It’s been a bit of an inauspicious start for AC Milan this season.

The Italian giants are lying in tenth place in Serie A after four games, with their only win coming against newly promoted Venezia last weekend. But any ideas that they could build on that victory were soon dashed as they were humbled 3-1 at home in the Champions League by English side Liverpool.

That has led to reports in Italy suggesting that the new Rossoneri boss Paulo Fonseca needs to beat fierce rivals and current Italian champions Inter this Sunday in the derby game to keep his job (Source Football Italia).

While Milan’s performances haven’t been great and that will always fall at the door of the manager, I think the club’s owner’s RedBird Capital Partners need to examine the role Zlatan Ibrahimovic currently has within the structure of AC Milan.

It’s all a bit mirky when you try and see what the great Swede’s actual role is. He’s called a ‘Senior Adviser’ but is he answering to RedBird direct or to AC Milan? A quick look at the club’s management page tells you that he’s not on the club’s board.

Yet the retired legendary striker seems to become increasingly more prominent at the club. During the summer he would go on the US tour and do a lot of media commitments for Milan. He would seemingly engineer himself into transfer deals and has held numerous meetings with the first team squad at the team’s training ground Milanello.

In a recent interview Ibrahimovic stated (Via ESPN):

“I am the boss and I am in charge, all the others work for me.”

Zlatan is fast becoming a distraction and he continues to blur the lines in what he’s actually responsible for at the San Siro.

It can’t help Paulo Fonseca if he’s being undermined by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whether than be in the media or in the dressing room. If they Serie A club were to sack the Portuguese coach then what top class manager will want to come in and work alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic given what’s happened in recent months?

If the 42 year old wants to be a manager or a head coach then great, take your badges and learn the trade on the training ground. If you want to be a Sporting Director then again learn that trade and work under a recognised Sporting Director or at the very least commit yourself to that role!

I don’t believe Milan have properly replaced the iconic Paolo Maldini who was a technical director at the clib between 2018 and 2023. Maldini had a vision and AC Milan looked stable with him steering the ship in the background. In comparison Ibrahimovic doesn’t seem to have a longterm strategy and is more interested in bigging up Brand Zlatan and telling everyone he’s the boss.

i don’t think the season is over for the Rossoneri, I still think they’ve got a pretty decent squad that could challenge at the top of Italy’s top tier but I don’t think that will happen unless they relook at the structure of the club and that includes the roles of Fonseca and Zlatan.

Posted on September 20th, 2024 by scott
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