike Fonseca, is bringing in wins consistently. That’s why the paper has the section headlined: ‘Antonio, the great Rossoneri regret’, referring to the fact that Milan could have had the Italian given he seemed up for the job.
De Laurentis may be a madman, but he is still a madman that cares about football and the pride of Naples when it comes to this sport. Even before Conte, he quicky admitted the giant mistake with Garcia. It didn’t work with Mazzari, but he attempted to change the course of the season.
Meanwhile, we are stuck with people who I’m pretty sure don’t even like the sport itself, let alone care about Milan and whether or not we will win games.
Agree 100%!
One of the many reasons I didn’t want Conte was because he’d alienate players like Leao.
And we ended up hiring Fonseca instead and alienating Leao.
I have to admit that I was mistaken in one aspect about Conte, which is him forcing a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3. Here he is perfectly fine with Napoli playing a 4-3-3.
I don’t like him being so bad at the European level, but considering we got Fonseca and almost got Lopetegui, maybe we SHOULD have gotten him if it will at least mean we will fight for the scudetto.
One good thing about him is that he would have forced the management to get him someone like Lukaku and not some average RB like Emerson Royal.
Hansi Flick for me is the real regret. I wonder how no one even thought of hiring him. Maybe wages but it’d have been worth every penny. Xavi is still there for the taking if they are thinking of letting go of Fonsy. For some we’re more likely to see Eusebio Francesco than we’re likely to see a proper coach.
Zlatan: Eusebio is a man who’s in line with our vision for the club.
Journalist:…and what’s your vision for the club?
Zlatan: God never answers to his creatures.
this Conte hype is embarrassing. they had all the weak opponents and caught us in a situation where we just ran out of players. in the game itself, they havent even been much better than us, just more efficient, with two high quality players. as for the tactical part, there have been big gaps in their midfield we could pass through how we wanted (managers always preach compactness, i didnt really see that on Napoli side). i’d even take bets Conte will be fired before Fonseca. Their game is based on 3-4 quality players, as soon as any of them getting injured etc. they’ll be having troubles against any team.
Yes, it is hype, not the fact that Conte wins titles when given what he ask for. Proven track record.
‘the fact that Conte wins titles when given what he ask for’ – thats really a hard fact 😀 and if he’s not winning anything he can just say it was because he didnt get what he was asking for.
Hype? Upon taking the Juve job he has literally won a title in all but three of his seasons as a club coach and nearly performed a miracle with the worst Italy squad of all time. And only in two of these instances (his second and thir year in Turin) he had the best squad in the league.
Leao would cost 250M if we got Conte. Realistically. How will Fonseca inspire top players when he has been a manager for 2 decades now and won a few cups here and there. And a title with Shakhtar that was like PSG in Ukraine.
We brought a guy that develops young players instead of a guy that win titles.
maybe Shakhtar was the only occasion, where he got what he was asking for?
Leao would go home crying after every training if conte was the coach . He would never see the pitch on game night