The only positive note for AC Milan and their fans is that there is just one more game until a disastrous 2024-25 season comes to a close.
As Calciomercato.com write, Milan were back at the scene of the crime and after losing the Coppa Italia final against Bologna, they conceded three goals against Roma who wanted to give Claudio Ranieri the best Olimpico send-off.
Next season Milan will not be in Europe, not even the Conference League, but it is deserved given they have lost 11 games in Serie A. After five consecutive seasons in Europe – four of which were in the Champions League and one in the Europa League – the Rossoneri will only have to think about the league and the Coppa Italia next season.
Just 24 hours after Milan Futuro suffered relegation to Serie D, the loss in the capital was another humiliation for a club with a history that has not been respected.
Conceicao’s fate sealed
The useless last match at San Siro against Monza will have only one sad objective: to finish in the top eight. Finishing outside the top eight would mean playing an official match, namely the first round of the Coppa Italia, before mid-August.
It happened this year to Napoli, coming off a 10th-placed finish and forced to challenge Modena at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on August 10th. It may also lead to the cancellation of one or more American tours that are considered important by the owners on an economic level.
Milan will play against Monza without Conceiçao and Santiago Gimenez. Both were sent off during the match against Roma. The Portuguese coach once again showed his spikiness: after the hasty handshake with Vincenzo Italiano and snubbing Davide Calabria, the repeated protests towards the referee Piccinini in injury time saw him sent off.
The Portuguese coach ends his brief and disastrous experience in red and black in the worst possible way. It started with the famous cigar in Riyadh to celebrate the Supercoppa Italiana won against Inter. It seemed like the beginning of a positive era, and instead it quickly turned into a decidedly unpleasant boomerang.
Worse than Fonseca?
Conceicao launched into a strenuous defence of his work in his post-match press conference: “Before the match I was curious to see the numbers and since I arrived here before the match we were in the Champions League places.”
These statements were also followed by hidden references to the management and the team, invited to reflect on their responsibilities. The facts tell of a coach totally incapable of raising the fortunes of a group that is strong on paper but terribly fragile psychologically, of creating a minimum empathy with the environment, of at least hitting the minimum objectives of the season.
Compared to his predecessor Paulo Fonseca (the club also two players he had asked to keep: Kalulu and Saelemaekers), Conceicao got everything he asked for in the winter. From the sales of Alvaro Morata and Davide Calabria, with whom he argued strongly after the Parma win, to the Joao Felix request, the investment on Gimenez and Kyle Walker coming on loan.
The results were even poorer than his compatriot considering the suicide in the Champions League against modest opponents such as Dinamo Zagreb and Feyenoord. Milan had already decided to move on two months ago after the spokesperson saga, who had transmitted to journalists some of the things the ex-Porto boss was unhappy about.
Now we are only waiting for the official communications that should arrive at the end of the match with Monza. The possible victory of the Coppa Italia would not have changed much on a choice made, and it is now also inevitable considering the horror film-like ending to the season.
RedBird f*cked up selecting new coach in the summer. Simple as that.
Fonzy got us struggling in midtable and Sergio turned out to be the wrong coach bailing us out in the middle of the season.
RedBird f*cked up long before the coach, by choosing the people who represent the management. Incompetence breeds more incompetence. Case in point.
You don’t need to tell me, one of the doom&gloom squad seniors 😉
But Fonzy put the team in good if not great position in CL with all losing Girona and Dinamo left.
And it is a worst written artical I ever read.
I support Conceicao. At least he gave everything for the club. I can’t say the same for the management and some players like Theo and Leo.
Thanks for speaking facts! 🙏🏼
Jag skriver nog bättre engelska faktiskt.
“Why Conceição ended up being a worse coach for Milan than Fonseca”
This is a bit like saying why being ranked 19th in the league is worse than being ranked 18th. Sure, the latter means that you have 2 teams that are worse than you but in both cases you’ll end up being relegated.
Fonseca had 12W 6D and 6L with an average of 1.75 points per game. He had a 50% win rate.
Conceição had 15W 5D and 10L with an average of 1.67 points per game. He also had a 50% win rate.
Yeah sure the points per game slightly favour Fonseca (thanks to many dull draws against Genoa, AS Roma and Juventus) but we weren’t getting anywhere with him, and there is a reason why he was sacked.
So in the end if I had a p!stol pointed to my head and the question to pick between a coach who got us 8th while having possession and an other coach who got us 9th while looking horrible, I’d say sh00t me already.
Well said.
As a general rule I would suggest the option of a possession based coach is better.
Any time you have a defensive based coach, it’s only smooth sailing while you are winning. As soon as the results dry up you under huge pressure.
Nobody wants endure defensive football unless the results are there.
Conceicao was supposed to be this great defensive coach and then he conceded significantly more goals than Fonseca.
We went backwards.
We will never know but I strongly suspect the 2nd half of the season would have been much better under Fonseca.
The only trade off is likely not winning the joke of a trophy in the super coppa.
I don’t know if it’s better as a general rule to play possession.
Sure it looks better to the eyes, but in the end we didn’t have players that fit for that type of system. Most of our players play like headless chicken that hoard the ball forever until there is actually no good passing option and end up misplaying it. And none of our players can display the type of mouvment necessary for a possession type of game.
Fonseca didn’t concede a lot in his last games with us, but that came at the expense of our offensive abilities that looked like sh!t. And prior to that disastrous final against Bologna, we looked like an offensive threat with Conceição. So both coaches left a lot to be desired and their abilities were actually displayed in our serie A rankings under both of them.
I agree that our squad doesn’t appear suited to possession football.
But we don’t appear to be suited to defending either.
For several seasons now we have conceded a lot of goals. This was generally true under Pioli as well.
The anomaly was the scudetto season.
I guess the main point I am making is that a possession game style has positive aspects to motivate and build on. Even when you are not winning.
Defensive football is endured by fans and only liked when you win.
“Any time you have a defensive based coach, it’s only smooth sailing while you are winning. As soon as the results dry up you under huge pressure.” True, well stated and this is what happens with Allegri… someone who we’re being linked with for some reason 🤦♂️
I mean more losses obviously matter and the defense was far better under Fonseca. Not a very through analysis.
Farioli has reportedly decided to leave Ajax. Young, Italian, plays youth and with internation experience, I have a strange but strong feeling he’ll end up with us.
But dude choked with Ajax after 9points in front with 5 games to go.. that’s a major red flag to me.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s not my pick as well. But he’s exactly the profile RedBird are looking for.
He can’t cut it at Ajax. You think he’s a fit for Milan???
Breathe man and then read again. He’s not my pick at all but his profile can be intriguing for RedBird clowns. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up with us.
He was worst because he had more TOOLS AT HIS DISPOSAL and could not find a way to use them appropriately !!!!!
wow. keeping kalulu and saelemakers wouldve been huge. crazy how incompetent this management is
I’m just sorry that Allegra or Sarri didn’t come instead of Conceição, so let’s see what they would do in the same conditions.