With the Scudetto all but out of Paulo Fonseca’s dreams, AC Milan could begin to evaluate other coaches if the Portuguese head coach does not improve things soon.
Losing on Friday killed any hopes of a Scudetto-winning season (if there was any hope held by Milan about this left). However, it also could be the beginning of the end of the Rossoneri’s hopes for a Champions League place.
The consequences of this would, understandably, be substantial on a financial level and many others, but the biggest factor would be Fonseca. Reports have already suggested that failure to qualify for the competition would be enough for his dismissal, even if the management are not considering sacking him, currently.
As Calciomercato.it (via Pianeta Milan), if Fonseca were to lose his job, the Diavolo could look towards PSG and former Barcelona head coach Luis Enrique. The Spaniard has struggled with PSG in the Champions League this season, and he could be dismissed by the Parisien giants.
Therefore, if the Champions League winner was to become available whilst the Rossoneri had the touchline free, then a coach with ‘great international relevance’ like Enrique would be needed to bring the club forward after what would have to be described as a poor season, should it finish without a Champions League ticket.
In football the manager can not always be blamed. However, Mr Fonseca has made his position clear. He’s not good enough.
The clown who employed him should also be sacked.
A club of Milan’s stature should have taken Conte.
Conte wanted to come to Milan, our management was too cheap to pay him. It’s really simple. Fonseca was willing to take very low wages, the management didn’t want to spend money.
If we employed Conte we would be running -€4m, the club brought in €457m last season, and turned a 4m profit, operating costs are high. It’s not as simple as throwing money at the problem. We are already 100m in debt.
Should have sold that deadwood RLC, that would have balanced it out.
There was no money to pay Conte, we are 100m in debt. And only turned a 4m profit, operating costs are high, and we don’t want to end up like Man City. Or in the same boat that we were in before.
where did u get that number from? in any case u’re wrong. gerry has to pay elliott back close to 800 mil
We’ve seen on countless occasions how a manager can make all of the difference.
Napoli went from 1st to 10th to now 1st again between Spalletti, Garcia and Conte.
When we hired Pioli we ended 8 years in the wilderness. We sacked him and we’re now back in the wilderness again.
i agree. as far as i know, Ibrahimovic was his biggest fan to be new coach. rooster is also problem for us, some players should be let go to.
Although Enrique might not seem like a good manager because he’s recently seemed to struggle in European competitions, notice how he easily wins 95% of his league games against team that are doing much better in Europe it’s because of the team not him
Thank you very much. He is not a good Coach. They should go for Mancini please
LOL. Do you actually think that Mancini would exchange the several millions he is making, for the meager salary our cheap managers would be willing to pay him?
You could say that about every coach that they are winning because of the team and not the coach.
Pep, Ancelotti, Mourinho etc, all of them were winning thanks to the all time great players they had at their disposal.
How did those coaches do when they didn’t have great players to lean on?
Check the squads Pep had at Barca, Bayern and City, or Carlo Ancelotti squads at Milan, Chelsea, Bayern and Real twice. How did he do when he had to coach teams without great players at Napoli or Everton?
How is Pep doing this season without a stacked squad?
It’s funny that some fans hope that Real fires Carlo so he can come back to Milan.
Ancelotti can’t coach this Milan.
No Kroos, Mudric is old and Real Madrid midfield plays worse than Milan’s.
Great players make coaches look great in all sports.
Mourinho turned John Terry and Frank Lampard into world class players….
Ancelotti played a 40 year old Costacurta at LB and Serginho as a striker.
The actual measure is how top managers can get pretty average players to play like world beaters.
Which one of Terry, Lampard and Costacurta were pretty average players before Mourinho and Ancelotti?
Both Lampard and Terry were England internationals before anyone ever heard about Mourinho.
Costacurta was a part of probably the greatest defense ever while Ancelotti was still a player.
Serginho under Mauro Tassotti was the MOTM in the 6-0 derby win vs. Inter where he assisted or scored on 4 of the 6 goals scored, way before Ancelotti ever coached Milan.
Serginho never played as a striker under Ancelotti.
None of those players were average.
Serginho was a more skilled Theo Hernández. Theo might be faster and physically stronger that Serginho was, but in football ability, Serginho was better.
A 40 year old Costacurta playing LB was hardly a world beater!
As for Terry and Lampard they never recreated their form under any other manager including England managers.
Serginho did play upfront in some games. Ancelotti had him playing LB, LM and LW with one upfront.
In fact a feature of Ancelotti’s side was how interchangeable players were. Ambrosini covered for players as diverse as Gattuso, Pirlo and Seedorf.
There are countless examples of bang average players who have won multiple titles.
Like about 50% of the players who played under Alex Ferguson.
Or the other 50% who played under Bennitez.
If football was as simple as ‘the best players win’ then top teams would never lose to the bottom teams. But Milan have shown that’s possible on countless occasions.
Mourinho actually sucked at multiple teams as well and made many players worse
Fact. He was a one season wonder. He’s been in decline for over a decade now.
Great players make coaches look great but not all coaches are created equal.
One has to notice how sometimes the same players perform differently under different coaches.
In 2015 Real Madrid had some of the greatest teams of all time with Cristiano Ronaldo, Kroos, Modric, Ramos, Marcelo,… yet Benitez made them look like a midtable team. When Zidane took over, they won 3 UCLs in a row and 1 la Liga.
Napoli went from 1st to 10th to 2nd while keeping most of its key players. The X factor was the coach. They improved despite loaning their goalscorer from their scudetto season.
By the way, Modric is old, Kroos is no longer here and Real Madrid is even more unbalanced and poorly structured than us and so far they’re still fighting in every competition. They’re 2 points behind the leader having one game in hand.
Coaches are not miracle makers, they can’t take teams like Venezia or Lecce and make them champions but they have their roles.
So what about us ?
Fonseca inherited a slightly improved squad compared to last season (although you can say that Morata might be a downgrade from Giroud “might be”). We didn’t sell a key player this summer, and all of those we let go of were subs. We got 2 strikers, a midfielder who can defend much better than any of those we had last season and 2 additional defenders. He took over a coach who was sacked because he finished 2nd 20 points behind the leader and lost every competition and every big game. He came during the summer, had enough time to work with the squad and got some of the players he asked for and what did he achieve ?
I think the results speak for themselves. Wins against Real Madrid and Inter ? Yeah great and ? Nottingham has a win against Liverpool who is steamrolling everyone this season. Newcastle who is closer to relegation than to a european spot has a win and a draw against both Liverpool and Chelsea, 1st and second. FC Barcelona 1st, lost to Osasuna who is 7th just like us. Every midtable team can pull one of many wins against top tier teams, doesn’t mean they’re top teams.
Top teams are top teams because they win game in game out and think of nothing else but winning. Fonseca, a former mid-table coach, prefered to settle for a draw against Atalanta while we were several points behind 4th place.
Napoli never allowed the new coach to settle in because their overrated “superstar” ego was running out of control and now he plays in Turkey. They were 4th, 2 points behind Milan at 3rd when Rudi Garcia was fired after week 12 in serie A. 10 points behind inter who had one of the greatest seasons in serie A history. Napoli was still in every competition, doing especially well in UCL.
It’s more about managing egos than about coaching.
That’s what makes Carlo who he is, he is a great at managing great players egos.
Benitez was always someone that rubbed players the wrong way.
Same reasons why Conte can’t stay at one club for more than 2 years, because after some time players can’t stand him anymore.
Mourinho is a great motivator, he defends his players, and they are ready to run through a wall for him.
Without the great players their careers will not be what they are except Mourinho who won with an average team like Porto.
Carlo was a failure at juve and was on his way to Parma before Milan signed him and gave him a super team.
Real is fighting in every competition because they have 3 of the top 5 players in the world in their squad and bunch of other great players not because of Ancelotti. They were getting outplayed in almost every knockout stage game in UCL and somehow thanks to individuals they end up winning those games.
When it comes to Fonseca, no one thinks that he is a top coach, but as I said great players make average or bad coaches look good. Milan top players have been dog sh!t this season. If your top players are your worst players on the pitch in most games, there isn’t much the coach can do.
Also, Fonseca didn’t have all summer to work with the players. There was a Euro and Copa America. Milan better players showed up a couple of weeks before the season started. The players he wanted ( Fofana) showed up after the season started.
And this doesn’t mean that Fonseca should keep his job, but just facts.
Juventus hired the coach we all wanted, he got 200+ mil signings in the summer and with 27 points in 15 games they have their 2nd worst start to a serie A season in the last 14 years. They are not doing much better, than Milan.
Coaches like Conte, Allegri and Mourinho will do much better with this crop of Milan players than Ancelotti who has been coaching super teams for majority of the last 20-25 years.
I don’t disagree with your points here.
Ancelotti is my favourite coach and I consider him ATG tier when it comes to coaching, but I’ve always maintained that he is not a squad builder. He does good job with a squad that has many good players, even if this squad didn’t have good results before.
As for Fonseca, it’s true that there was the Euro and Copa America, but the same can be said with the all the coaches that recently took their teams. And when most of the top players, or players in general, perform like dog sh!t, it’s time to question the system and the coach behind it.
Conte would have been great (I’ve been against him last season but I admit I was wrong), Allegri perhaps and Mourinho from the 2010, I think he is too old now. I think Conceição should be considered, he did a great job with Porto and made out 2021/22 squad look really bad.
carlo did great at everton. look at where everton is after he left.
We’re performing at about the right level for Fonseca. Not even his fault. He’s doing what he was hired to do.
Luis Enrique will be more or less the same.
Yup, we could have Pep and the results wouldn’t change that much over time, maybe a pop at the start for excitement. The team isn’t built well at all, lot’s of starting talent but it doesn’t make a team and our backups completely change the way we play so there isn’t any fluidity or consistencey. I like some of what Fonseca is doing and obviously this team started falling apart last year before his arrival. Not really interested in a new coach until the management makes a change to their plan and staff.
Yep. Not enough talent on the squad and absolutely no depth. There isn’t one guy who can come off the bench to make a difference in a big game. I think they signed 14 new players the last two years and I’d say only two have been successful and have made a huge difference (Pulisic and Reinjders) and it took Reinjders a year to start producing. Fofana can be successful too but needs to be more consistent.
Another coach whose style of football doesn’t fit the characteristics of the current squad.
Acmilan management leave Fonseca alone Fonseca is doing a good job Acmilan management go and buy the required players and leave Fonseca alone is not the problem of Acmilan the problem of Acmilan is lack of standard players. Fonseca is far better than Luis Enrique Fonseca is doing well in champions league than Enrique please leave Fonseca alone and Fonseca is a good coach.
Are you out of your mind??? Do you actually think that Fonseca is a good coach? LOL
And yes, a good coach does make a difference, regardless of the players. Just look at Napoli with Spalletti, then with Garcia, then with Conte. Same players; did great with Spalletti, were a disaster with Garcia, are doing great again with Conte.
Of course we would improve if we had a better coach, even without buying any new players.
Why are they so desperate for Chelsea surplus players and Roma’s coaching stints?
Ha ha.
How the mighty have fallen.
If they think the solution is to fire fonseca and hire Luis Enrique then they have totally lost the plot. Would show that they have no idea what they’re doing.
Milan should hire Jurgen Klopp and then buy a good central defender,left-back,creative midfielder like Tijani and a 20+ goal scoring striker.
Ae don’t need any of that. We need a dm… and klopp
I’m not impressed by Enrique, aside from the 2014/15 season he never achieved great results and that 2015 Barcelona could probably win without a coach.
Right now we don’t have a single player that can start in that team and most of our players won’t even make it to their bench.
Noone is impressed by him as coach
What utter nonsense. Luis Enrique isn’t going anywhere yet and he’s not a good coach. The only ex Barca coach worth a look is Xavi. If Milan are serious about Klopp, and I’m sure Klopp would jump at the chance to coach Milan, then they’ll need a stop gap until the end of the season.
Lol another Klopp’s dream. Do you know that he’ll start a new job as soon as next year?
Fonseca @ Milan:
One step forward and then three steps back.
To be competitive Milan needs an Italian coach. Sarri can save Milan from disaster.
It’s been explained! Management doesn’t need a great coach with Champion experience. They just need a low-paid coach. If Management is aware, why didn’t they appoint a great coach since the summer.
They didn’t invest €200 million to then save €2-3 million a year on a coach.
That is what they did. That is for the hatred of using this word LITERALLY what they did.
Take off those Redbird glasses for a second would you.
What am I saying, it’s an impossible odd with you Redbird banner men.
Be stuck with whatever delusions you tell yourself. Others have tried to set you straight. If you haven’t taken to the facts by now, you never will. 🤦♂️🤦♂️
For one second (before looking at the pic), I honestly thought that the CL winning manager in question was Roberto di Matteo.
When Fonseca ends up leaving, Ibrahimovic must follow him out the door. We cannot let Ibrahimovic go unnoticed this time. The decision to bring in Fonseca has proven to be so costly. This is insane.
Disappointing 😔
Not fonseca faul. It was clear to everyone including himself, that he isnt fit for a job like this, considering his past experiences and references.
But the halfwit who hired him and the halfwit who approved and paid for it… should both be fired… yesterday is already too late
People can argue all they want about we should’ve hired this guy or that guy, we simply aren’t bringing in enough money, we made 457m in revenue last season, and only turned a 4m profit and we are 100m in debt. Should we follow the same path that led us here it would be a disaster just as it was at the end of Berlusconi’s reign when the club was 500m in debt, and it’s not as simple as just throwing money at it, that’s how you end up like Man City with 130 charges against you and stare relegation in the face as Parma, Napoli and Fiorentina have before. Revenue and profits are tight, keeping things balanced is extremely difficult, of that 457m, 100m goes to 3rd party assets, stadium, casa Milan etc etc, 170m to salaries, nearly 100m in player depreciation, agent fees for contract renegotiations, and new signings set us -€30m for the season so far. So we’re already operating in a deficit just on what has happened so far this season. In order to recover a deep champions league run is needed to even balance the books, because the Serie A TV deal doesn’t pay money.
And we’ll be more swimming in debt if we don’t get that UCL spot next season. You know, you need to spend money to get more money. There’s no such thing as low risk high return in this modern world.
Napoli spent money on a world class coach and then on players as demanded by new coach.
AC Milan will never succeed if they spend money on a world class coach and then not spend money on players.
Bottom line is no money no Champions League
The question is who can unlock Leao and Theo, while getting them to put the team first, to sacrifice for the team. With this squad, that’s the key to going from mediocre to good to great. Under Pioli, the team was good, not great, and Leao and Theo thrived, but they still put themselves ahead of the team. Fonseca has tried to put the team first and it doesn’t look good at this point. Who makes it past January of Theo, Leao, and Fonseca? I think it’ll be Theo and Leao, but it might be just Leao. With Pulisic gone for the next few weeks, the full spotlight will be on the two malcontents. Can they put the team on their back and fight for respect and glory? Even if it means Fonseca keeps his job? Or will they crumble or act like petulant children, playing poorly and secretly hoping it results in Fonseca losing his job?
In any case, I don’t love firing Fonseca midseason, unless you’ve got an obvious replacement available. Do your homework, then pounce as soon as the season is done.
Keep Fonseca please….he is successfully making Reinders a prolific goalscorer.