Should AC Milan opt for stability or throw themselves into a revolution in the summer? It’s a question that sounds very familiar for the Rossoneri, taking us back to the end of the 2019-20 season.
The 2024-25 season has been a huge failure for Milan, crashing out of the Champions League and missing out on qualification for next season. Meanwhile, they are currently 9th in the league and the only silverware – aside from the Supercoppa – left is the Coppa Italia.
As such, the Rossoneri have been linked with several managers and sporting directors in the last few months, expected to undergo a revolution of sorts in the summer. However, more so when it comes to the head coach position, what is really the right decision?
Pioli precedent in 2019-20
If we rewind the tape five years, Milan found themselves in a similar position when Stefano Pioli was in charge of the team. He had replaced Marco Giampaolo in October of 2019, but failed to turn things around immediately and before the pandemic lockdown, the Rossoneri were in 7th place.
At the time, a managerial change after the season seemed almost inevitable and Ralf Rangnick was the man in pole position, having carried out talks with the CEO Ivan Gazidis. In addition to becoming the head coach, it was also expected that he would get a lot of power within the management.
However, as the summer rolled around and Milan returned to the pitch for the final games of the 2019-20 season, the results started coming in and Pioli’s renewal was then announced. The Rossoneri had changed course completely, with Paolo Maldini pushing for this outcome, and it laid the foundation for a great 2020-21 season (finished in second place).
The season after that, well, Milan won the Scudetto after a tremendous second half of the season with almost no errors. In that case, very clearly, opting for consistency and stability ended up benefiting the Rossoneri massively, rather than hiring the aforementioned German to make significant changes to the club.
While a sporting director is still set to be hired this summer, seeing as it’s necessary, the 2019-20 precedent still has parallels with the current season. Because some fans are now talking about giving Sergio Conceicao the chance to stay.
Conceicao needs a strong finale
Most journalists, as well as outlets, have already reported that Conceicao has virtually zero chance of remaining at Milan. Just this morning, Daniele Longo stated that the manager ‘will pay’ for not finding the right solution until April (referring to the formation against Udinese last night).
That being said, some fans are now suggesting that keeping the Portuguese manager might not be such a bad thing after all. The differences with his potential replacements are not as major as we saw in 2019-20 (i.e. Italian vs. German), as Milan have realised they need someone with Serie A experience, but change is still change.
The question, therefore, becomes whether the Rossoneri might be better off relying on Conceicao while bringing in a competent sporting director. Everything will clearly depend on the season finale, as winning almost all (if not all) remaining games in the league and securing the Coppa Italia trophy would be quite the statement.
On the other hand, Conceicao has shown quite a few flaws since joining the Rossoneri and that will have to be factored in as well. The Yunus Musah treatment, starting him twice only to bring him off early, comes to mind in that sense.
In any case, important evaluations await the Milan management as having three managers in the space of a year is far from acceptable. It might be necessary, but it must be seen for what it is: a huge failure.
