Is this 2019? [Bonus Article]

Less than 24 hours after AC Milan’s 1-3 defeat against Liverpool, the rumour mill is in full swing regarding the potential candidates to replace Paulo Fonseca. Credible sources have confirmed the manager’s fragile position during the day and the Rossoneri are really considering hiring someone else, maybe even irrespective of the result in the derby on Sunday.

We all knew that the new manager rumours would emerge in the event of a poor result against Liverpool. However, how quickly and above all in which quantity these would emerge was left for speculation, and today we got a resounding answer. You would think that Milan would have preferred to throw everything to the side ahead of such an important game, but instead they seem to have thrown Fonseca under the bus.

Perhaps he deserves to be under the bus but frankly I don’t care, as this isn’t really the point of discussion here. In my eyes, this is yet another sign of the management’s inexperience. We discussed this exact topic in a bonus at the end of August, then again when the rumours broke about Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s disagreements with Ignazio Abate (“I’m the boss and everyone works for me” gives us a big hint, right?).

I will be the first to admit that I was semi-optimistic about the season this summer, taking some of the signings and the pre-season displays into account. Fonseca brought something new to the table and given the coma that Stefano Pioli ball had put us in, I got blinded and fell right into the trap. Now, this is not to say that he can’t turn things around, but bush fixes were clearly made by the management and things are already coming apart as a result.

In any case, back to the managerial pursuit, names like Max Allegri, Sergio Conceicao, Maurizio Sarri, Edin Terzic and Thomas Tuchel are being thrown around as potential Fonseca replacements and by pretty reputable sources too, we should add. Either one of them could do a good enough job to turn Milan’s season around and achieve something, but the evaluation is still incredibly difficult.

Personally, I was a bit surprised to see that Milan are even considering hiring another foreign coach. I mean, they were heavily criticised by the fans - and some journalists - for their decision to do so with Fonseca and it’s tough to argue against those critics now. Not to mention that the Rossoneri need someone who can stabilise the situation and achieve results, not to come in and potentially succeed.

It’s quite ironic that this sounds exactly like the discussions we had back in the fall of 2019. Everything had come crashing down under Marco Giampaolo, with no identity whatsoever, and Milan decided to bring in Stefano Pioli to pull them out of the misery. Luciano Spalletti was the one that the fans wanted back then and while that didn’t happen, Pioli wasn’t too far away in terms of identity and playing style.