AC Milan ended an almost 10-year Supercoppa Italiana drought against Inter on Monday night, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic spoke about the need for continuity after.
It has been a very weird season for Milan, there have often been poor moments, and whilst there have been spells of positivity, they have often quickly been overshadowed by a poor result or issue within the team.
Key players have been involved in controversy, mercato talk about stars has been rife and this has all occurred whilst the Rossoneri have tried to find momentum under a new coach, Paulo Fonseca.
With the Portuguese struggling to find that sweet spot, a decision was made to part ways and in came Sergio Conceicao. Within a week, the Portuguese led his team to the Supercoppa trophy, and there have been clear Milanese signs shown, which many felt Fonseca’s football lacked.
Yesterday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic spoke to CBS Sport about the Supercoppa, Conceicao and the impact of the trophy.
The first game with Conceicao went well. It’s early but it felt like we saw a fight, character and spirit. For you, on the inside, what have you seen?
“We have seen a good reaction, the team is working well. A lot of energy, a lot of inspiration and the team is accepting the approach of the coach, which is the most important. That is what we wanted with this change.
“Conceicao brings character, he brings what we wanted. We saw in the first game, the second game brought a trophy, which was one of our objectives for the season. We believe, we are focused and we are confident.”
You’ve been in locker rooms and you have won trophies, how much can this change a season?
“When you play for a big club like Milan, one of the biggest in the world, you play for trophies. If you want to write your name in the history books of these clubs, you win trophies. This is the moment that Milan is used to being in. We have to continue to write history.
“Today was an opportunity to do that. The moment is not crucial because we are in January, but it was an objective.”
For Milan it feels like it has been up and down this season, Inter, Madrid and then there have been down moments. How are you judging the season?
“When we brought Fonseca in, we were looking for a possession and dominant game with a different identity, but we didn’t get the results we needed, that Milan needs. We’re dependent on results, Milan is a club where you need to bring results, if you don’t it will not work.
“We didn’t have the continuity to bring results, that’s why the change was needed and now, hopefully, we can hope for change after today.”
Forza Zlatan a true Milan hero ❤🖤
He wants the best for the club. Forza Milan #Rossoneri
So if u want a possession and dominant football
In a coach u will go for fonseca?
So all the whole list of coaches in the summer
You only saw fonseca?
Won’t forgive Zlatan for picking Fonseca this summer.
We could have had Conceicao at the start of the season, and his handpicked team wouldn’t have been floundering this badly.
Redbird’s essential problem is that it has bought a club whose fans, accustomed to enjoying great triumphs in the past, most notably during the Berlusconi era, can’t accept mediocrity and inertia and instead demand that ACM be restored to its previous position occupying the heights of Italian and European football. Whilst they want the club to be solvent and profitable, this has to go hand-in-hand with success on the pitch, which means winning the Scudetto and the Champions League regularly, and always finishing in the top four in Serie A. If Redbird doesn’t deliver such results quickly, the fans will revolt, as they have apparently already begun to do in Italy, and try to force it to sell the club to a party that can meet their expectations.
The miraculous victory in the Supercoppa in Riyadh this week was very welcome, but it has only bought Redbird a little more time to finally put ACM on a sustained upward trajectory; it hasn’t relieved it of the obligation which Milanisti feel it owes them to be more ambitious on the pitch and acquire proven superior players who’ll enable the team’s excellent new Portuguese coach to steer it to the top.
This is the nettle that Redbird must grasp. Yes, make money from the club by all means, but not at the price of depriving ACM fans of success at the highest level for many more years.
ACM’s record in Italy and Europe over the past 60 years has been similar to that of another storied club, Manchester United, in England and Europe. Like the Rossoneri:
(1) MU enjoyed domestic and European success in the 60s, winning the European Cup in 1968. (ACM won the cup in 1963 and 1969.);
(2) MU sank into the doldrums in the early 70s, being relegated in 1974 to the then English Second Division, and despite bouncing back into the First Division the following year, it remained a shadow of its former dominant self during the rest of the 70s and most of the 80s. (ACM also went into relative decline in the 70s and was relegated to Serie B in 1980 and again in 1982.);
(3) MU rose to the top again in the late 80s following the arrival of manager Sir Alex Ferguson, and dominated English football until his retirement in 2013, a period in which it also won 2 Champions League trophies. (ACM ascended to the top in Italy and Europe in the late 80s following the purchase of the club by Silvio Berlusconi, and reigned supreme domestically and internationally for most of the next 20 years, capturing the imagination of football fans around the world with its powerful and stylish performances, until about the mid-noughties.);
(4) MU went into decline after Ferguson’s exit – a
situation which has lasted to this day. (ACM also slowly went into decline – from about 2008; whilst still competitive domestically, it was, and still is, no longer a major force in European football.)
A significant difference between ACM and MU has been the financial capability of each club over the past decade of relative decline. Whilst ACM has suffered from serious financial limitations that have prevented it from buying the very best players, as it did in Berlusconi’s heyday, and forcing it to sell or otherwise dispense with the services of its own stars, MU has experienced no such constraints. It’s lack of footballing success has been due mainly to poor recruitment.
ACM, by contrast, recruited reasonably well, given its diminished economic strength and standing. Under Elliott’s ownership, it regained financial stability and even won a Scudetto in 2021/22. However, further progress on the pitch since then has stalled under Redbird. Hopefully, the victory in the Supercoppa this week will persuade Redbird to alter its business strategy and invest more heavily in ACM to enable it to buy the best players – or, alternatively, if it’s not willing to do that, to get out and allow an investor with deeper pockets to take over the club. ACM’s more than decade-long position in the second tier of European football is a travesty for a club that has historically been an aristocrat of the beautiful game at the global level. A brand which still commands a huge international following deserves a better fate.
Under the managerial leadership of its new minority shareholder INEOS, MU is likely to reclaim its place at the top table of the English and European game within the next few years; will ACM also rise during this period to dine again at that table?
With this trophy, Redbird and Ibra can take some rest from Dan and Journalist attacks, and suddenly Zlatan turn into a heros, some fans forget some things very easily
Heroe? For what? for who? He’s nothing but a bloated, big mouthed egocentric narcissist and a coward.
I lost all respect for these clowns when they left the team and their coach alone to face the anger of fans in their 125th anniversary evening and sneaked in from the back door. Bunch cowards.