Harmony restored but Pioli's future remains a mystery [Bonus article]

Amidst the Champions League success, harmony has been restored at Milan and the team can now look forward with great optimism. Things remain uncertain in the league, though, and the future of Stefano Pioli continues to be a mystery that involves a whole range of factors.

After seven consecutive games without a win, five of them losses, tempers were understandably running high at Milan. The fans voiced their concern with high decibel levels and pressure mounted on not just Pioli, but also the Rossoneri management due to the subpar summer mercato.

As we wrote back then, there were a couple of incidents within the squad that also threatened the harmony. Of course, the situation was never going to be a bed of roses after such a poor run of form, but it was still remarkable back then that the belief was hurting so much.

Fortunately, the switch to a three-man backline (even if it died quickly) came to the rescue and as the results slowly but steadily improved, so did the situation within the squad. Now, in fact, we can talk about a situation in which harmony has been restored and you can clearly see it on the pitch (even in the league games).

Yet, there’s no hiding from the fact that the title contenders Milan crumbled at the worst possible time in the season, allowing Napoli to run away with the Scudetto. It’s only lucky that the Champions League clashes against Spurs came with some distance to the shocking January start, otherwise the situation could have been very different now.

And so, one can’t help but wonder what the direction is for Milan moving forward, more specifically heading into the next season. If the strategy is the same from the management with regard to mercato, i.e. a rather low-key one with one or possibly two big reinforcements, there must be a clear direction across the board.

In that sense, Pioli will have to lean into the challenge of turning talent into a competitive quad, which he has done very well so far. Indeed, it would be foolish to speculate about the manager’s future without mentioning that he has done an incredible job in elevating the youngsters - even if the integration hasn’t always been as quick as the fans would have liked.

There aren’t that many proven ‘talent managers’ on the market, to be fair, and the great fits for Milan like Roberto De Zerbi and Julian Nagelsmann are simply out of reach. In short, Pioli has that in his favour and he still has the Scudetto as proof of what he can achieve with an underrated squad.

Then again, Pioli has also confirmed one of the main flaws in his career: when things get rough, he has a really hard time getting out of it. It was the same story at both Lazio and Inter, resulting in him getting sacked. He did obviously get Milan out of whatever that slump was, but it took too much time and ultimately cost us the title.

Secondly, his in-game management hasn’t always been spot on and the same argument can even be made for the XI selection. The rotation against Empoli, with Milan still in a fragile mood, was a great example of that and the game against Bologna (should he make 10 changes to the XI) could be another one.

So, what do we make of his future at Milan? As alluded to earlier, he still has a lot of success to rely on especially with the Champions League adventure this season. And if he were to secure a top-four finish as well, there would be zero doubt that he will remain as the head coach of Milan.

What’s interesting, however, is that the latest we have gathered from Casa Milan suggests that Pioli will keep his job even if Milan were to miss out on a top-four finish. Again, it boils down to the fact that he still has a lot of success to rely on, and the Milan management are aware that their job could come under more scrutiny in the event of a sacking.

As things stand, the blame cannot fully be put on Pioli. This is especially obvious to the fans who have voiced their disappointment about the lack of signings in the summer and in January. Furthermore, let’s just say that the increasing ticket prices (one of many negative changes) have not gone down well with the local fans, putting additional pressure on the ownership.

This essentially means that we could be talking about a success story in one year’s time, or we could be talking about failure with an already decided scapegoat. Regardless of what they believe, the management will also be held accountable for whatever happens in the future. The great escape, as such, is not possible.