The Rossoneri are desperately trying to save their season ahead of Sunday's San Siro showdown with their high-flying city rivals
During his unveiling as an AC Milan player on Monday, Kyle Walker was asked if he'd felt any doubts over his decision to move to San Siro after watching his new team scrape their way past Parma the day before courtesy of two injury-time goals.
"No, it's football," the former Manchester City captain replied. "Things happen during games, but we got the win that we wanted, and needed, by the final whistle. We've got an important game on Wednesday and the derby on Sunday, so it was an important step to make sure we start this week in the best way possible."
The very real fear now, though, is that the week will end in the worst way possible – as that "important game on Wednesday" went disastrously wrong, with Milan blowing a gilt-edged opportunity to progress directly to the last 16 of the Champions League by slumping to a dismal 2-1 defeat at Dinamo Zagreb. Another loss on Sunday evening would pile even more pressure on a group of players – and indeed directors – struggling terribly to convince the club's fans of their competency.
So, while Walker requested a January transfer because "things at City weren't going too well", there's no guarantee that he'll find life any easier at Milan, a club that now finds itself in a constant state of chaos…
AFPFrom champs to chumps
Milan were champions of Italy less than three years ago – but an awful lot has changed in the interim.
Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, the directorial duo that constructed a title-winning team on a shoestring budget, were unceremoniously sacked at the end of the 2022-23 season because of irreconcilable differences with Gerry Cardinale, the Moneyball-loving founder of RedBird Capital Partners, which holds a 99 percent stake in the Rossoneri.
Coach Stefano Pioli followed Maldini and Massara out the door just last summer and, by that stage, the fans were already expressing serious concerns over the club's alleged lack of ambition, cohesion and communication under their American owners.
They staged their infamous 'Sound of Silence' protest before last season had even concluded. By the midpoint of the current campaign, the atmosphere had turned toxic.
Advertisement'We are not Americans'
Milan commemorated their 125th anniversary ahead of the Serie A clash with Genoa on December 15 but, after a dour 0-0 draw that was greeted by boos within San Siro, furious fans gathered outside the Giuseppe Meazza to demand a change of ownership.
Some supporters angrily chanted, "We are not Americans!" Others asked, "Are you leaving or not?"
During further anniversary celebrations the day after, ultras unfurled many of the same banners they'd brought to San Siro, including "Incompetent management, a club without ambition. You are not up to the level of our history"; "Players without desire and dignity, you are the mirror of this ownership"; and "We have waited and supported you to the bitter end, we have had enough of your mediocrity".
Milan responded by sacking coach Paulo Fonseca two weeks later – but in such a disgracefully disrespectful manner that it only provoked further criticism of the club's owners.
Getty Images SportThe Fonseca farce
Former striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic – who is working for RedBird in an advisory role even though he's effectively Milan's sporting director and calls himself "the boss" – declared Fonseca "the right man" to usher in a new era of excitement and success at San Siro after feeling that things had gone stale after five years under Pioli.
The Swede couldn't have been more wrong, though, with Fonseca falling out with key players such as Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez, and failing dismally to coax any consistency out of a team that rallied well in Europe to put themselves on course for a top-eight finish in the Champions League but continually underperformed in Serie A.
In that sense, his dismissal was justified. The manner of his exit was not, though, with journalists finding out before Fonseca that he had been sacked.
The net result was a humiliating and farcical final press conference in which the Portuguese talked about a job that he'd already lost and he ended up confirming his exit to reporters from his car window before leaving San Siro for good.
Milan were rightly slated for their handling of the whole affair so Fonseca's replacement, Sergio Conceicao, winning a derby – and a trophy – at the end of this very first week in charge was manna from heaven for the beleaguered board.
Getty ImagesConceicao already feeling the heat
Milan will be hoping Sunday provides similar respite. However, a lot has changed since the thrilling come-from-behind win over Inter in the Supercoppa Italiana final on January 6.
Conceicao is no longer the smiling, dancing, cigar-smoking character that we saw in Saudi Arabia. He's now cutting an incredibly frustrated figure. In fact, he appears just as perplexed by Milan's propensity for switching off as his predecessor – and just as powerless to prevent it from happening.
After the midweek loss in Zagreb, he questioned the players' pride after watching them lose far too many duels against Dinamo and berated his team for failing to understand "the basics in football", chief among them, the requisite level of aggression at the highest level.
Conceicao also lamented the unavailability of several players, including David Calabria (suspended), Emerson Royal and Alessandro Florenzi (both injured), which forced him to field centre-back Fikayo Tomori at right-back.
Of course, the arrival of Walker will unquestionably help in that regard. Ibrahimovic quite correctly pointed out on Monday that the England star is capable of playing as a centre-back but it's on the right-hand side of the defence where he's unquestionably needed most by Milan.
What's unclear, though, is how much Walker has left to offer.
