AC Milan: Top Candidates to Replace Filippo Inzaghi
Officially, Filippo Inzaghi still has the backing of Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani. Unofficially, however, it seems obvious that the writing is on the wall for the 41-year-old former striker.
Milan are 10 points off the European places and have just two wins in their last 12 league games. It was hoped that Super Pippo would have been able to galvanise the squad and inspire something of a renaissance at the San Siro, but the reality is that things have changed little since Clarence Seedorf was sacked in June.
The Rossoneri remain a club in crisis, and it can't be long now before we see a fresh face on the bench and some fresh excuses from the board.
Roberto Donadoni
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In many ways, Roberto Donadoni is the obvious choice to succeed Inzaghi. He had an incredibly successful playing career with the Rossoneri—he bagged six Scudetti and three Champions League medals during his time at the club—and has proven himself to be a very capable manager.
In the mire of Parma's current problems, it's easy to forget that he took them from being a club threatened with relegation to one that qualified for European football. The fact they missed out on that reward due to financial problems shouldn't reflect poorly on Donadoni. He took a limited squad and finished 2013-14 in sixth, above clubs like Lazio, Udinese ... and Milan.
Berlusconi believed Clarence Seedorf and Inzaghi could instil some of the old Milan spirit into the current squad and build a new culture of success founded on their experience as players.
It hasn't worked because both men, while excellent footballers, were out of their depths on the bench. After cutting his teeth at smaller clubs and suffering the stress involved in being Italy coach, you get the feeling that it wouldn't be so daunting a task for Donadoni.
Maurizio Sarri
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Maurizio Sarri has been repeatedly linked to the Milan job over the last few months. According to Gazzetta dello Sport (Italian), he's the man Arrigo Sacchi recommended when asked by Silvio Berlusconi for an opinion.
The 56-year-old from Naples was a relative unknown to most calcio fans before guiding Empoli back to Serie A, but since taking the tiny Tuscan club to the top division, he's shown how capable a manager he is by defying the odds and keeping them out of a relegation scrap.
Starting out in the early '90s by managing at a regional level, Sarri has climbed the ladder of managerial experience with 17 different clubs, building a reputation for himself in the second and third division before finally making the breakthrough to Serie A with Empoli.
In other words, he's the exact opposite of the last two managers Berlusconi has employed. If he were to get the job, it would be a frank admission of culpability from the Milan board.
Antonio Conte
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Antonio Conte is a long-shot, but luring the ex-Juventus boss away from the Italian national team bench would be a huge coup for Milan if they could pull it off.
And optimists can be buoyed by a recent interview he gave to Chi magazine, as reported here in English on Football Italia, in which the 45-year-old said he was "disappointed" with his current Italy role.
"Before I had daily contact with the players. But I chose with my heart, and I chose the national team at a difficult time. I hope I made the right choice.
The future? I like working, and I’ve realised that as CT it’s more difficult to do that continuously. This has left me a bit ‘disappointed.’
At the moment I’m with the national team, then we’ll see whether I’ll go abroad or accept a project in Italy.
"
Bringing in the man responsible for Juventus' current era of dominance would almost certainly improve things at the San Siro, but it's unlikely that Conte would be willing to accept such a challenge without significant investment in players—something many believe Berlusconi is unwilling to do.
Luciano Spalletti
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Luciano Spalletti would make a lot of sense as the next Milan manager. At 56, he's young enough to be a long-term solution, but experienced enough to be up to the task.
The Tuscan has been out of work since being fired by Zenit St. Petersburg last year, but he remains one of the obvious candidates for the San Siro bench thanks to his successful record in Russia and the excellent reputation he built while in Serie A with Udinese and Roma.
It's not the first time that the club has been linked to this manager. In fact, the Italian media was rife with rumours—for example here, in the Gazzetta dello Sport (Italian)—suggesting Spalletti would be the man to replace Clarence Seedorf last year.
It's thought Spalletti didn't always see eye to eye with key players in his squad while at Zenit, but there's no denying his record. He won two Russian league titles and was also the first coach to take the St. Petersburg side to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Vincenzo Montella
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Vincenzo Montella is one of the darling's of Italian football. After being let go by Roma in 2011, he's proved his old bosses at the Olimpico wrong by succeeding at Catania before taking over and impressing at Fiorentina.
The 40-year-old favours exciting football, is tactically intelligent and not afraid to try new things. He's also shown himself to be capable of getting the best out of his players. Aside from turning journeymen players like Gonzalo Rodriguez and Borja Valero into important first-team stars, Montella can take a lot of credit for Juan Cuadrado's rise to stardom. He looks to be having a similarly positive influence on Mohamed Salah, too.
Convincing Montella to leave a well-run club where he's been able to build a team in his image to rebuild at Milan won't be easy, however. The Rossoneri are obviously a huge club, but history counts for nothing in the table. In the short term, at least, the former striker has more chance of winning something in Florence.
He's also under contract until 2017, and there's no reason why Andrea Della Valle would be rushing to let his manager leave for a rival.
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