Arrigo Sacchi, legendary former Milan coach, has intervened, as usual, in the columns of La Gazzetta dello Sport to talk about the search for a new coach at the club's headquarters:
"Looking at AC Milan from the outside, it appears as a huge question mark. What do they intend to do? Who will they choose for the bench? Which players will they keep and which will they let go? Uncertainty reigns supreme and, frankly, it's not good news for the many Rossoneri fans. The impression one gets from reading the news and listening to official statements is that there are few ideas about what the future should be. I hope this impression is contradicted by the facts because AC Milan is always a great passion."
Sacchi continued:
"It seems to me that the hypothesis of confirming Stefano Pioli is not being considered by the directors. I don't know if there have been disagreements between the coach and the management staff, but I know Pioli did well by winning a Scudetto with a team that cost much less than its rivals and by taking the group to the Champions League semifinals."
He added:
"This season, AC Milan has not lived up to expectations, there have been mistakes, but who doesn't make them?" the former Romagna coach pressed on. "And yet, they have the chance to finish second in the standings, which means only Inter has done better. In any case, if they don't want to confirm Pioli, and if they don't want to spend a lot of money, they should look for a strategist coach who knows how to enhance and improve the players at his disposal. Preferably Italian and not foreign, because a foreigner struggles a lot in our Serie A: it takes them at least five or six months to adapt to the mentality, to understand certain dynamics, to get into the mechanisms."
Sacchi also said:
"Several years ago, I recommended Maurizio Sarri to Silvio Berlusconi. He didn't listen to me. And now, once again, I feel like proposing Sarri's name for AC Milan. He's good, very good. Maybe he's not the most likable, agreed, but the important thing is that he knows how to do his job well. At Lazio, last season, with a team that wasn't made up of top players, he came second. At Chelsea, he won the Europa League, at Juventus the Scudetto, at Napoli he entertained people with harmonious play. I think he's suited to start a cycle provided he's put in the best conditions to perform at his best and therefore given the players he requests. Because the crux of the matter is always this: who chooses the players? How are they evaluated? Are their character aspects considered? Are all the characteristics known, not just the technical ones? For example, in a situation like AC Milan's, I would try to remove those elements that haven't provided assurances. I would try to recover those who have shown willingness to work, to grow, to improve."
Sacchi commented on how to build a winning project:
"Players should be chosen based on how they fit into the coach's project: they should be functional to the game. If I need a hardworking midfielder, I can't pick a classic playmaker, and so on. Instead, I read that, even though the coach hasn't been chosen yet, the players to focus on for the next season are already being identified. This is not good; this is not how you build a winning project. When I arrived at AC Milan, I got rid of those who didn't seem suitable for my ideas or who didn't give me guarantees behaviorally, and Berlusconi supported me in this operation."
Sacchi concluded:
"Following the path of strategist coaches, the other name that comes to mind and that I recommend to AC Milan is Roberto De Zerbi. He has qualities, technical and human, he is a person of substance, he has innovative ideas, and he makes his teams play cutting-edge football. I read, in this strange Rossoneri casting, many names of foreign coaches: Portuguese, French, Spanish, Argentine... Well, I wouldn't move in that direction because as much as football has become a global phenomenon, it still maintains those peculiarities that are the result of the history of each individual country. And playing football in Italy, believe me, is already difficult for an Italian, let alone for someone from abroad."