The AC Milan management have made a bold call right at the end of 2024: to change head coach, going from Paulo Fonseca to Sergio Conceicao.
La Gazzetta dello Sport have offered some background on how Conceiçao ended up at Milan and it starts in the Spring. The Portuguese coach made it clear he was leaving Porto – a farewell that would have been official at the beginning of June – and in his head he had already chosen Milan.
His agent, Jorge Mendes, spoke with Gerry Cardinale more than once and the messages sent from Portugal were clear: if you want, we’re in. Milan moved on, they preferred Fonseca, but in their heads the name of Conceiçao evidently remained.
Sergio competed for a while with other names like Maurizio Sarri, but then came a turning point. Giorgio Furlani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Geoffrey Moncada are the leaders of the management, yet it was Cardinale who pushed for Conceicao.
Milan chose him because he is a coach with a strong character and believes that a tough guy is good for the dressing room. If a scene was needed to create atmosphere, go back to April: four Porto players left out of the team because they were guilty of a bad attitude.
Conceiçao is like that: he believes that the strongest personality in the locker room should be the coach. He is also a winner, given that he lifted 11 trophies in his seven years with Porto. In many years he is a profile similar to Antonio Conte, who the Rossoneri also said no to in the summer.
Conceiçao has only accepted a six-month guaranteed contract for Milan, and at other times he wouldn’t have done it. Other coaches wouldn’t have done it. He clearly likes the team and Italy is part of his life given his playing career at Lazio, Inter and Parma, all of which persuaded him.
Mendes and Conceiçao had already spoken with Milan in recent weeks and here it is up to you to decide whether it was a healthy precaution or a lack of respect towards Fonseca. The agreement over a contract was reached some time ago, and the documents were exchanged last week.
In short, everything was ready for the change, postponable in the event of a convincing victory against Roma. Sunday evening everything exploded: the rumours that came out first in Portugal and then in Italy, a match with a disheartened coach and the choice to change.
Fonseca had the balls to bench Leao and Theo, but somehow he’s not a disciplinarian like Conceicao. Instead he was criticized for doing so. Can’t wait for Sergio to bench four starters and see how the mob reacts.
One thing is to bench someone, it’s another to turn them into outcasts. I must admit Fonseca did show some signs of fixing issues with some members of the squad, but a frosty relationship was pretty evident in public.
Hopefully, the new disciplinarian can discipline while also maintaining points on the table.
True that
Why he you cannot wait to bench four starters! Cannot it be like normal and we play like family? As we used with pioli?
It doesn’t matter if he benches 20 players and decides to play Primavera. As long you can see things improving over time and results coming along the way. Fonseca and his balls are so irrelevant when he is a bad football manager. Bad tactician, bad motivator. DO you want me to go on? He showed how bad he is.
We should try and sign leao Bailey from having 27 g/a in 52 games to barely playing now we should go for him
I just hope Mendes doesn’t get his paws on Milan transfers.
That dude peddles players almost as bad as riola did.
I hate agents, scum.
100% Agree buddy, Makes you wonder if there’s an ulterior motive at play with Mendes….it crossed my mind
He does have some good players on his roster but we can’t afford those.
Mendes is a cancer…. If he gets a hold of Milan we’re in trouble. I would resist his players as hard as I could.
Agents have more power than you think and they can easily move their players. It no different from the power Raiola had over his players. It’s something clubs can’t avoid unless UEFA changes the rules of engagement for agents.
Does anyone else here feels a cautious air of optimism with Conceicao’s arrival? Feels like a Pioli arrival 2.0 but with a higher potential …
Yes, there’s an air of hope with him, I like what I hear, he seems fought and that’s what we need, he has a good record in Portugal and seems ready for the next step. I hope he can be a new generation elite manager. We need to back him on the market as well….
*tough
I love the warrior mentality in this guy. I feel like that grinta, that fight has been missing since Paolo left and Zlatan was no longer a player.
👍
Yes. He actually won titles and had some good results at other clubs. So compared to Fonseca should have much more to offer. I think he will be great and will stay for a long time if he doesn’t get into an argument with Gerry or management.
Management can’t afford any more mistakes or they will get chased out of town.
Love the change. It could have been literally ANYBODY though and it doesn’t matter. The problem with Milan had very little to do with coaching and more to do with a general lack of talent. Furthermore Gerry alienated the only talent we do have(Leao,Theo,Mike) by going cheap on the market whenever he can. “Waaaah salary is too high…waaahhh agent wants a fee…”. If you’re one of the Top 5 best players on a club and you already know that you and your teammates busted your asses last season and still had an average year at best. At the conclusion of last season Leao, Theo, Maignan were all sitting there hoping some other talent would be brought in to lighten the load. Instead they got another HAS BEEN retread who clearly doesn’t care much anymore in Morata, an injury prone cast off in Tammy, and while Fofana was solid he makes no big difference. These moves COMPLETELY knocked the wind from our most talented players who started thinking if management didn’t care that much about winning than why should they? And truthfully I don’t blame them. If Milan ever want to matter again we will need owners who aren’t penny pinching with EVERY SINGLE negotiation, owners unafraid of a couple high wage bills, and DEFINITELY owners from the 21st Century who realize that ALL agents will be taking high fees from here on out, cost of doing business. Get your bleep together.
Why Cardinale wanted Conceicao? Easy… we’re in 8th…it hurts his bottom line
And he’s also cheap….ticks all the boxes
Cardinale doesn’t even know who Conceicao is. You really bought that story? He hasn’t heard of Conceicao until 6 days ago.
Realistically Cardinale would never pick Conceicao because Conceicao is well know for his arguments with management, he left 2 clubs because of this. So my guess is Gerry had nothing to do with this, but maybe say yes in the final step.
Nah, you all hate Cardinale too much to see it.
Gerry is not a football man, so he let the “football men” (Zebrahimovic, Furlani, Moncada) pick the coach.
They picked Fonseca, and did a horrible job at backing him.
His stooges screwed him over here.
Reports are that Mendes had talked directly with Gerry last summer, so, no, Gerry did know about Conceição. Even though Gerry doesn’t know much about football, it’s not so difficult for Gerry to realize that a coach who lifted 11 trophies in 7 years with Porto and reached the UCL quarterfinals repeatedly with a modest roster of players, is a lot more of a winner than the loser known as Paulo Fonseca. Given that Gerry obviously is worried for his financial investment with Milan in 8th place and 8 points below the UCL qualification spots (therefore risking to pass on 100 M Euro of UCL money), it is natural that Gerry wanted a winner to replace the loser.
So, no, I do believe that the owner called the shots here, given that the clowns he mistakenly named as his underlings were doing nothing to correct the blunder of having hired Fonseca (which would be acknowledging the mistake, something these clowns are not likely to do).
This actually makes me more hopeful. If the owner stepped over his underlings to direct them to hire Conceição, the coach will be less subject to being undermined by the likes of Ibra. The owner is likely to tell his underlings, “don’t mess with Conceição; he is my choice.” It is good for the head coach to have the backing of the owner, which will result in more power and more control over the squad. All the clashes between Fonseca and management didn’t help Fonseca. The players feel these things. If not even the managers who hired Fonseca fully supported him, the players weren’t likely to respect him. With Conceição, it could be a different situation, which can only help.
As for Conceição’s reputation for clashes with management, Conceição had a very good relationship with Porto’s former boss. Things went sour for Conceição at Porto when his friend/boss lost the presidential election and was replaced. So, if Conceição starts with a good relationship with Gerry, he may very well clash with the underlings, but if he has Gerry’s backing, he’ll be fine.
Oh I was saying it more in general as in you can replace his name with any other name that could have been hired. The reason he wanted a new coach was that his bottom line would have been affected and he doesn’t have time to waste when it comes to that
The joke will be in Zlatan when Conceicao secures CL for next season and Mendes tells Zlatan and Furlani to shove that 3.5mil up their you-know-what to get a proper reimbursement …
Sure buddy cardinale really wants milan to win and surely not operate the team only for earning money 😔
Do you understand anything about business? For Gerry to earn money from Milan he has to sell Milan for a massive profit, he can’t do that with a team in 8th place or securing top 4 every season and he can’t do that without a new stadium, which is precisely why the club have and keep investing heavily in the transfer market, despite your silly, ignorant bs about them only being concerned about the bottom line.
Is this Gerry? I know this must be Gerry or maybe it’s one of his scumbag BFFs from Elliot just dropping by to carry water for Cheapskate Ger. Sorry but owners who prioritize winning don’t cry every time an agent takes a few, nor do they balk at carrying a few high wage bills. And they MOST DEFINITELY DO NOT set absurdly low transfer ceiling maxes of $30mill lol! It’s 2025, if you paid $20-$30 for your clubs best players than it’s almost a guarantee you have an extremely AVERAGE squad. Owners who PRIORITIZE WINNING would understand these simple things…And while I agree with you, the whole reason Elliot got Gerry in on this scam was as a placeholder until a new stadium could be built. But where you’re wrong is that they will get their stadium regardless of whether or not Milan win another Scudetto, or make any sort of noise in the UCL. As a matter of fact I would argue the stadium urgency increases with every wasted year for the club. Why would Gerry want to invest any of his own money so Milan can win a Scudetto and MAYBE make a run to the UCL Semi’s? It’s not a guarantee they would make it all back. And even if it was just a small loss, that’s still significant to Gerry because HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT AC MILAN!
Milan chose him because he is a coach with a strong character and believes that a tough guy is good for the dressing room.
Hahahaha, so they knew these at first but went for Fonseca.. jokers
It’s embarrassing the newb of an owner had the sense to go for Concecaio, while the supposed football men, Moncada and Ibrahimovic, wanted dinosaur Sarri. What does Gerry need Moncada and Ibrahimovic for? He doesn’t. Hopefully they’re both canned at the end of the season.