The current Serie A season might only be five games old but AC Milan still look too inconsistent and already seem to be out of any potential title race.

In their most recent league fixture, Milan threw away a lead twice as they were held at home to Atalanta. After four matches AC Milan are sitting in twelfth place picking up just five points. This leaves them ten points adrift of Juventus at the top and they are also five points away from Sassuolo who occupy fourth spot.

One issue Milan need to address is the managerial position.

I watched a teenage Rino Gattuso run around Ibrox like a headless chicken when he was a Rangers player. I fell in love with the passionate midfielder. But if I’m being honest, he doesn’t seem to be the right man to take the Rossoneri forward. 

After the draw with Atlanta, Gattuso said:

“There is great regret, we are a two-faced team,”  

“We played a great first half, in the last half hour we struggled and we suffered against our opponents.”

“It has been happening for four games this time; sometimes we play good football, but that’s not enough, we have to do more.”

The team haven’t been reliable and haven’t been strong enough since Gattuso took charge at the San Siro in  November 2017.

In fairness, Milan haven’t been consistently good enough since their last Scudetto win in 2011.

It was current Juve boss Massimiliano Allegri that guided them to that last league title. Since his departure in 2014, AC Milan have had six managers.

The majority of those coaches were inexperienced bosses who had strong connections to the club. As well as Rino; Clarence Seedorf, Pippo Inzaghi and Cristian Brocchi have all had a chance to turn things around. Unfortunately they’ve all been found wanting, not surprising given the enormity of the task.

They’ve also brought into two relatively experienced Serie A managers in Sinisa Mihajlovic and Vincenzo Montella. Both left the San Siro with 50% win records, showing that inconsistency has been a longterm problem for Milan.

What all these managers lacked was that they’re never won a major trophy as a boss before they took the gig in Italy’s fashion capital.

With the new owners in place, it could be the right time to change things in the dugout once again. Gattuso is a fiery character but he can’t seem to get the best out his squad and after thirty-nine games as their head coach he’s won eighteen games (win ration of 46.15%).

So if young coaches with Milan in their blood aren’t getting the job done and managers with only a decent record as bosses are also struggling to turn the tide, maybe it’s time to bring in someone with managerial winning experience.

The most glaring name out there seems to be former Juve and Azzurri man Antonio Conte.

Conte is currently out of work, after leaving Chelsea in the summer.

The forty-nine year old won a Serie B title with Bari. He then went on to win three Italian top flight titles in Turin. In London, he impressively won the Premier League title in his debut year in England pipping Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp to the championship triumph.

His success with Juventus could resonate with the Milan faithful.

The Turin giants hadn’t won a top flight title since 2006 (that title was then stripped) and the wait for the supporters was almost unbearable. They also went through six gaffers in a five year period and weren’t getting enough wins to really challenge for top place in Serie A. In the two seasons before Conte took over, Juve finished in seventh place twice!

At both Juve and Chelsea, Antonio has shown us that he can get the best out of the players available to him. He gets them working hard and can figure out a formation that seems to get the best results.

The fact he has zero allegiances to Milan might actually help him. He won’t get bogged down with the way things were and the history of the club, he’d come in and do what he needs to do to push them up the league table. The goal for this term should be Champions League qualification!

I also think Conte will have it in his mind to prove himself again in Italy. I get the feeling he believes he doesn’t really get the credit he feels he deserves for getting Juventus back to where they are. What better way to prove that you were a fundamental piece of the jigsaw than by taking the jigsaw away?

Plus we all know that in London, Antonio was craving to be back in his homeland.

If I were AC Milan then I’d be doing my upmost to woo Antonio Conte back into management and give him what he believes he needs to get the club back to being one of the country’s best.

If the Milan hierarchy wait then they might see fellow struggling giants AS Roma swoop in ahead of them and get the stellar man for their project!

Posted on September 25th, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article