Arrigo Sacchi believes that there are four major reasons why AC Milan have failed this season, and claimed Sergio Conceicao is the least to blame.
The final judgement of Milan’s 2024-25 season rested on the Coppa Italia final in Rome against Bologna. The 1-0 defeat after a performance lacking in quality and heart was symbolic of a campaign that has been nothing short of a disaster, barring the Supercoppa Italiana win.
The time has come to make big decisions and Sergio Conceicao is expected to be one of the first to pay given that results have not matched expectations. However, the general feeling is that the Rossoneri are a club lacking in unity and clarity, from the ownership down.
Sacchi published a column in La Gazzetta dello Sport in which he has provided an assessment of Milan’s failures and pointed out the things they must fix ahead of 2025-26.
“Seeing Milan in such bad shape makes me very sad, because I am tied to that environment, to the fans, to those colours. Watching the Coppa Italia final, deservedly lost against Bologna, I had confirmation of what I have thought since the beginning of this season: Milan are not a team, and it is not for some specific reasons. I list four, in order of importance.
1. Milan without ideas
“The club comes first, even before the coach and the players. Because with its history, its vision and its style it must show the way forward. President Berlusconi, to whom I will never stop being grateful, told me when he hired me that his goal was to win and to convince.
“He wanted Milan to put on a show, to entertain people. He had an idea and he knew how to convey it to his collaborators. Does it seem to you that today’s Milan, understood as a club, has an idea? It seems to me not. We proceed gropingly, and in doing so we end up hitting a wall.”
2. Mistakes on the bench
“The choice of coach, at the beginning of the season, is fundamental because the coach must be in tune with the club’s plans. Milan, on the other hand, last summer first thought of taking one, the Spaniard Lopetegui.
“And then, given that the fans were angry because he was not a name worthy of the club, they turned to the Portuguese Fonseca. Who had worked well in Ukraine, but when he had been in Italy he had certainly not enchanted.
“The managers who made this choice made a serious mistake and then, halfway through the season, they thought it best to eat their words and hand over the bench to Sergio Conceiçao, who, in my opinion, is the least guilty of all because he found himself working in general chaos.
“And in the end you will see that he will be the one to pay, because this is an old (and absurd) law of football: out with the coach, so we can sort things out. But how can you fix things if the same people who made mistakes at the beginning of this season are still at the top?”
3. Players who don’t make a team
“Milan is a group of players who were chosen at random. I don’t discuss their individual technical qualities, even if I could: the problem here is that they are not elements capable of forming a team. I had a group of reliable, intelligent, available guys who followed my instructions.
“Now, however, they go abroad to make purchases, and frankly I don’t understand the reason, players arrive who come from different experiences and cultures, you have to try to blend them, but in this way how is it possible to give a style?
“My Milan, which was judged by FIFA to be the best club team of the century, had an Italian base to which two and then three Dutch were initially added. And we won the Scudetto in 1988 without being able to count on the contribution of Van Basten for most of the season, and we left the stadium in Naples to the applause of the opposing fans.
“The feat was possible because at the base there was a strategy dictated by the club and shared by everyone.”
4. Mercato errors
“When you go to buy players you have to be very careful, otherwise you risk spending a lot of money and having players who don’t make a positive contribution to the cause.
“When I arrived at Milan, I brought players who came from Serie B and Serie C, I left one at home who was in the national team because he didn’t behave like a professional, I decided to focus on young people. And Berlusconi was not only always by my side, but he supported me and defended me.
“Before buying Rijkaard I sent a trusted man of mine to follow him during training, and in the report I received it was also written what he ate, what time he got up and who his friends were.
“Are these things done now? I don’t think so, judging from what you see on the pitch. And then you’re wrong and you have to fix it. Because seeing Milan still in such a bad state, for a lover like me, is truly unbearable.”
Senior Sacchi! These so called Algorithm attuned management whose only aim is to make money wouldn’t go that wise route of studying the habits and behaviours of players….they are only about statistics and data on the pitch… That’s why practically 90% of Moncada purchases are trash except Tijjani Reindeers !
Now they are fully aware of their idiocy and bragados especially Zlatan Ibrahimovic whose balkan upbringing deceptively brainwashed him thinking he has the world at his feet! He is such an idiot to tarnish his legacy and reputation!
As far as the president is concerned, he always has been exposed of his insecurity to stand up to men of character and vision like Maldini, massara and co!
But one thing that baffles me is the dead voice of franco Baresi! It yet saddens me that what Maldini can’t stand up to, for foreigners to trash the history , value and worth of this great club in the mud bit this man stayed there mute amd silent! Waow this is unbelievable…
Now the censure is out there that this management are nothing but scam…# Redbird out # Cardinale out#
only Reijnders? do you forget Pulisic?
Oh man our seas looks exactly as Gatti own goal vs sasuolo
Preach! “snaps” “snaps”
Say no more
Say less
Because you already said everything
We started with a word
Now we have a sentence
Put a period at the end
So we can have a new beginning
This management is holding us captor
They need to go
So we can start the next chapter
Leave them in the past
Do it fast
And furious
What will happen next?
I’m curious
😜
Well unfortunately, moneyball is not interested in all that. They don’t even have the brains to understand that this is not FIFA Manager. All they see is asset, liability, investment and transactions.
That is why we are doomed until they change objectives or sell the club.
Sounds to me like how to create a team in 1985. I get it…Italians want to cheer for Italians. I have Italian blood and I would love to see some old school Italian CBS dominating on the pitch. But the truth is in today’s world football this is not the blue print of a winner. Of all the major teams in the world right now (which Milan aspire to be) How many are set up with a heavy national presence? Answer…Only Barca. here’s the stats.
MAJOR CLUBS PLAYERS THAT HAVE PLAYED 1000 MINUTES FOR THEIR CLUB
Bayern
8 of 16 players German. 7 countries represented in the top 16
Real
4 of 17 players from Spain. 10 countries represented in the top 17
Barca
11 of 16 players from Spain. 5 countries represented in the top 16
PSG
4 of the 15 players from France. 8 countries represented in the top 15
Liverpoool
2 of 14 players from England. 11 countries represented in top 14
Aresenal
4 of 14 players from England. 9 countries represented in the top 14
Inter 6 of the 16 players Italian. 8 countries represented in the to 16
Do we want to compete for championships? Get better coaching and get better players. period
Ask yourself this. If the Italian national team was a club. Would it win the Champions league? I doubt it
Poorly assembled team without leadership. What’s he gonna say that we don’t already know?
Berlusconi this… Berlusconi that… Same old story.
100% of true. let’s hope that don Cardinale will reflect about all these aspects.
First USA investor without vision to build Milan, and they don’t know italian soccer culture n philosopy, they just use statistic to learn about player, the player is human not robot or mathematic, sometime have good playing sometime the fail cause a lot of things like fatiques, stress, injureds they need rest n refresh their stamina, (that can be caused to many games that he play and we know they must play alot of competition UCL, league, coppa, n more international games. )
Absolutely spot on.
433, 4231… they are not Milan DNA.
Milan needs a twin striker/partner strategy.
Leao is too lazy… we often play like half a man down, modern pressing football this is extremely taxing to the other 9 running around.
Theo IMHO should take over leao place as left midfielder instead of left defender. He is too ambitious always going to the front make a visible gap in the back.
Milan lacks a good captain… the quality have went from bad to worse. Get a good captain who will fnnk the players getting out of line. We lack a few other outstanding players in the pitch too.
Last of all…. ibra is not GOD. He may be exceptional in playing but he is very poor in management, send him to seria B 1st.