The only positive note for AC Milan and their fans is that there is just one more game until a disastrous 2024-25 season comes to a close.
As Calciomercato.com write, Milan were back at the scene of the crime and after losing the Coppa Italia final against Bologna, they conceded three goals against Roma who wanted to give Claudio Ranieri the best Olimpico send-off.
Next season Milan will not be in Europe, not even the Conference League, but it is deserved given they have lost 11 games in Serie A. After five consecutive seasons in Europe – four of which were in the Champions League and one in the Europa League – the Rossoneri will only have to think about the league and the Coppa Italia next season.
Just 24 hours after Milan Futuro suffered relegation to Serie D, the loss in the capital was another humiliation for a club with a history that has not been respected.
Conceicao’s fate sealed
The useless last match at San Siro against Monza will have only one sad objective: to finish in the top eight. Finishing outside the top eight would mean playing an official match, namely the first round of the Coppa Italia, before mid-August.
It happened this year to Napoli, coming off a 10th-placed finish and forced to challenge Modena at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on August 10th. It may also lead to the cancellation of one or more American tours that are considered important by the owners on an economic level.
Milan will play against Monza without Conceiçao and Santiago Gimenez. Both were sent off during the match against Roma. The Portuguese coach once again showed his spikiness: after the hasty handshake with Vincenzo Italiano and snubbing Davide Calabria, the repeated protests towards the referee Piccinini in injury time saw him sent off.
The Portuguese coach ends his brief and disastrous experience in red and black in the worst possible way. It started with the famous cigar in Riyadh to celebrate the Supercoppa Italiana won against Inter. It seemed like the beginning of a positive era, and instead it quickly turned into a decidedly unpleasant boomerang.
Worse than Fonseca?
Conceicao launched into a strenuous defence of his work in his post-match press conference: “Before the match I was curious to see the numbers and since I arrived here before the match we were in the Champions League places.”
These statements were also followed by hidden references to the management and the team, invited to reflect on their responsibilities. The facts tell of a coach totally incapable of raising the fortunes of a group that is strong on paper but terribly fragile psychologically, of creating a minimum empathy with the environment, of at least hitting the minimum objectives of the season.
Compared to his predecessor Paulo Fonseca (the club also two players he had asked to keep: Kalulu and Saelemaekers), Conceicao got everything he asked for in the winter. From the sales of Alvaro Morata and Davide Calabria, with whom he argued strongly after the Parma win, to the Joao Felix request, the investment on Gimenez and Kyle Walker coming on loan.
The results were even poorer than his compatriot considering the suicide in the Champions League against modest opponents such as Dinamo Zagreb and Feyenoord. Milan had already decided to move on two months ago after the spokesperson saga, who had transmitted to journalists some of the things the ex-Porto boss was unhappy about.
Now we are only waiting for the official communications that should arrive at the end of the match with Monza. The possible victory of the Coppa Italia would not have changed much on a choice made, and it is now also inevitable considering the horror film-like ending to the season.
