After several weeks of rumors the decision to fire Manager Leonardo at seasons end was officially announced today by AC Milan (and Italian) President Silvio Berlusconi. While Berlusconi had previously made his unhappiness known with Leonardo’s decisions, the move is still a bit of a surprise, especially considering that the season has not yet finished and a Champions League place has yet to be finalized.
Overall, Leonardo’s season was quite like a roller coaster ride. In his first ever job as the head man on the bench, the team started very poorly, especially the week two 4-0 destruction by Inter in the Derby Della Madoninna. Yet he managed to turn the squad around by changing the formation from a 4-3-1-2 to a 4-3-3, to better take advantage of Ronaldinho’s strength as a left forward. When Ronnie, Borrielo, and Pato were healthy, Milan’s strike force was quite formidable and Milan looked a real threat to the Scudetto for much of the season. However, the wheels began to fall off, as first Nesta and then Beckham and Pato went out with long term injuries, leaving Milan to exit in the round of 16 in both the Champions League and the Coppa Italia. The final blow to the season has come in recent weeks, as Milan went from being a title contender to a pretender with two consecutive defeats at the hands of Sampdoria and Udinese respectively. Apparently this was too much for Vice President Adriano Galliani and Berlusconi to handle, as Leonardo will end the season as a lame duck Manager, perhaps now looking to his native Brazil for his next job.
As for Milan, the future is a cloudy one. It is no secret the team is old and fragile. In addition, it has a shortage of world class talent at the outside back positions, which will be hard to fix with recent rumors out of Milan that the team cannot afford to spend heavily in the transfer market and will instead look to the youth squad for aid. Essentially, Milan needs an extreme makeover this summer, but that is an article that well be left to a more pertinent time. The focus is now finding a new manager, ideally a more experienced one than Leonardo to better handle all the aging “stars” of the squad. Two prominent names come to find that would be ideal, Fabio Capello and Frank Rijkaard. While both are a bit of a long shot at the moment, remember that managing Milan is still one of the games most prestigious jobs, and is not an opportunity easily passed over.
Capello was originally mentioned to me by an Ambitious Effort colleague, and is an intriguing and exciting possibility. For Capello, the job would potentially be a return to a team where he has enjoyed great success, both as a player and manager. While currently employed as the Coach of the English National team, there is no telling if he will stay with the team after the World Cup, and a return to the team where he managed a squad known as the Invincibles to four titles in five years would make sense. The problem however, is that Capello is no fool, and he no doubt realizes that the current Milan team looks to have more problems than even his considerable talents can quickly fix.
Another possibility to fill Leonardo’s job is Frank Rijkaard, who is currently plies his trade at Galatasaray. Perhaps best known for his stint as Manager of a Champions League winning and Ronaldinho inspired Barcelona squad, Rijkaard makes sense because of his ties to the San Siro. He was a legendary holding midfielder for Milan from 1988-93, including winning the European Cup (a predecessor of the Champions League) twice and adding two Scudettos under Capello of all people. Despite having a long term contract with Galatasaray, it is likely the Dutchman would be willing to burn some bridges in Turkey in return for an upgrade in prestige, as Milan is a bit more of a household name than Galatasaray. Rijkaard would immediately be respected by the players for his success with Barcelona, and loved by the Milan tifosi for his work in the red and black shirt of Milan. While Galliani and Berlusconi have their work cut out for them in revamping a troubled Milan squad, they would do well to make a hard push to either of these two men to replace Leonardo as the man in Milan.
No comments:
Post a Comment