Whilst favourites are in place for the head coach position at AC Milan, Arrigo Sacchi has advised his former club to make a move for a manager whom he once suggested to Silvio Berlusconi.
Stefano Pioli’s tenure at Milan is all but over, even if nothing has been confirmed by the club, given they are sticking to their decision to wait until the end of the season to confirm their position, even if both parties know it.
The route forward is finding an heir to build upon the foundations laid by the 58-year-old. At the moment, Sergio Conceicao looks like a heavy favourite to get the job, and a meeting has been scheduled with his current club to discuss their futures.
However, Rossoneri legend Sacchi has thrown another name into the mix in his column for Gazzetta dello Sport (via Radio Rossonera) and advised the club to pursue him and offer the coach what he wants for the best chances of success.
“Several years ago, I advised Maurizio Sarri to Berlusconi: he didn’t listen to me. Today, the advice is the same. I would like to propose Sarri’s name for Milan, he is good, very good. With Sarri, AC Milan can open a cycle, on the condition of putting him in the best conditions to perform at his best and therefore handing over those players he requires.
“If not Sarri, then Roberto De Zerbi. He has qualities, both technical and human, he is a man of depth, has innovative ideas and makes his teams practise avant-garde football.”
When the Sarri was at juve they played 433 and it was the last time they won the league.. firing him was a mistake.
Looking into the details of that will definitely paint a different image.
During the first half of that season, in fact up until the COVID-19 pause, they were still playing Allegri’s football, and relying on Cristiano for goals.
But as the season progressed, and as they played more…. “Sarri ball” if you like.. their level dropped significantly.
After 30 weeks they had 75 points and needed 14 points out of the remaining 8 games. Then came the humiliating 4-2 defeat against Milan, and back-to-back draws against Atalanta and Sassuolo. They just looked to shabby and incapable of getting the job done.
Sarri is an excellent coach, but Juve’s environment was just too toxic for him. Continuing for another season with that for would’ve been disastrous.
My possibly-unpopular opinion is that sacking of Andrea Pirlo is were thing REALLY went wrong for Juventus. And bringing back Allegri was a bad solution to an avoidable problem.
Agree 100%
I know ‘football’ and all but seriously where’s the logic in sacking a coach and replacing him with a coach who sacked by a team who are currently 25 points behind us???
It’s a ‘ceiling’ thing, isn’t it?
I can give you a few names of good coaches that failed spectacularly recently…But they are certainly not goners…Conte, Klopp, Pottechino…are you willing to write them off
Do you see the irony in your argument, or should I point it out?
The emphasis is on good coaches with a history of winning, not one hit wonders…
One hit wonders who have delivered back to back top 4 finishes?
Klopp has been lucky at moments that he has cult status, that has to be said.
He played a couple of great seasons but also dropped the ball hard at times and loosing with that Liverpool team against Atalanta is worse than us dropping out of EL against a reinvigorated Roma if we are being honest.
This is also an example were a big name saves you in difficult moment leading to the opportunity of bouncing back, in that way big name coaches becoming successful can be a self fulfilling prophecy at times.
Conte would surely get a chop if he’d lower his demands but the market doesn’t seem to view him as a true world class coach anymore, for 9m pa and high transfer demands I think the writing is on the wall for him.
Pochettino ? Really??? Sarri has won Serie A, Europa League – Pochettino has failed in PSG and Chelsea so far. He has only done well with Tottenham and Southampton – two teams who know nothing about winning titles
Last year lazio finished second. Then they sold SMS.
Where did milan finish again? I forget
WE finished FOURTH because WE focused on the champions league and reached the semi-finals but make sure you keep downplaying you’re own team’s achievements whilst making excuses for your rivals.
Nothing like giving rival teams and managers and players the benefit of the doubt.
Not true.. we didn’t focus on sh!t. We finished 5th because pioli was and is a clueless 🤡 who couldn’t integrate players that he got and couldn’t man mange the rest. And semis was a fluke.
Also semi final is no achievement. Go tell psg they reached semis and that is an achievement
You guys need to stop lying to y’all selves. You know very well we focused on the UCL. Explain why we sent 11 different players in the Bologna game in the lead up to the UCL match….that called prioritizing one competition over the other.
Well Sarri’s Lazio was second and 4 points ahead of us last season, then they lost Sergej Milinković-Savić to the saudis. Now of course we were 22 points ahead of them in 2021/22 and won the scudetto. But again, compare the Milan’s squad to Lazio’s squad. You can’t just say that coach “X” is better than coach “Y” because he is ranked ahead of them, you have to look at their squad.
With that said, I’m not really that enthousiastic about Sarri. Coaches, like players reach an age where they are no longer capable of adding value (Mourinho is a good example) and Sarri is certainly not a young coach. And even with Sarri his achievements are far from impressive.
Nope you look at the league table…
Otherwise it’s just one of those opinion things as to ‘I rate so and so as hot or not’.
Pioli has consistently done better than Sarri now for 4 years inducing last season when he focused on getting us into the semi-finals of the champions league which cost us some points in the league.
Another possible analysis (my opinion of course because I can’t predict the future) is that Sarri is a coach on his way down so I’d prefer if we’re going to sack a 2nd placed coach we should get a coach who might be on the way up.
I mean if we’re going to roll the dice which we’re doing by sacking a 2nd placed coach and hoping the new will improve on 2nd (which I think means winning the Scudetto).
“Nope you look at the league table…
Otherwise it’s just one of those opinion things as to ‘I rate so and so as hot or not’.”
So by following you, the best coach in serie A is Inzaghi, the second best is Pioli, Motta (who Juve wants) is actually worse than Allegri (who is currently coaching Juve) and the worst coach is Stefano Colantuono…. Also last season, Xavi would be better than Ancelotti, but somehow this season Ancelotti is again better ?
I don’t understand how you can only give credit to the coaches for the performances, and completely ignore the players (despite the fact that you defend many players like Krunic, Calabria,…). I don’t like what ifs arguments, but you think Pioli would have won the serie A and reached UCL semi-finals with Lazio ?
If we look at their global resume (which we should), Sarri is indeed a more successfull coach than Pioli.
“Another possible analysis (my opinion of course because I can’t predict the future) is that Sarri is a coach on his way down so I’d prefer if we’re going to sack a 2nd placed coach we should get a coach who might be on the way up.”
I agree with this, nothing to add here.
Finally somebody says what I was saying all along. Sarri would be best placed to revolutionize this Milan. If you want immediate impact, Sarri would be able to deliver.
Forza the idea was hatched a few months ago and I believe that when Maldini was sacked and before he was,
I believed that Pioli was not the man to take Milan into the future.
He won Seria-A, but was never able to defeat the bigger teams that season or seasons after and maybe that’s why Milan finished second and not first and why they were knocked out of euro’s and copa Italia?
DeZerbi is the man with qualities, both technical and human, he is a man of depth, has innovative ideas and makes his teams practise avant-garde football.
Yes a great man once said!
I have been looking at sarri since his days at Napoli! His Napoli was supposed to be Milan…Such identity and hypnotized football which makes average players soo good… I remember Dries mertens, Lorenzo insigne, zielinski, khoulibaly, jorginho…these guys played their best games with sarri…moreso, Chelsea sarri where unbeatable at a point going for several games unbeaten! Eden hazard became a monster and Arsenal where thoroughly thrashed at the Europa league final…at juventus, Christiano had one of his prolific season in juve shirt….I wonder what the management where thinking…when such a coach is available, he knows serie-A so well, plays modern football, works with youngsters….yet they kept going for coach who couldn’t smell the pheromones! This management is truly out enemy…all they are after is a manager who they could control…they know Sarri is a volcano of a character who don’t give no hoot about owner or Zlatan…he does what he feels is right….no wonder till now De Laurentia and Lotto silently wish in their heart they could get him back but fear his personality..
My man Kunle. You said it best👌
My man you said it well.
They want a yes man. Not a coach with a strong character.
Most of the comments are very interesting and insightful. Here is my take. My problem with Pioli is that he doesn’t seem to have the ability and knack to develop and build players to improve their talent and skills. It is no surprise that Milan can’t play like a team. They survive and win matches by individual efforts and on the spur of the moment flashes of brilliance. The players lack conviction, motivation and inspiration. Sometimes you wonder if Milan has a coach on the field. Pioli has done his best but he can’t take Milan to the next level and glory days. We need a new coach with high tactical acumen who can inspire and motivate the players to play as a team and not selfish individuals. Leao has been selfish and lackadaisical on the field. He is overrated and most of time is not serious. He looses the ball easily and stifles Milan’s transition forward. To me he is deteriorating day after day. He is not improving under Pioli. Pioli has failed to gel the team together as one unit. Inzaghi has done a wonderful job at Inter. He is stubborn and doesn’t give the young talents of the Primavera a chance. Look at how Alex’s Saelemakers and de Keterlare have flourished at Bologna and Atalanta but they were failing at Milan. Pioli must go. He has run outcof ideas. He had many chances to learn and improve but he has been stubborn and lethargic in his approach. Milan deserves better. Thank you.
Most people are still suffering from banter. So in their mind because pioli is better than inzaghi, sedorf, brochi, montela we should stick with him and continue down this path that is not really leading anywere… it’s ridiculous how they fear a relapse. What’s even more ridiculous is that we don’t have any system set up so the next manager can continue working on it. Like how inzaghi continued what conte set up. We dont have that and the next manager will have to work from scratch
Don’t let a certain godlike super fan see this. He would accuse you of stifling a title winning manager, an overachiever and Milan greatest coach.
Pioli has worked mirakuru where others have failed. But now it’s time to part ways. It’s very possible other teams have become wise to his plays and he cannot do anything to counter it.
That said he should probably take a sabbatical from football and enjoy his family, mental health and been a grandpappy. Because whatever He is doing at Milan presently is not football next level.
Sarri is the missing elements Milan had been looking for all the while…but the management are scared of his fiery personality as de Laurentia and Lotito experienced…
It’s tiring this guy with his useless advising only on Italian coach’s, pop the bubble and come outside Italy!
Because so many foreign coaches won with Serie A teams right? And look at Italian coaches who coached and still are coaching around the Europe. It’s not about being in a bubble, Italian coaches are master tacticians on a global scale.
Carlo Ancelotti?? A dream❤️🖤
Sacchi recommending a coach for Milan? I remembered the last coach he highly endorsed for Milan is Marco Giampaolo. He even sulked at Maldini for sacking him after 7 games … Sacchi is a little stick-in-the-mud if you asked me. He likes to allude to his past successes, that was 2-3 decades ago, without being objective on the context of today’s modern football. As much as he talked about how successful he was in his first spell, he never explained why he failed so miserably in his second spell with Milan as football evolves.
Sacchi woke up thinking it’s 2015
Is rubbish for a team to sack Pioli & hire Sarri. In the first place I don’t see the reason of sacking Pioli. Buy players that he needs & see how good he is. No coach can win a league with this calibre of players even if it is Guadiola. He won the league, season after that he was at Semi final in Championships league, this season he is second in Serie A with this managing team, how do u want him to do.
Hire any coach as long as this is the team he can’t do more than Pioli. Buy striker, defensive midfielder & central defender and let Pioli continue then you will what he wld do
Honestly, you have a good point. If the board can get quality players in the three departments you mentioned, things will change drastically. Most especially a strong defensive midfielder that can serve as a shield to the defenders.
This reminds me of Gattuso and Kessie, they made the defenders job to be easier and also give room for deep lying midfielders like Pirlo and Chalanoglu to flourish.
Honestly if you can’t see a reason to sack pioli there really is nothing to discuss.. lack of understanding etc etc.
It’s hard to see reason in other people’s imaginary expectations for what the club should be doing.
But league tables are usually a good measure for real life.
Keep telling yourself that buddy.
So last year, when we finished 5th, we should have fired pioli. Because league table etc etc
So its been acoming, this firing.
The recent transfer market splash, have you been on travels. Or did you not read from the club stating that from. Now on his input would be asked in purchasing a player. Just following the previous management sacking.
So by that following its either the management lied and pioli is been made a scapegoat, or he was given the players he asked for and yet no headway.
Either way something must give. And it looks to be the Mr’s job that is.
Honestly I’m with Aliyu Gimba,
Aliyu Gimba
I totally agree with you 💯%
Buy him quality players
Stop selling the ones we have .
They let Donna, kessie leave sold Tonali and Oliver Giroud is our main striker . Left shooter of 37+ years. Are you kidding me?
Look at inter and juve their squads are far bigger than Milan squad .
Someone should let Pioli breath . ✋🖐️
inasmuch as @Okolo and @aliyu are correct, there is also a major flaw of Pioli which you are over-looking, he just doesnt know how to nurture talents and make them upgrade…either by disciplining dem when they are lackaidaisical or intense training i dont know, but then if its Conte or some other top coach thats managing LEao, the dude will be a bellingham by now or even on a inasmuch as @Okolo and @aliyu are correct, there is also a major flaw of Pioli which you are over-looking, he just doesnt know how to nurture talents and make them upgrade…either by disciplining dem when they are lackaidaisical or intense training i dont know, but then if its Conte or some other top coach thats managing LEao, the dude will be a bellingham by now or even on a Vinicius level now of course the dream is to be on a mbappe-level though..
So, yes if we retain him and make vital reinforcements to the squad, he will deliver but what about those older members of the squad who cant seem to step up? especially when its needed for them to do so?
he just can’t manage them to coax their best out of them, sometimes i get this distinct feeling he is molly-coddling them
So, yes if we retain him and make vital reinforcements to the squad, he will deliver but what about those older members of the squad who cant seem to step up? especially when its needed for them to do so?
he just can’t manage them to coax their best out of them, sometimes i get this distinct feeling he is molly-coddling them
Arrigo, Carletto, Maldini and uncle fester are alive. Milan Is dead.
There Is no ambition other than making good numbers on the books and target CL spots.
This club was about winning scudettos and CL.
No Maldini no Milan game over.