First contacts in the summer, decision made already this week: Fonseca felt alone and unprotected. Sergio said no to other clubs, he wanted Italy
There are no more mid-seasons. In Milan, two nights ago, May and December merged, as if what happened in between counted for zero. Milan has chosen Sergio Conceiçao, but to talk about it you have to go back to the end of spring, because the bond is born then. Conceiçao was leaving Porto at the time – the farewell would have been official at the beginning of June – and in his head he had already chosen: Milan. His agent, Jorge Mendes, spoke with Cardinale more than once and the messages sent from Portugal were clear: if you want, we are here. Milan moved on, they preferred Fonseca, but Conceiçao’s name evidently remained in their minds. Sergio ran with other names for a while (Sarri), then he established himself. Who decided? Giorgio Furlani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Geoffrey Moncada are the reference men for technical questions but the decision was made by Gerry Cardinale. Who, evidently, hadn’t forgotten the summer.
The reasons for the choice
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Milan chose Conceiçao because he is a coach with a strong character and believes that a tough guy is good for the locker room. If you needed a scene to create atmosphere, go back to April: four Porto players left out of the team because, it was written, guilty of an insufficiently professional attitude and a few too many smiles after a 2-2 draw in Porto-Famaliçao. Conceiçao is like this: he believes that the strong personality in the locker room should be the coach. Him. Milan therefore chose a tough guy with determination, football skills and a successful past in Portugal. A profile similar to Conte, not chosen in the summer? We’ll see this… and you have to take some risks in life.
Sergio’s priorities
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Conceiçao for Milan accepted a contract guaranteed for only six months, and at other times he would not have done so. Other coaches wouldn’t have done it. He evidently likes the team – watch out for Loftus-Cheek, who SC likes – and Italy is part of his life: he played here in the golden years of Serie A and the charm has remained within him. Not only that, if we exclude a spell at Nantes, SC has never coached in the five big football nations. And when is the time to prove yourself, if not at 50? To do this, he said no to Wolverhampton: he kept himself free.
How Milan decided
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Mendes and Conceiçao have already spoken to Milan in recent weeks and here it is up to everyone to decide whether it was a healthy precaution or a lack of respect towards Paulo Fonseca. The agreement on the contract was reached some time ago, Conceiçao would also have been ready in the days of Verona-Milan and the documents were exchanged already last week. In short, everything was ready for the change, which could be postponed in the event of a convincing victory against Roma. On Sunday evening everything came to fruition: the rumors that came out first in Portugal and then in Italy, a match with a disheartened coach, the choice to change after the 90th minute. When there was the last long-distance handshake, it was midnight, half past midnight.
Fonseca and the support
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Paulo Fonseca, more or less at that time, left the stadium, forcing one last smile, while announcing that he had been sacked from a window, an image that will remain. In recent weeks he was visibly nervous and only he – let’s say he and his best friends – know whether the outburst with referee Fabbri was spontaneous or, unconsciously, a way of rebelling against a situation that was worsening. Fonseca certainly felt too unprotected and, in the private meeting at Milanello, he said it loud and clear. In public, he avoided it.
The big goal
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Now it’s up to Conceiçao to speak and act. Score points. Behind Fonseca’s exemption there is the usual, great truth of recent years. Modern Milan has three commandments: qualify for the Champions League, qualify for the Champions League and qualify for the Champions League.
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