CM: Clash with Ibrahimovic and curious timing – the background on Fonseca’s sacking | OneFootball

Some more background has emerged regarding Paulo Fonseca’s sacking as the head coach of AC Milan, and why it all seemed to happen so fast.

According to Calciomercato.com, Fonseca was convinced he could lift Milan but he was perhaps the only one who was. He often repeated it in the last press conferences but it wasn’t enough to convince a management that never supported him as it should have done.

Distance grew between the Portuguese coach and Zlatan Ibrahimovic week by week. There were some discussions at Milanello but they were more for show than anything else, because the Swede only shows up when he needed to rather than every day.

Milan have turned to Sergio Conceiçao, who has already signed a contract until the end of the season. The most surprising news, however, is that the directors had an agreement with the former Porto coach for several days.

Since the day after the victory against Verona, there was an agreement in place. Jorge Mendes contacted the Rossoneri again a month ago to propose his client, waiting a few days and then intensifying the discussions.

Fonseca has paid for several things: first of all a league table that sees Milan in eighth place and 14 points behind Atalanta in first place. Ibrahimovic has never been happy with the disconnect with the team and the constant conflict with some of the big names in the squad.

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This very issue was the reason for a lively discussion between the two before the match with Roma. The management were also firmly convinced that they had assembled a strong team, worthy of the Scudetto, which Fonseca was not able to get the best out of.

Geoffrey Moncada had chosen him for the attacking game he showed with Lille and had also preferred him to Conceiçao last summer. After six months, he has changed his mind and a U-turn has come about.

The only aspect of this story that is still unclear concerns the timing: if Milan had reached an agreement with Conceiçao and had decided to sack Fonseca, why didn’t they do it directly a week ago? A question that only they can answer at the moment.