For several weeks now, at least a couple, the list of names for the Milan bench has been underway. Immediately after the elimination from the Europa League at the hands of Roma, the only and last great objective left to make this season positive also disappeared. From then on it was understood that Stefano Pioli would no longer be the AC Milan coach in the next season, that the cycle was over and that the club, managers and professionals were also convinced of this, as well as a large part of the fans who had already supported him for some time. With qualification for the next Champions League now achieved, first virtually and now also officially, the hot topic at Milan has become just one: Who will be Pioli’s successor on the Rossoneri bench? A question, a doubt, a real enigma that remains crucial and fundamental for the future of AC Milan. Yes, because beyond the markets that the club wants to make and the team that it wants to build, the name of the next Rossoneri coach it will be very important to understand the intentions and project of RedBird and Gerry Cardinale who must make everyone understand, now or never, what his aims are for the future and whether his intentions really are to bring Milan back to the top and fight to win or simply to scrape by among the positions that guarantee the access to the Champions League while waiting for the construction of the new stadium.
Milan bench, from #Nopetegui to other unwelcome profiles
Pioli’s fate, as mentioned, is now sealed and we are only waiting for the end of the championship to formalize a now inevitable divorce and farewell to the Rossoneri bench. His contract will expire in 2025 and at home Milan are hoping that the Parma coach can immediately find another team (Napoli?) to save around eight million gross in salary. The toto-names for the new coach is a hot topic. Pages upon pages have already been written about Lopetegui’s name and everyone has really expressed their opinion. The one who seemed close to becoming the next Milan coach is no longer even a possible candidate. We will never know how things really went and whether the club really abandoned the trail due to the popular anti-Lopetegui uprising, but the certainty is that a group of supporters had truly been created around the Spaniard’s name. Nopetegui regardless that was and is completely understandable. The Rossoneri’s last season, in fact, beyond a second place which still leaves a bad taste in the mouth, it was humiliating for everything that happened and was granted to the other side of Milan and the average Milan fan wants redemption, wants to feel proud of supporting Milan again. Names like Lopetegui, Fonseca, Van Bommel, Gallardo and other foreigners who have come out and made themselves in recent days, some more or some less, do not warm up the environment and would only be taken as a clear signal from the company that it does not want to invest enough and does not have a truly winning or at least ambitious project. Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel would be the only two foreign names that would light up the hearts of the fans and the environment, but for different reasons they are unfortunately dreams destined to remain such and cannot be compared to the AC Milan bench.
Milan bench, not just Conte. The other two profiles welcome
The list of Pioli’s possible successors on the Milan bench, therefore, it boils down to three names and they bring all three to Italy to local coaches or those who were born and raised in our league. Needless to say, the name that is on everyone’s lips is that of Antonio Conte. The coach from Lecce has a mad desire to return to the bench and, by now it’s no secret, he would choose the Rossoneri project with his eyes closed. Glorious team with an inimitable past, fans and environment that have a great desire for redemption and a squad with very high potential. Practically the ideal conditions that someone like Conte seeks in all his experiences, with the addition of a possibility that has always tickled him: becoming the only coach in history to have won with the three historic greats of our football (Juventus, Inter and Milan). At the moment, however, despite contacts that have occurred in the past, especially between Conte and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the name of the former Juventus and Inter coach it doesn’t seem to have been really taken into consideration by the Casa Milan leaders and, unless there are sensational twists, it will have to be eliminated from the list. There are two other names that the Rossoneri fans would look favorably on and could set the atmosphere on fire and give that emotional shock that is so badly needed: Roberto De Zerbi and Thiago Motta. The first would come in the wake of the great winning AC Milan coaches of the past – Sacchi, Capello and Ancelotti. Former AC Milan player, raised in the Rossoneri (like Capello and Ancelotti); with an offensive game philosophy, zone defense and obsessiveness in interpreting the role of coach (like Sacchi). The second, however, is demonstrating great qualities on the Bologna benchseems very close to Juve, but it’s not done yet and, despite his Inter past, he is seen as one of the coaches with a winning and bright future.
