The end of the season is approaching and at Milan there is a very current issue: who will be the next coach? The journalist Franco Ordine talked about it in his editorial for MilanNews.com
“Obligatory topic: who will coach Milan? Very vague answer and not the fault of the writer. Because the club is taking its time and also seems to be slightly annoyed due to the pressure coming from fans and the media. Here it is time to reflect brief. The first lukewarm candidacies, peppered with various meetings, which began between November and December 2023 (after the exit from the Champions League) started from Thiago Motta’s staff, a hit and run. Then from January 2024 Pioli’s Milan he began to string together a promising streak of results (also recovering a few injured players) and at that point the legitimate belief developed that it was a “good and right thing” to continue with him even during the last year of the contract, only to then reciprocate slowly due to the painful elimination from the Europa League and the bloody defeat in the sixth derby in a row on Monday 22 April.
At that point the search restarted, pulling out some names from Moncada’s computer, all strictly foreign. Lopetegui was immediately “discarded” by the social networks of the Rossoneri faith who even set up an advertising campaign to avoid such a choice thus dictating the belief in the Milan offices that they were about to take a wrong path. And I completely understand the about-face! Season tickets halved and the stadium half empty is a prospect that doesn’t appeal to anyone, least of all the Cardinal.
Now Milan is at a crossroads. The profile that would make observers and fans happy is one and only one: Antonio Conte. For a very simple reason: because for at least two-three months he would keep the club and the locker room safe by personally answering for any result. Anyone who has spoken to the coach from Lecce knows very well that the hostile narrative (he asks for too much money, he wants a lot of footballers) is only an ideological barrier to a very cumbersome character, demanding to put it better and also very temperamental who however knows how to do his job very well. And that’s what matters to him. Not only. The possible signing of him would, indirectly, allow Milan to save the salary to be paid to Pioli and staff who – with Conte in the Rossoneri – would become the only candidates to obtain the consent of ADL for the Napoli bench.
The late attempt (I seem to see the same desperate moves, which ended badly, made for Frattesi and Thuram during the 2023 summer transfer window) to recover positions on Thiago Motta (unless Juve gives up) seems destined to to fail. Even the Roberto De Zerbi option, who was born and raised as a footballer in the Milan youth sector, seems to me to be “weighed down” by the size of the clause (15 million), a practice which does not fit into the right habits of Furlani and company even if it would excite me a lot . So here there is little to think about and examine other profiles which only serve to give the idea of great confusion.
Mine may seem like a provocation but it is actually rational reasoning. I understand that re-proposing Pioli is a big risk. I don’t forget one detail: his appreciation at Milanello is always very high. Therefore I say and repeat: if you really don’t want to take Conte, if you really can’t manage with Thiago Motta (whose, among other things, I don’t like Mourinho-type communication), then you might as well leave Stefano Pioli in the saddle for the last year and postpone the change for a year, perhaps then having the opportunity to make a choice of the highest level. Want a name just to excite the crowd? Jurgen Klopp!”