While waiting to see what the end of the current season brings, the Italian media are already thinking about who might lead AC Milan in 2025-26.
This morning’s edition of Corriere dello Sport speaks of ‘one knot at a time to untie’ for Milan. The first, perhaps the most delicate of all, was untied with Giorgio Furlani’s trip to the USA to present the club’s accounts to the RedBird Capital management and repaint his role as head of the club.
Then there was the subsequent trip by the CEO to Dubai to increase commercial relations with that area and the sponsorships within a balance sheet that already boasts an improving record (€440m in revenues).
The second knot, also much talked about during the international break, is destined to be untied publicly between Thursday and Friday when Zlatan Ibrahimovic will reappear at Milanello after recovering from a bad flu.
So far Ibrahimovic’s voice has remained in the background, absent from Milanello since the day before the trip to Lecce, no post published on his social media despite having received compliments and praise from Olivier Giroud in these hours.
Zlatan met three sporting director candidates in London and now the choice has been passed to Furlani, it is possible that he is feeling a bit of ‘stomach ache’. However, the positive starting point is that they agree that there needs to be a new addition to the management.
The Sacchi-esque choice
After a sporting director is hired, the choice of the new head coach will come to the fore. Sergio Conceiçao is starting to work full time now, like at school, and he is on the eve of the turning points that could decide his future destiny, in particular the semi-final of the Coppa Italia against Inter.
Not to be overlooked is Sunday night’s game against Napoli. The Partenopei won at San Siro earlier in the season and Milan’s record against the top sides in Serie A is not good. With the exception of the Supercoppa (against Juve and Inter), the coach is looking for an illustrious rival to defeat.
With Napoli and Inter back to back, the different choices of line-up could prove decisive, also taking into account the recovery of energy after the break for the national teams. In the meantime, there are countless rumors about the next candidate for the next coach.
Among these, the suggestion of Cesc Fabegras has also emerged, due to the entertaining style of football his Como side have shown. There is a very close relationship between the Spanish coach and the Como owners, which could make things difficult.
However, there is a feeling that it could be a choice like the one at end of the 1980s when Silvio Berlusconi went for Arrigo Sacchi. At that time Berlusconi fell in love with the coach from Fusignano after a Coppa Italia match between Parma and the Rossoneri at San Siro.
Is it the dream of Fabregas or is someone actully dreaming of getting a total n00b who has shown nothing (except throwing away 30 points from leading position during a single season) to lead us back to the winning ways?
Como, a midtable team is said to be playing entertaining football. Yeah, maybe for the opponents as they as a midtable team with squad that should do better but cannot.
Hire Fabregas and it will finalize the beginning of Banter Era 2.0. It all starts from the coach (well, actually from the management but we’re addressing that issue with the new SD etc.).
*as they are
Personally I have zero clue about fabregas managerial ability but finishing mid table with como the first year in serie a isn’t bad, don’t think it fair to expect them to do any better first season.
But Fabregas is a question mark, personally I think we need to get back to cl fast as possible and we can’t afford to take chances on question marks
Exactly. We cannot afford to take such high risks. Juve “gambled” on Motta who had a waaaaaay better starting point and more experience yet got sacked last week.
Milan has hit the rock bottom, it needs a solid, proven coach that knows Serie A, has won trophies in Italy, preferably Scudetto and maybe some European too as a bonus. This is not a time to gamble, we did that this season and it backfired big time. Now is the time to steady the ship, lay some foundations and start building on that.
Fabregas, Motta, just like Lopetegui and Fonseca are or were risks that Milan can not afford right now.
Zdenek Zeman played entertaining football. Ange Postecoglou plays entertaining football. Leonardo played entertaining football with AC Milan and his 4-2-fantasia.
Did that work out for them?
Italiano, De Zerbi or Farioli. I prefer italiano because he has proven that he knows how to play in Europe by getting to 2 cup finals with Fiorentina and he knows how to improve players.
He needed more time with players at Bologna and when given the opportunity and time he makes his players improve. He is solid defensively and good in the attacking phase.
Fabregas is invested into Como. Makes ZERO sense for him and for us. Can we move on with the outlandish stories please?
To choose a coach we need a DS and a project. What project can we have with two ownership groups currently at war with each other?
Elliott is clearly calling the shots right now, which means there’s no long or even medium term project. This is gonna be revitalization 2.0 – clean up the club, reinforce is properly, make it competitive and sell it. In other words, polish it up and offload it.
For that purpose, you don’t bring project coaches in like De Zerbi, Sarri, etc. You bring in the fixers – Conte, Allegri. That would make most sense under Elliott.
Difference between Sachi and any manager we bring in now is that Berlusconi backed him with the signings he needed and kept the core of his squad with the aim of building a team to win.
This management will sell anyone and are not building for success, only to be competitive.