AC Milan’s expected imminent hiring of Paulo Fonseca has been met with fierce backlash from fans, and it’s understandable why, but to understand why this move follows a historically successful trend, we need to look back.
More than ever, football is influenced by people and events outside each football club, and AC Milan is no exception. This was evidenced as recently as April, when widespread fan protests over the appointment of Julen Lopetegui as manager led the Missoneri to choose a different path, or perhaps multiple paths given that the “frontrunners” for the job have changed hands multiple times.
we have This topic has been covered in detail I will keep this reflection to a minimum as the story has already been covered, but I cannot recycle the same accusations against the Spaniard into the Fonseca news: there were signs that this might be the case and with the divisions amongst the fanbase still evident, we must now look to the future rather than hypothesising about what might happen.
It’s fair to say that the biggest drawback to Fonseca’s appointment for fans is his reputation, or lack thereof, but we will get to this in due course. What concerns many fans is that the Rossoneri have chosen a Portuguese manager rather than someone with a better reputation in football, whether in Italy or abroad.
The managerial market is a mess at the moment, with a number of big-name managers available, but just because they are available and have a reputation in football doesn’t mean they’re a good fit for Milan, or that Milan will ultimately be the best team for them.
Thomas Tuchel, Antonio Conte and even Jurgen Klopp have all been mentioned as candidates by fans, but ultimately football is not that simple. For example, appointing Conte as manager might win domestic trophies, but looking at the figures in the Napoli contract and the summer budget, it is a trend that Milan cannot and should not follow.
A storied past
Even better, this isn’t a trend the Rossoneri have followed exclusively in the past – there have been outsider choices of course, but Milan’s trend isn’t big names, but instead, being at the club is what gets you promoted to that realm.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport reported earlier this week, the Diabolos’ bench has had a number of “unknown greats” in the past, so Fonseca is not an entirely new money-saving tactic for the Redbirds.
Let’s start with Gipo Viani, who won Serie B titles with Salernitana and AS Roma before taking over at Milan. He was certainly an unknown, but he was a manager who took inspiration from others and incorporated it into his own tactical philosophy.
He was responsible for creating the early stages of the Catenaccio style, implementing the nuances of Herbert Chapman’s WM system, and developing the system for which it is so well known today.
He left the club after winning two Scudetto titles and leading the team to the European Cup, where they were defeated by one of Real Madrid’s greatest ever teams, managed by Alfredo Di Stefano.
Of course, this was not the only example and after Viani left for health reasons, the club repeated this trend, again with great success.
We are talking about another disciple of the Catenaccio school, Nereo Rocco – perhaps more accurately called master than disciple – who was Milan’s longest-serving manager, managing 472 games across three terms.
Prior to taking over at the club, he managed Padova, where he led the team from Serie B to third place in Serie A and was again praised for working on a shoestring budget.
With the Rossoneri he won two Scudettos, three Coppa Italia titles, two Cup Winners’ Cups and, perhaps most impressively, two European Cups, becoming the first Italian manager to bring a trophy home to Italy.
Now, perhaps the greatest story of all is that of Arrigo Sacchi. Before joining the Rossoneri, he was a small-time player in the world of football, a shoe salesman who never played the beautiful game professionally but studied it diligently and reaped the rewards.
Sacchi began his career as a youth team manager before eventually making his breakthrough at Parma, where he led the club to promotion from Serie C and a near consecutive promotion streak.
But Silvio Berlusconi realised this and took a risk. Naturally, the reaction was shock and there was immediate speculation as to whether he could manage at the highest level of football, let alone succeed at it. But as we all know, the doubters were gone.
He won the Scudetto in his first season and the Supercoppa Italiana soon after, as well as two European Cups, two European Super Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.
Before Milan he didn’t have a reputation as one of the elite coaches of his time, but that’s not bad for a shoe salesman.
When Sacchi moved to the Italian national team, former player and Primavera coach Fabio Capello was handed the reins. Capello had never managed at senior level, so doubts were cast over his ability to lead the club again. But did it matter? No.
Capello’s job was difficult from the start, he was handicapped by his history and the people he replaced, so in that sense it will always be a struggle. Taking over from a legend is always a challenge, regardless of the stature of the next manager, and adding the facts makes this even more difficult.
And yet quantity on the outside didn’t matter – after all, it never does for a truly elite manager. He won four Scudetti in five years. But that wasn’t all – he also won three Supercoppa, the Champions League and the European Super Cup.
The foundations of success may have been laid by prophets before him, but he added his own ideology, complexity and talent, leading an invincible team in the 1992-93 season. That Night in Athens.
It’s debatable whether Carlo Ancelotti was an unknown manager when he took over – he hadn’t won anything as a manager before Milan – but he left the club with a trophy haul that further cemented his legendary status.
But that’s not all: we can also look to the tenures of Alberto Zaccheroni and Massimiliano Allegri, whose achievements may not be as rich as those of the other managers on this list, but which are further examples of the reputation the Diavolo has relied on in the past.
Pioli’s proof
As the title suggests, another figure joins the ranks: Stefano Pioli, whose reputation within Italy was growing but who was nowhere near the status of the names being proposed to replace him.
After four years in youth football, he was finally given his chance by Salernitana, but it took until 2014 for his reputation to start to grow, leading Lazio to third place in Serie A in his debut season.
He was then offered a job by the Nerazzurri, where he stayed for a year before taking over as Fiorentina manager, but the effort was unsuccessful, after which Milan came calling.
Although he failed to win a trophy in those early seasons, he achieved a number of firsts that had not been achieved for many years, such as consecutive games with goals scored and the most goals in a season, and in some ways returned the Rossoneri to their previous level.
We know what comes next: 2021-22, the return of the Scudetto after an 11-year absence, Pioli’s first trophy under the stewardship of the club, which came with the club’s highest points haul for 16 years, and, whatever the outcome, the Champions League exploits the following season will surely be remembered.
But as this season has shown, It wasn’t always sunny It’s a big deal for the 58-year-old Pioli, who has survived more than one situation during his tenure when it seemed he had disappeared, with #PioliOut trending.
It took time for him to be truly accepted by the fans but it is understandable that he arrived at the club at a time when guidance and security was needed, given the successes – or failures – under his predecessor, and he lived up to expectations, bringing historic nights and hope.
Of course, there are positive aspects to this, There are downsides tooWith hope comes expectation – he was expected to lead Milan back to a place where Champions League football is commonplace and to challenge for the Scudetto – so it might be fair to say his success was also ultimately his downfall, but that might be disrespectful.
Instead, he has taken his team, and perhaps the club, to a point where they cannot go any further under his guidance, and his team is longing for new ideas, new inspiration and perhaps a new voice.
Hope for the future
From all perspective, Paulo Fonseca will take the reins, which raises the question of what the future holds.
There are a few things we can suggest: given the abundance of young talent in the senior and primavera ranks, the Rossoneri are looking to further develop their young players, which is a must in the eyes of the Red Birds and their fans.
If you look at his philosophy, it has remained pretty much the same from his time at Shakhtar Donetsk to his time at Lille – high-intensity attacking football with an aim to dominate the ball. The formations may be slightly different at times, but the philosophy has remained the same throughout.
At Lille, he was entrusted with rebuilding the squad a bit after the dismantling of their title-winning 2020-21 squad, which was achieved with Milan’s signing of Mike Maignan.
He may not have been able to replicate that success but he quickly turned the club around and, as he explained in an interview with The Athletic, built his signature team to finish fifth last season and fourth the season before.
The Milan job therefore seems like the perfect fit for him, as the Rossoneri are not a team in need of a rebuild, but rather Needs reworkHowever, changes will be required in some areas during the Mercato period.
Like Lille, the core of the current squad is young and he has always been praised for his work mentoring young players at his previous clubs. Personnel-wise, the squad has the qualities to be attractive for the coming years, but there are clearly areas in need of investment and these have already been identified.
However, he arrives at a time of negative pressure within the club for a number of reasons, which is perhaps why there was such an outcry at a time when the club wanted a manager of his calibre rather than a bigger name or an even bigger transfer fee.
No disrespect is intended in this, just a statement of fact, but looking back at history, at a time when questions are being asked at every turn, both on and off the pitch, this may be the most truthful appointment the club could make.
So if we want to reminisce, we must do so in the context of history, and if we want to discuss trends of success, we must look at the people who brought them about.
After all, trends don’t just exist in one era, and Milan is proof of that. Historically, the Rossoneri are one of the superpowers in football. Yes, this is their identity. This is our identity. But the way we realise that might not be by hiring the best coaches, but rather by developing them. And maybe the romanticisation of nostalgia plays a part in that.
Regardless of the options and suggestions that the management will go for the “cheaper” option, this may be the clearest example of them understanding their football club and staying true to its historical trends rather than becoming something the club barely ever was.
Stefano Pioli’s tenure has put the Rossoneri back in a position of high expectations, and we must now look back, see how the club has continued to enjoy success and trust the process rather than fall into cliché.
After all, Fonseca is one of the most proven successors the club has ever brought in, even if his name is not at the top of the managerial hierarchy.
