AC Milan: What Does the Future Hold for Silvio Berlusconi, Filippo Inzaghi?

Eleventh in the table and a world away from the Champions League, a competition they've won more than any other club save Real Madrid. No silverware in almost four years, and a squad that seems to get worse by the transfer window.

The reputation of one club legend has already been destroyed by a short managerial stint, and now Filippo Inzaghi looks set for a similar fate to his old team-mate, Clarence Seedorf.

How has it all gone so wrong, so quickly, at AC Milan? The fortunes of almost every club experience ebbs and flows, but the shocking disintegration at the San Siro almost beggars belief. 

Compared to the group that won the Scudetto in 2010-11, the current squad is worse in every single position—often by some margin. Which is worrying in itself, because Massimiliano Allegri's title-winning side was some way below the standard of the great Milan teams and heavily reliant on a few match-winning superstars.

Allegri has impressed since taking over at Juventus, proving something that most observers already knew—he wasn't the problem at Milanello. During his stint with the Rossoneri, the 47-year-old Tuscan had a rocky relationship with the club's owner, and Silvio Berlusconi was quick to blame the manager for all of Milan's woes.

Seedorf was enticed to retire as a player and take over on the bench when Allegri eventually left. The Dutchman was hailed as a saviour by the club—and then tossed aside after just half a season. It was a particularly cruel fate for a player who'd enjoyed a trophy-laden decade in Milan as a player.

Inzaghi's period in charge has followed a conspicuously similar trajectory. He replaced an unpopular manager and was tasked with turning things around on a modest budget. He'd been at the club for a long time as a player, and—we were told—he understood the tradition of Milan and the importance of returning the Rossoneri to the top of the European game. 

History, they say, repeats itself. First as tragedy, then as farce. Seedorf's inexperience and volatile personality probably meant that his managerial tenure at the San Siro was always doomed, but neither of those details were a secret when he was hired and the board who brought him on should have planned for some teething problems.

Even if they'd been overly-optimistic about the 38-year-old's chances on the bench, having watched it all fall apart so dramatically, it's astonishing that they were so willing to make the same mistakes with the next manager. 

Inzaghi's coaching CV wasn't quite as raw as his predecessor's, but Berlusconi's assumption that he'd be ready for the pressures of Serie A simply because he'd been learning the ropes while coaching Milan's U-19s was something of a non sequitur.

And now, with three months still to go in the season, the Gazzetta dello Sport is already claiming that Inzaghi's time is up.

"

Oggi in #primapagina l'ultimatum del @acmilan a #Inzaghi e il calvario infinito di Michael #Schumacher pic.twitter.com/3RbaTP7CxS

— LaGazzettadelloSport (@Gazzetta_it) February 17, 2015"

In truth, the coach's ability doesn't actually really matter right now at Milan, because even if the geniuses at Milan Lab could clone some kind of Sacchi-Capello-Ancelotti hybrid, he'd still struggle to succeed the way things currently are at the club. 

The squad is unbalanced and short on talent. There's little or no money to spend. What talent they have is unlikely to stay very long, meaning that even if the manager is given time to build using the youth ranks and bargain buys, he won't have a long-term spine of quality that he can count on. 

Rumours are rife that Berlusconi is willing to sell. The former prime minister no longer has the inclination, it seems, to spend big on his side project. Italy's current financial problems have hit even him, but if a string of personal scandals hadn't all but ended his political career, you get the feeling that the family's Fininvest empire would be quicker to support a spending spree with a football team that has always afforded Silvio an extra element of support and influence.

Goal.com has just profiled the latest candidate said to be interested in the Rossoneri, a Thai billionaire called Bee Taechaubol. Just a year short of his 30th anniversary as Milan owner, Berlusconi might be on the verge of selling the club to Taechaubol for €1 billion. 

If the 78-year-old tycoon does decide to call time on his ownership of Milan, it will mark the end of an era not just for the club but for Serie A in general. The controversial magnate wasn't always popular, but there's no doubting the important role he played in the success seen over the last three decades. 

As much as he's been a part of that success, it's fair to say that right now he's a large part of the current problem and has to bear at least some responsibility for the club's—and Serie A's—recent decline. Like several other Italian clubs, Milan has been run as Berlusconi's personal fiefdom.

Personal whim has often played as much a part as long-term planning, and a failure to modernise and adapt to the changing landscape in the sport has left a once-proud giant of the game humbled and lame. 

Which is why no one—not Allegri, not Seedorf and not Inzaghi—is as culpable for Milan's current lows as the owner whose charisma and chequebook once brought such highs. They might have been the wrong men for the job, but it was Berlusconi who hired them.

He seems incapable of learning from those mistakes—something that should absolve Inzaghi of any blame in the eyes of Milanisti when he's eventually offered up as a sacrifice.

Perhaps Berlusconi and his old friend Adriano Galliani are just out of touch. Maybe they're being stubborn. But before long, someone with influence will have to force them to see that the current situation can't continue.

Because right now, the club's planning fits Einstein's definition of insanity perfectly: They do the same thing over and over again, yet expect different results. Something needs to change.