Now that AC Milan are once again on a good run of form, more reports are continuing to emerge suggesting that Stefano Pioli could remain beyond the end of the season.
Milan president Paolo Scaroni once again vocalised his support for the idea of Pioli remaining at the club beyond the end of the season before the game against Fiorentina, but his future as head coach has not been decided.
There are still plenty of important games left between now and the end of the season with second place to try and secure plus a Europa League quarter-final coming up, but a lot of the stories surrounding Milan relate to summer changes.
For example, Calciomercato.com reported earlier today that Antonio Conte and Thiago Motta are two profoundly different profiles but they are liked by the leaders and in the event of a change it is likely that one of the two will be chosen.
The journalist Pietro Mazzara has published his take on the future of Pioli during his latest column for MilanNews, once again stressing his belief that his exit is far from definite.
“When we started telling you weeks ago that ‘Pioli Out’ wasn’t such a strong current within Casa Milan, abuse and insults flew because I ‘dared’ to tell the truth and I didn’t give vent to the current of support that pushes – according to the legitimate point of view – for a change on the bench,” he said.
“As of today, Easter Monday, Pioli is anything but someone with a certain dismissal from Milanello. There is a current of thought that leads us to believe that the current Rossoneri coach could be the technical guide of the team also next season despite having only one year on his contract.
“Here, keep this situation in mind. In the American mentality, a professional is expected to do everything within his capabilities until the last day of his employment relationship.
“It cannot be ruled out that Pioli could also lead Milan in the 2024-25 season and that, in the meantime, the sports area with Furlani, Moncada, D’Ottavio and the opinion of Ibrahimovic, will start working immediately on a name important for summer 2025.
“Now what matters is the present. It’s Milan-Lecce and the double challenge with Roma in the Europa League, because personally I have the feeling that this team – at full strength – could get to Dublin to play for the trophy.”
but social media told me Motta will get 100 points per season with this Milan
He’s 8 points behind this Milan with that Bologna, so he might.
you realise this 1+1= 2 mentality doesn’t work in football…..?
By your logic why didnt Graham Potter do better than Tuchel at Chelsea, oh he needed time? But you fans here claim you cant stand another year where ‘Milan doesnt win anything’ so how does that make sense to pine for Motta and De Zerbi
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t perhaps. Sacchi, Capello and Ancelotti didn’t have much in the way of success before being hired. The only thing we really have is Pioli’s record. If one scudetto is enough for you to give him the bench for life as long as he doesn’t drop out of the top four then so be it. Que sera, sera. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
and for you if someone does decent with Bologna or Brighton its enough for you to gamble away the Milan job to them because why not huh?
Are you Tonali?
Yes, I’m Tonali. And by your logic, we should never have hired Pioli. 😬😬😬
All these coaches had great players to support them, many of their players were world class. We also got Tabares, Terim… and at the very end, we got Brocchi. Sacchi also lost 1-6 to Juventus.
A coach can perform if management is 100% behind him and/or if he’s a very good motivator and a good tactician otherwise players won’t follow him.
Considering how every time that sacking Pioli rumors happen, the team plays even harder and wins is a very good sign for Pioli.
Nobody is asking for bench for life for Pioli, but don’t judge him on whether he can do better next year based on the current season with so many injuries. Even if we messed up training, I’d say the fact that we were one if not the worst hit team, means that luck played a big part as well ( I refuse to believe that our coaches are so much worse than all coaches in Europe to get such bad injuries)
In any case, one has to ask what’s the worst that can happen if we keep Pioli and what’s the worst that can happen if we don’t.
If we keep Pioli, we know that next year we still will get top 4. If we don’t keep Pioli, that’s not a guarantee.
If we don’t keep Pioli and replace him with De Zerbi or Motta, what are the chances that we’d win Serie A or get much farther in CL run. Looking at De Zerbi’s run in PL and EL with Brighton (also a lot of injuries), I can’t say that there is a high chance of getting top of Serie A or further in CL with a new coach.
In other words, getting one of the mentioned coaches (De Zerbi, Motta, Conte) is an unneeded gamble at this point. It would be like selling Tomori to buy Buongiorno with no capital gain. Different story if the new coach was an obvious upgrade, otherwise you risk getting a Rudi Garcia.
checkmate.. then clown back as a clown
Exactly! If you’re changing the coach, UPGRADE. Don’t gamble.
Arteta for Arsenal was an absolute gamble. If you identify the right traits gamble and upgrade can be the same thing.
Arsenal threw everything at the wall to see what stuck because the previous coaches were garbage.
Not quite the same situation at Milan now, is it?
Emery was the only coach between Arteta and Wenger.
They also didn’t throw everything against the wall. Kronke (American owner) and Edu understood that to compete they first had to have a brilliant coach.
Arteta was also on the hot seat early on. I prayed Arsenal didn’t sack him. He really is something special and I saw it even when they were struggling.
It’s pretty similar except our new coach wouldn’t have to gut half the team to achieve a winners mentality.
The biggest difference is that Arsenal can spend BUT they are in the most competitive league.
Get a proper coach, even if its a gamble, with the right traits/behaviors and watch this team soar past Inter.
Its not about finding “significant successor” ,its about paying compensation for contract termination 🤣🤣
I have no issues with us keeping pioli and before the season is over i can actually see us maybe end up 6-8 points behind inter if we can manage to keep up the current form and beat both inter and juventus, Thats really not a huge margin if that were to happen and it might be a bold prediction but i wouldnt be too surprised either if it were to happen.
Anyways if the replacement were to be conte id quite frankly rather renew pioli for the next 5 years than to see conte at the helm of the club. There are interesting prospects though but if the plan is to change the coach it should be someone where we can build upon the work already done and not be a total change of concepts. Klopp would be a dream but i doubt its remotely feasible at this point of time.
What does it matter how much the margin in points is going to be at the end of the season? They are still celebrating the title, and Milan is still behind them.
For 8 of the 10 months, Milan couldn’t sniff near inter, and Milan got to 2nd because Juventus, under another coach that should have been fired, totally collapsed.
That’s like being down 25 points in the 4th quarter of a basketball game, and with 5 minutes left into the game the team that is up throws in the reserves, and the losing team makes a little run that makes the loss not look as bad.
It’s called garbage time for a reason.
Milan needs to analyze Pioli based on his whole body of work, not just the last 2 months.
4 out of the 5 years, Milan was not in the scudetto race, and 4 out of 5 seasons they finished without s a single trophy. At the same time, your biggest rival had 7 trophies and played in 2 European finals, while mopping the floor with you in almost every derby, in every competition.
Well im not sure it matters but the gap in between us isnt necessarily as big as some people think. Hiring a new coach is always a risk and considering that we have been performing well under piolis tenure its not necessarily smart to just sack him unless its the right coach who is an absolute upgrade who is brought in. what two european finals are you talking about because from what i can recollect theyve only played 1.
If we can find someone better fine then i dont oppose the idea of letting him go but i will in no way just support him being relieved just for the sake of it as his entire body of work with us combined has been great as i view it.
The gap is not as big as some people think?
No 1st place team in any of the top leagues have as big points advantage over the 2nd placed team as Inter has over Milan.
Bayer, who hasn’t lost a game all season long doesn’t have 14 points advantage.
PSG, who is by far the best team in France doesn’t have 14 points advantage.
What are we doing here man?
Do you need to be 30 points behind inter to say that the gap is too big? I mean Pioli was 25 points behind Napoli last season for most part and still kept his job, so I guess minus 30 will be needed to lose his job.
There are better, more successful and more talented coaches available that have the ability to take Milan further than Pioli.
Regardless whether you can see it or not and even if the points seems a lot on paper its still won by small margins and it can easily fluctuate next season. Im definetly not saying that we have a chance to win this year though but we might be next year, even with pioli as our coach.
Also matches are often decided by small margins, luck etc. Anyways we wont agree on this so even though i can understand your assessments i cant say i agree that just swapping coach will solve all the issues and magically propel us upwards and it might even worsen the gap as a new coach most likely also will need some adaption time and same goes for the squad in which we might as well lose enough points to leave us behind in a future scudetto fight. My point is pretty clear we know what we have with pioli and id rather stay in that safe zone for now than risking losing it just for the sake of pleasing people who wants a new coach now. Give me klopp or someone like him and i can be swayed in that opinion but that simply wont happen and pioli guarantees us a good points ratio.
Safe zone is what, Finishing top 4?
Milan will finish top 4 with any coach available because they have top 2 squad in serie A. Motta is finishing top 4, maybe even top 3 with Bologna.
Pioli is underachieving with this squad but we act like he is over achieving.
What are you afraid of, that Milan won’t qualify for the UCL if they fire Pioli? We are out of the banter era brother.
Milan couldn’t qualify for UCL during the banter era because they had bad squads, not because Pioli is a better coach than those coaches.
You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger than just being in the safe zone, win nothing year after year, and being Inter’s little biyatch.
Im not saying he is overachieving but he do have good stats nevertheless. Obviously i also want us to fight for the scudetto each year but the team has build under him and we have greatly improved while he has been at the club. If things was so easy tojust change coach why is napoli then nr 8 in the table when they at the very minimum has a top 4 squad if not top 3 ?
Stability is an important part of football and any other sport.
I dream bigger and even wining cl once wont be enough for me to say that we are back but im foremost a realist than a dreamer. I like motta de zerbi etc but its not like they offer more qualities or certainties than pioli so even though im intrigued about both at the helm of the club you can hardly say its an improvement either, Only time would tell if they would make the club take a leap.
Napoli owner ruined Napoli’s season because he allowed the media to bully him into firing the coach he hired just because he was a foreigner.
Italian media attacked Garcia but defended Pioli even though their seasons were similar.
You have to give a new coach time to settle in. Plus, Napoli is on the 4th coach in 9 months. How is that even comparable with Milan firing Pioli after 5 years and going with Motta?
How stable is Milan when every year they are having a meeting to fire Pioli? Last season Maldini wanted to fire him in January, this season management ask the players if Pioli should be fired.
As I said earlier, with Pioli is always taking 2 steps backward during the season, fall far behind the leaders, and then when you are out of the scudetto race, with no pressure, have a nice run of good results, 1 step forward, and end up with top 4.
2 steps backward, 1 step forward , you still end up behind from where you started.
Yes its indeed about stability and that we got now so unless we find someone pretty much guaranteeing the upgrade i dont see it much different. Why should milans management then be bullied into firing pioli when the points he gets us is good and far above average.
Whatever story that might turn up in the media might not necessarily have anything to do with reality and same goes for the speculation of pioli getting sacked. Players seems to support him and same goes for the management which shouldnt be underestimated as a big factor for a good team.
I disagree we are not taking 1 step forward and then 2 backwards under pioli. Hardly in fact and we should at least also take into the equation that this year that we had a big rewamp of the squad and has been extremely unlucky with constant injuries which also affected the slump of form we had.
Anyways im behind the coach and unless we can actually find someone that are bound to deliver better guarantees than he has proven to be able to do ill continue to support him at the helm of the club.
I’d be happy to keep Pioli until Conte gets hired somewhere else.
It’s also telling that the guy in management who most supports Pioli (Scaroni) is also the one who knows the least about football. 😬🙄😛
If you keep Pioli this summer, all you going to do is prolong the inevitable for extra few months when you will have to fire him during next season after Milan, as per usual, falls behind the leader by 15 points.
2 steps backward, 1 step forward.
By then the coaches available will be snatched by other clubs.
Who do you want to replace him with that is available?
First choice is Motta, especially if Zirkzee is coming with him.
Someone posted today that keeping Pioli instead of firing him and hiring Motta, and possible allowing Juventus to get him, will be as bad as keeping Pato, instead of selling him to PSG, and allowing Juventus to get Tevez.
Choices like that can influence the future of clubs big time.
Tevez next to Ibra, and Milan wins the scudetto and maybe even going far in the UCL, and Milan doesn’t need to sell Ibra and Thiago Silva. That move, plus the muntari goal was the end of Milan as we knew it and the start of Juventus domination.
Motta is likely staying with Bologna based on his interviews.
Who’s next?
You and I agree on Motta, but boy what counterfactual history for the rest of this comment! Do we also go on to win three successive Champions Leagues? Pato, Tevez whatever, Milan’s finances were still screwed. If they hadn’t been Kaka and Shevchenko retire with us. Besides, Tevez joined Juventus in the summer of 2013, Ibra and Silva left in 2012. Are you also going to bend history to make it so that somehow the conditions that existed for Tevez’s and Pato’s exits in 2013 also existed an entire year prior? And even if Tevez arrives in 2012 in the altverse if yours, why does that mean Ibra and Silva stay? So for Tevez to truly coincide with Ibra and show what that could have been like, he would have had to arrive in 2011, and in 2010-11 Tevez scored 20 league goals for City. How much would he have cost us? Come on.
Next step in pioli ball. 505 but all mezalas except Rafa.
I think this forum is split in two…
One side is the Pioli_Out team that think we’re underperforming and we should get a new coach, and that the gamble is worth the risk because look at Bayer Leverkusen. Motta seems the choice.
The other side is the Pioli_in team that doesn’t want to make a change if the gamble can come back to bite us.
It’s been very enlightning to read some of the comments, and I think that at the end of the discussion there is still no common ground.
Personally, I think the first group is more instinctive, sanguine and more likely to base a decision on how it feels (Pioli sucks)
The second group on the other hand, puts less emphasis on feelings and more on rationale, is more wary of change (maybe older people :D)
On a side note, a lot of praise has gone to Motta and not enough has gone to Sartori who first built Atalanta and now is doing the same with Bologna … here’s an idea, maybe we should have hired Sartori instead of Ibrahimovic (I know they’re not same role, I kid I kid)
The truth is always down the middle. Meaning yes, eventually Pioli needs to be upgraded on because he won’t take us to new heights.
No, we shouldn’t replace him for the sake of change or for coaching “gambles” like DeZerbi or One Season Motta (even though he seems to fit the project).
Spot on. It seems your correlation of age and stability might be correct lol 😂
I’m on the old side i suppose. Don’t think we need to change just to gamble on hope. But I do get why one would want a change after seeing same ol’ same ol’ for a while now. I’d just say be as pessimistic as there is optimism for a new coach. That is, don’t think we’ll get top 4 automatically just cuz, we could end up 8th and we’d have to be happy with that too because we’ll need to live with that decision.
Like Martin said above, if we only lose the title by 5-8 points.. that says something esp with the number of injuries we’ve had and really makes you wonder
Literally a few matches ago, 90% of people here called for his head at the end of the season and rightly so. Yes we are second thanks to the players and coach. Having said that, he is too limited, and does dumb staff sometimes. Musah as rw. Krunic as cb etc. Not to mention those games that we couldn’t even beat bottom teams. we still need a proper dm for 2 seasons now, and according to public statements pioli has a lot of say in the transfer market. Baldy has gotta go, but only if his replacement is an UPGRADE.
UPGRADE please if we are replacing baldy. He is limited, yes he has done well for his expectations, but limited. Too many rollocoaster rides these 2 seasons. Definetly conte should be out of question. He is expensive, chaotic, demands huge transfers and not much end product, plus he is a short term coach. De zerbi is not yet primed for our milan. Motta, i dont k ow actually 50-50 on that one. He could be a good coach with a great future, but he could also be a 1 season wonder.