Milan’s disastrous season, despite there still being a second-leg semifinal against Inter to play, has practically projected the entire Rossoneri world toward next season, with the hope that the choices made by the directors, sporting director, and new coach will allow the team to rise from this greyness that now permeates the environment in all its components: from the team to the fans.
The choices of Paulo Fonseca first and Sergio Conceição after were not happy ones: although both coaches certainly have their merits and a certain level of experience in the football world, it was evident right from the start that the necessary elements were not in place to blend properly with the Milan world.
An incompatibility that led to a season to forget quickly: ninth place in the league, elimination from the Champions League against Feyenoord (!!), and an Italian Super Cup won with a reaction as sudden as it was short-lived.
If (at least in words) Furlani admitted that there is a need for a more traditional managerial figure (will it be D’Amico?) compared to how Milan has been structured in recent seasons, the hope is that the same reasoning will be applied to the coach as well. There's no point beating around the bush (and no point brooding over the fact that around this time last year he was free...): the only person capable of lifting the Milan environment even just with his possible appointment is named Antonio Conte.
Antonio Conte represents sporting ambition, an obsession with results, and victory as the only objective. With the current Napoli coach there are no half-measures: either you go all-in on the path the coach from Lecce lays out, or you’re out. Conte is fiery, someone who ignites the fanbase and a coach capable of getting more than 100% out of every player: this has been seen this year in the shadow of Vesuvius with a dismantled team that, on paper, is worth even less than the Rossoneri. Yet the standings say that Napoli is second in the table, fully in the Scudetto race, while Milan is ninth, looking for a spot in the lesser European competitions.
But if Conte is under contract with De Laurentiis’ club, what sense does it make to talk about him in a Milan perspective?
It does make sense, considering that today in the press conference he gave further signs of impatience: "A lot of things were said at the start of the year by me, some I can confirm, others I cannot confirm. I don’t take anything back, but you become aware of certain situations and I don’t feel I can confirm everything I said. The Kvara matter was also clear: I said Napoli should not be a stepping-stone club, I wouldn’t want to seem like a liar on things that were not upheld. In these eight months here in Naples, I’ve understood that many things here in Naples cannot be done."
The chances that the former Juventus man leaves the Campania capital at the end of the season are very high: at that point, it would be almost insane to let him slip away for the second consecutive year. Conte has his rough edges and his flaws, but he has once again shown that with him, you compete to win and only to win: a Milan that needs to rediscover an identity and a sporting direction that makes its fans proud can only go for the Salento-born coach and do everything possible to bring him to Milanello.
Source: Milannews.it
