Since his appointment in October, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been at the forefront of the AC Milan project, and today, he has reflected on his job so far, whilst also reviewing the early stages of Fonseca’s start to life with the Rossoneri.
It is fair to say that Ibrahimovic has arrived at a time when Milan were going through a difficult period. Following two successful seasons, last season things looked bleak in terms of the club’s goals at an early stage, and he came into a negative environment, at least from an outside perspective.
Since then, he has been tasked with numerous things, such as playing a part in the managerial debacle, matters regarding contracts, and much more.
In the midst of the summer mercato, a lot of work still must be completed, but positives can be taken following Fonseca’s impressive beginning at the club. Today, he spoke to ESPN to review his return so far, and speak on Fonseca’s position – his words have been relayed by Football Italia.
“I’m excited. I’m enjoying a lot of responsibility, and a lot of pressure. We eat pressure for breakfast. The hardest thing is I know these guys, I used to play with them, but now I am making decisions for these players and it’s not easy to go from teammates to working above them, making what might be hard decisions… So far it’s good, I’ve been friendly so far.”
Fonseca’s start…
“It takes time to get his identity into the team, so we need patience, but can already see the team is improving, starting to understand his ideas.”
Pulisic’s improvement since joining…
“I think he had his best season with us. I expect him to do even more this season, as a leader also, because the young team needs these leaders to show the path for the team. We are there to help and support him, just make him focus on football and that’s all.”
The visibility of Milan on major networks in the USA is going to be excellent for the brand, especially with Ibra now as the face of the team. It will be beneficial for the business side and could potentially increase revenue, allowing us to have bigger budgets to work with in the future.
Puppet….😂
“We eat pressure for breakfast.” Classic Ibra 😂
When they hired him in this weird hybrid role, I remember thinking it was questionable because he never met a camera he didn’t like, and this role would require him to be more circumspect. I was surprised that at first he actually didn’t seem to be his usual media–loving self and stayed in the background. But lately he’s all over the media. Even in the CBS interview in the U.S. he kind of jumped in on a question meant for Pulisic.
He also keeps hinting he’s going to have to come down hard on the players in the future (“I’ve been friendly so far”). Not sure that’s his job.
He was a great iconic player, and his limelight-loving arrogance worked for him in that role. But for the sake of the club’s professional image he might consider dialing it back a little in his new role.
Why? People love characters and most people especially Americans love Ibracadabras confidence.
Being different is good and this is only gonna pull peoples eyes to Milan more.
Forsa Ibracadabra and Forza Milan.
Being different is good… ummm no! It’s not.
Thats one hell of a statement so do you think its better to not stand out ? its to a great extent the difference between success and failure in various types of works. You think delivering a product like one on a conveyor belt compared to originality is even up for question. Revolution and originality in arts or business is not a bad thing in fact its what greases up things, you get that right ?
The great minds has always stood out as being different from the masses.
Herd mentality!
Good thing that clown Screaming A*s Myth wasn’t on the show to interview Zlatan.
Guy acts like he knows more about a sport than the actual top athletes that play that sport, even though he was never good enough to play any of them.
Zlatan making the rounds in the States promoting Milan.