AC Milan Sale Delay Hurting Hunt for Filippo Inzaghi's Successor

Filippo Inzaghi is, in soccer terms, a dead man walking at AC Milan.

It's a shame, really, to think about what has happened to him this year.  Promoted from the youth team after Clarence Seedorf was relieved of his duties at the end of last season, his team started brightly.  They scored 10 times in their first four games, losing only one of those contests 1-0 to Juventus.

There have been bright moments since, like the 2-0 win they snagged against Napoli and the 2-1 victory they gritted out two weeks ago over Roma.  But for the majority of the year Inzaghi has been a disappointment.

His team has been doubled up by Sassuolo—who have now won three of four league contests between the two—and very nearly lost the Coppa Italia match between the two sides.  They have been flattened by the likes of Genoa, frittered away leads against Fiorentina and Verona and were edged out by relegation strugglers like Atalanta.

It's quite clear that Inzaghi simply wasn't ready for such a big job.  It's one thing to be able to make your first mistakes as a manager at Crotone or SPAL.  It's quite another to have to make them at the San Siro in the midst of one of Milan's darkest periods for nearly 30 years.

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With Inzaghi all but gone, much speculation has turned to who might be at the helm for Milan next season.  Unfortunately, it's unlikely that question is going to have an answer until we find out something else—who's going to be the new manager's boss?

Silvio Berlusconi has been under increasing pressure to sell AC Milan.  The will-he-or-won't-he saga that has unfolded over the past month needs to end, or else he's going to have a hard time finding someone interested in his job.

A sale looked close earlier this month, when potential buyer Bee Taechaubol told reporters in his native Thailand that he would complete a purchase within the month.  But a week later, Berlusconi told Telenord (h/t Football Italia) that he would not sell the club to "someone who is looking for immediate popularity."

Judging from these quotes, it seems likely that Berlusconi has judged Taechaubol as a dilettante and not as someone who has a serious commitment to revitalizing the flagging club.  In the weeks that have followed, little has been heard of the man called Mr. Bee, and last week Berlusconi confirmed that there were at least three Chinese groups seeking to buy into the club.

The question is whether that investment is going to be enough.  A few weeks ago, it looked as though Berlusconi was prepared to part with a majority share of the club, or at least enter into a setup where a buyer would gradually gain enough shares to displace him.

However, in a fit of sentimentality or stubbornness or both, he has reversed course.  According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia), the former Italian prime minister is now only willing to part with 35 percent of the club, regardless of who he sells to.  On Monday, he said to MilanNews.it (again through Football Italia) that he was looking for someone "who can share the financial burden [of the club] with me."

Flavio Lo Scalzo/Associated Press/Associated Press

Those aren't the words of a man who is truly committed to parting with his club—and therein lies the problem.

It's widely known that Berlusconi's daughter Marina, who is in charge of the family holding company Fininvest, cut the team off from the rest of the Berlusconi empire in 2010, stepping in to halve the budget Berlusconi was hoping to spend after cross-town rivals Inter won the treble.  That stance has not changed, and without outside money, Milan's spending power will remain the same as it's been the last three or four years.

At present, that is not adequate to pull the team out of their slide unless serious changes in the way the team approaches their younger talent are made.  But if Berlusconi is only willing to part with a third of the club, you can forgive a potential coaching candidate for wondering whether that outside investment is going to be enough.

Furthermore, a coach can't be blamed for being wary of the power structures within the team.  Berlusconi is a strong-willed individual—these negotiations are evidence enough of that—and could be prone to squabbling with a minority investor.

The unique—and potentially detrimental—power sharing arrangement between Adriano Galliani and Silvio's younger daughter Barbara, could also cause a coach some concern.  Both share the title vice president and chief executive officer—although Galliani's title on the team's official website is "executive vice president and CEO vicarious."

In essence, Galliani is in charge of business pertaining to the roster, and Barbara is in charge of marketing.  The situation has an air of uneasiness about it.  Add to that Galliani's numerous transfer market failures in the last several years and Milan's front office has the potential to explode at any point.

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A number of high-profile coaches have been discussed in the media as potential replacements for Inzaghi.

In January, Sky reported (h/t Football Italia) that Vincenzo Montella and Antonio Conte were top choices.  More recently, Unai Emery, who has brought Sevilla to a second consecutive Europa League final, has been put forward as a candidate by the likes of Tuttosport (also through Football Italia).

In the wake of Real Madrid's elimination from the Champions League and failure to win the La Liga title, it is even possible that Carlo Ancelotti, who led the team to a Scudetto and a pair of European titles in the first decade of the new century, could be available to take over the post and has been mentioned by Sky Sport 24 (h/t Football Italia).

Another report relayed by Football Italia, this one from Tuttosport, identified Marcello Lippi as the preferred candidate of the Chinese consortium being led by Xi Jinping.  Lippi is a World Cup winner and the only man in history to win continental trophies on two continents—after winning the UEFA Champions League with Juventus and the AFC Champions League with Guangzhou Evergrande last year before retiring from coaching.

There is an impressive array of talented coaches on this list.  Some are unlikely—particularly Conte, whose contract to coach the national team runs through Euro 2016.  The availability of Montella would likely come down to what assurances he gets from Fiorentina for this summer's transfer window, and Sevilla would be unlikely to let Emery go if he wins the Europa League and qualifies for next season's Champions League.

But beyond any of this, it's right to wonder whether any of these coaches would jump into a Milan team that is clearly going to be a project for the next several years and whose ownership picture is so incredibly muddled.

Given some of Berlusconi's recent statements—he said to La Gazzetta dello Sport on Saturday (h/t Football Italia) that "if I don't find investors, it's up to me to relaunch Milan"—that doesn't seem to be the case, especially since every indication is that Berlusconi is in no position to be able to undertake any sort of relaunching without sufficient outside help.

Berlusconi needs to get this situation fixed—and soon.  If the club's destiny is not decided before it comes time to find a coach, he may end up finding fewer takers for the position than he thought he might.  And if he doesn't secure sufficient funding—read: sell enough of the team—he may find even fewer.