Marco Fassone thanked Vincenzo Montella but believes Milan can do much better than they’ve done so far – even without moves in January.
Milan announced their decision to sack Montella this morning and appointed Primavera coach and club legend Gennaro Gattuso until the end of the season.
Montella won the Supercoppa Italiana with Milan last season and brought the club back to Europe, and so the new Chinese ownership saw him as the right guy to move forward with, and they gave him a contract extension until 2019.
But Montella simply failed to deliver results this season as the Rossoneri find themselves closer to the relegation zone than to fourth place after 14 rounds.
“Montella’s firing? I don’t know if it was an inevitable choice, we thought it was the move to do in light of what has happened in recent weeks,” Fassone said to journalists at a Gran Galà del Calcio event.
“Gattuso? He’s not a caretaker, he’s the best solution at this time. He knows what his role is, and he has accepted it with humility. He knows that he has the first team of Milan in his hand, which is something great. In May we’ll evaluate everything, the scenario is fluid but there are no caretakers.
“The decision? In the last few weeks it was a solution that I had assessed. The director made his assessments and the final decision was taken this morning. I made some reflections in the night and I spoke this morning with the ownership [the final decision reportedly came from the owners].
“The call to sack [athletic trainer] Emanuele Marra? I appreciated the choice [which was taken by Montella]. The coaches are very close to their staff, Montella showed great maturity because they had different visions. At that time, I didn’t notice any other signal, it was a professional, mature choice.
“The relationship with Montella? We are grateful to Montella on both personal and professional point of views. He did everything possible to improve the squad. He worked and the team were in harmony with him. Something did not work, mistakes were made by all parties. The most important thing was to make a decision at a certain time rather than waiting and hoping that things would improve.
“January? We don’t need to intervene. The squad is good, built with ambitions that were not the Scudetto, but the Champions League. We can have better performances than the current ones. We don’t even have a point and a half on average, we hoped it would be different. We are convinced that with Gattuso the average will rise, and we’ll return to what we had in mind at the start of the season.
The first opponents of Gattuso’s Milan are Benevento, who have lost of all their matches so far in Serie A (14). Rino, the management and the fans will all hope that the season will take a positive turn.
i am excited to watch the milan match again now
Hhhhhhh I wish you keep doing
I’d rather watch him struggle than stubborn napolitan who played for Roma. Let us hope he will be perfect match with ACM like Cholo is with Atletico. If not, well, this season was lost weeks ago, even months. Prediction, 6th place, 1/4 LE, continued inconsistency, still losing big matches, he beats calhanoglu or some other underperforming player. 🙂
Rino IS a caretaker, who are u kidding fassone? I know u want to instill some stability by not saying he is but sometimes its better to just say the truth. Di matteo was a caretaker and its only after he won ucl that he was appointed as a mainstay coach. I really admire rino, seedorf, pippo and broccoli for not having slightest bit of hesitation to accept milan job. That means they truly love milan (unlike ance) and to them at least milan is still a big club. However, with rino as a coach it’ll be broccoli 2.0 all… Read more »
Good points. But maybe they could not financially afford to get a new – even unemployed – coach? I mean, the financial situation is so murky, I really don’t know what to make of it.
Btw Rino is probably looking for you now :p
Well, thats exactly what u get for buying poor man’s van nistelrooy; poor finishing, poor results and poor balance in bank account. Poor li and fassobelli. They can always sell donna the sinner while he’s still hot and let plizzari take over though. I mean, even neuer’s deputy is doing ok currently, so i dont see any problems with replacing gk. *wink
Is he? For what? Im not getting slapped in the face by anybody. No no. Now, in the butt..
my guess.top coaches dont take teams in middle of a year.their name is on the risk.maybe they do it when the team is full of top stars and a easy thing to take over and win.but milan is just a mess now.11 new players,pressure.no team at all. top coaches they like prepare and buy what they want. and fasobelli needet a middleman ,they already plan with the worst.no ucl or even no europeu.and hope for the best. but they have a nother plan.this time bring in a top coach and offer him Money to buy. so rino is the only… Read more »
U raise good point there. However, i think they could get prandelli if they really tried. Italian coaches arent that expensive and surely mgmt could give him an offer he couldnt refuse (a severed horse head maybe?). If u remember how ance arrived, he was actually a caretaker after terim got sacked in mid season. By arriving in mid season ance was able to adapt to his squad and had time to implement his tactics way earlier than if he had arrived in summer of ’02. Ance made milan qf for 02/03 ucl btw. Imagine if they had appointed crappy… Read more »
You think Ancelotti doesn’t love Milan the same as Gattuso, Pippo, Seedorf and Brocchi because they accepted the Milan job immediately, but my friend, do you think they would have done the same if they were already established … , no, legendary coaches who had offers from the best teams in the world on their tables? I think not.
Well yeah i know that mate hence “to them at least milan is still a big club.” Maybe to big shot like ance the risk/reward ratio of coaching colossal clusterfvkk like current milan is asymetrical hence unappealing. But didnt sacchi often implicitly offer himself during berlu day, hence “arrigo basta!” By boban? Even maldini and kaka offer themselves too though not as head coach. Speaking of boban, i have no doubt that if he or guys like serial ucl winner rijkaard (still) coached today they wouldnt refuse milan offer. For gods sake, it was rijkaard who recommended milan to ronaldinho.… Read more »
If Inter offered the head coach position to Gatusso, Inzagi, or Seedorf I’m sure they would have taken it.
I think Kourash’s point was – for ance Milan is a downgrade, and for the others it’s an upgrade. Loyalty is not the issue here.
Are you really that sure? Im not. Maybe due to how we treated Inzaghi and Seedorf as coaches. Although I doubt Inzaghi or Gattuso would.
Yeah i understand that hence “maybe to BIG SHOT like ance the milan job is unappealing”. But like i said, sacchi’s as big shot as they come but he never said no to milan. Likewise capello. Regarding inter job, remember leonardo? He ruined his relationship with milan forever by accepting inter job. Did u also know that after milan successfully brought ibra, inter wanted “revenge” by asking madrid to let kaka go? Kaka said no but he eventually said yes to milan. Berlu liked totti so much but he never tried to buy him because, in his own words, “we… Read more »
Now I can have a sound sleep unlike the nightmares that vincenzo puts me through. Fatty will BT ng what was missing
For you all coamplaining about Gattuso,i dont know who you all think we could have gotten almost half into the season,we needed a change,any change would have been better than Montella at this point,Montella was a dead end..i dont think he’s a terrible manager,far from it,he’s just a manager thats unable to handle the pressure thats comes with big clubs and big name players,he had performed fairly well in his career because there was no real pressure at the clubs he had been.Well if there’s one thing i know about football,coaching changes usually bring results even if temporary,Gattuso might not… Read more »
If the call (to sack) is from owner, i think Li already read this blog than Fassone…..
We all know that Montella was a clown but Rino is a tremendous risk.. His temper, inexperience and lack of tactical nous might sink the ship. But, on the other token he’s done a great job with the Youngens and has them in 3rd Place currently so who knows. Stranger things have happened.
One thing for sure tho, everyone will be sweating their nuts off or get their teeth kicked in.
His Pisa team did have a great defensive record as well…that could help our leaky defense as well
Gattuso may be ‘inexperienced’ raw and what not. But so are our thoughts on him. His statistics aren’t the greatest as coach but he took over teams that were going bankrupt. Who are we to judge him? None of us know yet what he is capable of. A gamble? Sure, but how about all us fans finally let a coach work in peace without judgement. Let’s see where we stand in a month
You guys got to see this – Gattuso slaped his assistant during a game, this is funny as hell!!! LOL. I hope he starts slapping underperforming players too LOL
http://www.sportbible.com/football/news-reactions-ac-milan-manager-gennaro-gattuso-slaps-his-assistant-in-the-face-20171127
No, it’s not funny man. This is how managers run teams in third world countries. I don’t think Pep ever slapped someone in the face.
We don’t need that kind of behavior here in Milan. And I don’t believe the problem is “player motivation” – every professional footballer want to succeed. Money and fame is enough incentive.
What we need is good tactics to overcome our lack of quality against the big teams. I really can’t see Gatusso provide this, but maybe he’ll surprise us all.
If players are underperforming, they’re underperforming. Basta. For example Biglia, Bonucci in his early days, he has stepped up recently, and Kessie to mention the new signings. Bonaventura has been abysmal as well.
let’s see what Gattuso will do. I really dont know what to expect, but this excites me even more. Cant wait until our next game.
i do believe Rino got the balls to bench anyone who underperforms..
that alone is one step better than Montella.
Wish him the best of luck
i still remember when rino made a goal against juve. he ran far celebrating his goal
‘January? We don’t need to intervene. The squad is good’
LOL the squad is good? Without any reliable playmaker with creativity who can play down the middle? What a joke.
The DEFENSE is good. The midfield is horrible. The attack is not that good either.
‘I made some reflections in the night and I spoke this morning with the ownership’
Who the tuuuuuuuuuuuut are this ownership? Darth Vader? Simba? Robocop? Hannibal Lecter? Don Corleone?
Judging by how things are imploding, Its clear to me that the owner is actually tyler durden. “Its only after we lose everything that we’re free to do anything” indeed
I don’t know how will milan play under gattuso. But watching him on the touchline would be fun. Hope some guys don’t get slapped.
I hope for a team that presses hard, plays fast vertically and is relentless in its running. Much like CONTE’S ITALY or SIMEONE’S ATELETICO.
Very intense double training sessions.
Make them run like torriera and barella.
I don’t see anything risky with gattuso’s appointment.
We were going nowhere with montella.
1-We couldn’t have made it to the UCL via serie a, irrespective of who the coach is.
2-Montella for sure couldn’t have won Europa league.
3-big name coaches are not available presently.
4- gattuso for sure wouldn’t get us relegated to serie b.
So what’s the problem. At least gattuso will bring some freshness and we will have double the entertainment now with rino on the touchline.
“4- gattuso for sure wouldn’t get us relegated to serie b.” sweet mother of bonad10nho. Someone is overly optimistic.
I know its tall order but with good coach i think milan can still qf for at least el next season (or even ucl)
and try to win it this season. Its a tall order but if ance (or even seedorf in his sort tenure) could do wonder in half a season in 01/02 then im sure any good coach can. Hell, even inter almost beat milan to el qf last season after they sacked de boer
Yeah, I also think seria ain’t over. Inter, Rome, and Lazio can easily head into a slump and start bleeding points. Stranger things have happened in football, and there’s still points on the table.
And even if not, we are still in the picture for Europa-nothing league and a priori Montella seems better for the job than Rino.
I personally think Gatusso was one of the worst options available to us in professional terms; financially it might be a cheap option, but keeping Montella is even cheaper.
true talk.but still d Saga continues
Rino’s first dare move – he cancelled teams day off today and recalled them for training
Make them piss blood for this shirt Ivan!
I AM JUST ELATED TO SEE MONTELLA GO, EVEN IF IT’S A MONKEY THAT WAS APPOINTED AS INTERIM COACH, I WOULD CARE LESS, JUST NEEDED TO SEE THAT STUBBORN GUY GO… MONTELLA IS TOO STUBBORN AND WHAT PISSES ME OFF THE MOST IS, HE ACTUALLY THINKS HE WAS DOING WELL AND HE WAS EVEN SURPRISED AT HIS SACK, I MEAN, HOW CAN HE BE SURPRISED? HE OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXPECTING THE SACK, IT ACTUALLY TOOK TOO LONG……. WHAT A JOKER THAT DUDE IS…..!!!
Some of you are funny, say all you want about Montella, he remains a good coach to me, he just got this season completely wrong that’s all. We wanted Milan cheff to replace Allegri when he was with us remember? We said Allegri was that useless and then he went on to consecutively win scudettos with Juve. Montella will do very well in a different team for sure. You guys say Rino had good defensive record in Pisa, you call shipping 36 goals in 40+ matches good defensive record? And scoring only 25? Sometimes I feel Milan is cursed. We’ve… Read more »
Ive also thought about this mate, youre not alone, and I mean everything. Something isnt right. Although, Montella did not impress at all with Samp, perhaps Fiorentina was a place where everything fitted in well with him. We’ll see what Gattuso will do, hoping for the best.
Realistically nobody can put all the blame on Montella, but he takes the lion share of it since he’s the manager and rightly so. This is how this sport works and this decision has to be respected. Some results and performances were simply not up to expectations while in some other matches when the performances were acceptable the result didn’t come, mainly due to bad luck. Anyway it’s all in the past now. I would have waited for a big coach in the summer and I have serious doubts over Gattuso but it is what it is and I can… Read more »
Loooooool Gattuso will be charged with murder on some of the players by the end of this season
Montella must go. After 10+ games, he havent got a 1st 11 and regular formation, he is a goner. Playing 3 man defense isnt Milan’s DNA at all. Revert back to 4312, 451, 442 is best way forward. NOT LOSING is already 1 pt gained. Milan is leaking goals and not scoring when montella insist on playing kalinic.
Well Gattuso just confirmed that defence of three and a midfield of four is certain but he is still deciding how to deploy offensive third wether is 343, 3421 or 3412
i like the way he tryes it.
we need to get forward faster in the play-possesion good but if the flow of the team is not pushing forward =no goals can come.
gattuso seems to have studdyed milan under montella.
as he had a clouse in his contract.if montella gets sacked he is going to coach the first team.
as the palyers have quality.and the new rino seems to have at least a fixed tactical point.
the lift up and motivation might rise and the results might come by them self.
vamos rino
let the guys run on the feald
I think the management decided to play with 3 backline. like Berlu and his trademark two centeral strikers! Gattuso never played with 3 backline before. anyway… I think using players in their natural positions is the key. Ricardo should be an LB not a CB. Bona should be close to final third.
Donna- Mus-Bonucci-Roma – Abate (borini)- Kessie – Loca – Ricardo – Suso – Bona – Cutrone (Silva)
3-4-3 is best. We dont have anyone like Kaka to play as a trequartista.
3-4-1-2… BUT IT WILL BE A MISTAKE ! Because in this moment he can play 4-3-3 with Suso and Bonaventura, even Borini can play RW, if Suso is not available, he did well on the right ! And Rino has Tiago Dias at Primavera, who can easily play at the first team RW or LW ! To continue playing with 3+2 defenders, and at least 2 defensive midfielders, it will be bad, very bad… 3-4-3 will be a very very offensive system if it is the classic one, good for Suso, but I am afraid that it will be a… Read more »
I wish gattuso all the best hopefully he can get us out of this, I hope he still has balls and if he sees somebody not giving their all on the pitch he immediately takes them off and they can rot on the bench. That goes for anybody. If you aren’t spitting blood for this team like gattuso did then go play somewhere else.
“Some mistakes were made …”. Okay then, let’s consider our transfer strategy – 1. Conti – almost 30 mil down the drain (albeit no one could predict this serious injury) 2. Silva – 40 mil, and the coach you appointed doesn’t think he’s ready to be a starter (so do I btw, but that’s irrelevant). 3. Hakan the new Honda – no further words nessary, another almost 30 mil. Galliani got crucified for much less. That’s around half of our transfer budget. And I left out Kiesse because I think the jury is still undecided on him. And I don’t… Read more »
you reached a level that I dont read your comments anymore! I bet lot’s of ppl are like this
Okay, thanks for letting me know.
I won’t judge Conti since he didn’t have opportunity to show his worth but he started to show promise just before the injury and he was selected as best RB in the league last year.
Kessie is promising, Silva also
Imo waste of money were Mussachio, Hakan and Kalinic. Biglia also to some extent
The point about Silva is – how do you spend so much money without making sure the coach considers him as a starter.
But you’re right, Kalanic is a flip so far, but I still believe (hope?) he can do much better.
Btw, Sandro was much better than Conti last season.
How can you guys call Musacchio a waste of money? Are you guys serious? He has outperformed Bonucci this season and he is a waste of money? Granted that Bonucci has underperformed, but why is he getting away with it and not Biglia in that case? If one of Bonucci or Romagnoli is injured, would you guys be secure with Zapata and Paletta as backups, knowing that any of them can cost us points with a silly mistake? We all know Zapata can have a few good games which makes us forget why we criticize him, and then makes a… Read more »
1. Silva – spending the most amount of money on player x (regardless of who x is) is a waste if the coach doesn’t plan to start him. Say what you want about Kalanic, he costed us half of what Silva did, and the coach wanted him.
2. Musa and Bonucci is no comparison. Bonucci started the season in terrible form, but in recent games he seems back to his old self. And when in form, Bonucci gives the team a whole new dimension.
1) conti is much better than both abate and calabria. Its not even debatable. 2) That morontella, being a moron that he is, prefers kalinic the poor man’s van nistelrooy over proven goalscorer like bacca AND andriy doesnt mean kalinic is better st. The numbers dont lie. Kalinic, who’s pushing 30, is finished product while andriy has just begun and even now andriy has scored more (>12 official goals) than kalinic, hell even bacca has scored more this season. Dont say andriy never scores in serie a because how can he score if he’s not even playing? Every stupid coach… Read more »
Milan10 mate, you’re also missing the point regarding Silva. What I was trying to say – “You don’t spend the highest transfer fee on a player your coach doesn’t consider a starter”, especially when the plan was to qualify to CL in 1 year. What’s the point of buying for the future if we bankrupt assuming we don’t qualify next year to CL. It’s not about who’s better – him or Kalanic. Regarding Conti, better than Abate in his twilight years is no big deal (although Abate can defend the pants off Conti). Bad luck or not, there’s no question… Read more »
Well, u might remember me writing similar comment before mate. Yes fassobelli made a mistake by saying ucl next year is a must but then bought unfinished products like conti, kessie, andriy, hakan while letting sure things like bacca, kucka go. But how is kalinic a st who’ll take milan to ucl, a guarantee? Dzeko or higuain are guarantees. Costa, morata, cavani and auba are sure as hell guarantees. Like i said, they shouldve bought pastore, auba, a winger like forsberg, a cb and playmaking cm like fab or moutinho and thats it
Reading this gave me an orgasm. Yes.
Nikola Kalinic wasn’t specifically mentioned by the former Italian international, so we could see André Silva and Cutrone paired up-front against Benevento.
change is happening
all we wished for
now lets fully support our rino