Sacchi explains the four reasons why Milan are ‘not a team’ and what must be fixed

SempreMilan

·16 May 2025

Sacchi explains the four reasons why Milan are ‘not a team’ and what must be fixed

Arrigo Sacchi believes that there are four major reasons why AC Milan have failed this season, and claimed Sergio Conceicao is the least to blame.

The final judgement of Milan’s 2024-25 season rested on the Coppa Italia final in Rome against Bologna. The 1-0 defeat after a performance lacking in quality and heart was symbolic of a campaign that has been nothing short of a disaster, barring the Supercoppa Italiana win.

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The time has come to make big decisions and Sergio Conceicao is expected to be one of the first to pay given that results have not matched expectations. However, the general feeling is that the Rossoneri are a club lacking in unity and clarity, from the ownership down.

Sacchi published a column in La Gazzetta dello Sport in which he has provided an assessment of Milan’s failures and pointed out the things they must fix ahead of 2025-26.

“Seeing Milan in such bad shape makes me very sad, because I am tied to that environment, to the fans, to those colours. Watching the Coppa Italia final, deservedly lost against Bologna, I had confirmation of what I have thought since the beginning of this season: Milan are not a team, and it is not for some specific reasons. I list four, in order of importance.

1. Milan without ideas

“The club comes first, even before the coach and the players. Because with its history, its vision and its style it must show the way forward. President Berlusconi, to whom I will never stop being grateful, told me when he hired me that his goal was to win and to convince.

“He wanted Milan to put on a show, to entertain people. He had an idea and he knew how to convey it to his collaborators. Does it seem to you that today’s Milan, understood as a club, has an idea? It seems to me not. We proceed gropingly, and in doing so we end up hitting a wall.”

2. Mistakes on the bench

“The choice of coach, at the beginning of the season, is fundamental because the coach must be in tune with the club’s plans. Milan, on the other hand, last summer first thought of taking one, the Spaniard Lopetegui.

“And then, given that the fans were angry because he was not a name worthy of the club, they turned to the Portuguese Fonseca. Who had worked well in Ukraine, but when he had been in Italy he had certainly not enchanted.

“The managers who made this choice made a serious mistake and then, halfway through the season, they thought it best to eat their words and hand over the bench to Sergio Conceiçao, who, in my opinion, is the least guilty of all because he found himself working in general chaos.

“And in the end you will see that he will be the one to pay, because this is an old (and absurd) law of football: out with the coach, so we can sort things out. But how can you fix things if the same people who made mistakes at the beginning of this season are still at the top?”

3. Players who don’t make a team

“Milan is a group of players who were chosen at random. I don’t discuss their individual technical qualities, even if I could: the problem here is that they are not elements capable of forming a team. I had a group of reliable, intelligent, available guys who followed my instructions.

“Now, however, they go abroad to make purchases, and frankly I don’t understand the reason, players arrive who come from different experiences and cultures, you have to try to blend them, but in this way how is it possible to give a style?

“My Milan, which was judged by FIFA to be the best club team of the century, had an Italian base to which two and then three Dutch were initially added. And we won the Scudetto in 1988 without being able to count on the contribution of Van Basten for most of the season, and we left the stadium in Naples to the applause of the opposing fans.

“The feat was possible because at the base there was a strategy dictated by the club and shared by everyone.”

4. Mercato errors

“When you go to buy players you have to be very careful, otherwise you risk spending a lot of money and having players who don’t make a positive contribution to the cause.

“When I arrived at Milan, I brought players who came from Serie B and Serie C, I left one at home who was in the national team because he didn’t behave like a professional, I decided to focus on young people. And Berlusconi was not only always by my side, but he supported me and defended me.

“Before buying Rijkaard I sent a trusted man of mine to follow him during training, and in the report I received it was also written what he ate, what time he got up and who his friends were.

“Are these things done now? I don’t think so, judging from what you see on the pitch. And then you’re wrong and you have to fix it. Because seeing Milan still in such a bad state, for a lover like me, is truly unbearable.”