Paulo Fonseca will become the new head coach of AC Milan with only the official announcement missing, and he will have some tasks to tackle from day one.
According to Tuttosport (via PianetaMilan), Fonseca will sign a two-year contract with Milan worth €3m net per season and it will have the option for a third year, but the Portuguese coach is ‘already climbing an Everest’ without having even been unveiled.
Some Milan fans are not happy with the choice made by the management and the reception for Fonseca will be, to put it mildly, ‘lukewarm’. He has a triple mission to complete if he really wants to challenge Inter in the race for the Scudetto.
Stars to work on
Fonseca, first of all, will have to bring Mike Maignan, Theo Hernández and Rafael Leão back to their very best levels, while assuming that the summer mercato does not see any of them leave.
Manchester City and Bayern Munich are admirers of Maignan, Bayern also like Theo and Leao had been targeted by Al-Hilal, but it will take huge offers to prise any of them away.
None of the trio had a great 2023-24 season as the goalkeeper let in too many goals and battles injuries, the full-back (despite getting five goals and 11 assists) was a passenger in too many big games and the winger was once again inconsistent.
Wall to be rebuilt
As mentioned, the former Roma and Lille coach will have to improve the defensive phase because in the final season under Stefano Pioli, the Rossoneri conceded 69 goals in 52 official matches.
In France, Fonseca managed to work on this aspect and brought about an improvement, having had the same woes at the back during his spell in the capital with the Giallorossi.
To concede fewer goals, however, Fonseca will have to get Fikayo Tomori and Malick Thiaw back to their best after a negative season as well as Pierre Kalulu. Each suffered injuries, but the feeling is there is work to do on them mentally as much as physically.
Breakthrough
Milan will also ask Fonseca to work with some of the signings from the 2023 summer window that perhaps did not settle in as well as the others.
While Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders became mainstays of the midfield and Christian Pulisic had an amazing debut season, too many players struggled to showcase their qualities.
The likes of Yunus Musah, Samuel Chukwueze and Noah Okafor – who cost a total of around €60m – each offered promising signs but now the challenge is to show it over a whole season.
I hope we won’t start finding faults with our players from Day 1.
Would be hilarious is we don’t hire him and he got fed up even before he signed up for this 🤣🤣🤣 (please football gods make it happen…I wanna good laugh)
He might if he found out Milan only plan to keep him for a year or until a better option becomes available.
Better let Ibra be the coach. He is the best. Those found lazy will receive a slapp or kickk to wake up
To all those shouting #Pioliout, I hope you are happy now. You ain’t getting any upgrade. And while other teams are strengthening, Milan is busy chasing shadows… Enjoy the ride to the new season
Im very happy tho I wasn’t shouting pioli out but I did want him to go. And finally. The S0S no more!