Even though there has been a lot of talk about Stefano Pioli’s era at AC Milan ending in June, the club have reportedly not made a decision.
This morning’s edition of Tuttosport (via PianetaMilan) dedicates a focus piece to Pioli who has a very clear in this second part of the season: to keep his job at Milan and to earn another contract extension.
On Sunday night in the game against Napoli at San Siro, Pioli will reach 220 games in charge of the Rossoneri and that puts him alongside Arrigo Sacchi.
There are two big objectives still up for grabs too: firstly the task is to overtake Juventus in the standings and keep up the pressure on Inter, while the second is to go deep in the Europa League.
During the pre-Frosinone press conference, Pioli admitted to being ‘bored’ about the speculation surrounding his future, while the club have always reaffirmed their trust in him.
The results of the last 18 months, however, have not met expectations, and they did not like the repeated injury crises that have naturally impacted on-field performances.
For some time now, fans have no longer imagined Pioli as Milan’s coach for the future, but it is obvious that the decision that the leadership take will extend beyond that.
Thiago Motta and Francesco Farioli are at the top of the minds of those who would like an emerging coach to relaunch the project; Antonio Conte a difficult idea that however remains in the background.
However, the person fighting to stay at Milan is Pioli himself and even though a season finale of the highest level will be needed, his era with the Rossoneri may not end at the end of this season.
During Milan-Napoli he will become the coach with the sixth-most games in Milan’s history behind Nils Liedholm (280 matches), Fabio Capello (300), Gipo Viani (376), Carlo Ancelotti (420) and Nereo Rocco (459).
In his nearly five seasons with the Diavolo, Pioli was able to do better than many of them in terms of winning percentage. Only Ancelotti, for now, is ahead of him with 56.67%; Pioli follows at 54.79%.
All the others are at a distance: Viani 53.99%, Capello 53.67%, Rocco 52.94%, Sacchi 51.36% and Liedholm 45.71%.
