05-25-2014, 10:57 AM
(05-24-2014, 06:19 PM)honsano Wrote: I really don't think this is too far off the mark. Ultimately that is why club coaches go to the international side. Winning the world cup is sort of the ultimate prize for coach and player and builds your legacy.
We all know how much of a crap shoot the world cup is though and a club side being brought back up may not be as great, but still is a big deal when you talk about a sleeping giant like Milan. We have a ton of problems and it is not good that the major problems are in positions of power (Gali and Berlu). However, I think a powerful coach can not just win the locker room but also the board room (kind of like how the expect Van Gaal to do in Manure). I think hiring a strong coach is one of the few things we can do to really take some power back from Galliani. Also, it helps that Milan still has a large fan base, some excellent young players and a great opportunity to expand revenue (casa Milan and maybe a stadium one day).
If I were an older great coach and I wanted to take on a job that had great risk but great reward Milan seems to be a good fit (especially if I couldn't coach a great national team). I do agree that bringing back a great Milan Manager is unlikely, but I bet there will be older coaches out there hungry for one last challenge.
I don't really agree with you on this. Firstly, managing a national side and a club side is a very different prospect. Managing a national team to try and win a world cup is less about a personal achievement in a career and more about pride in representing your country and leading them towards victory. I think the motivations are totally different.
The motivation of trying to get Milan back to the top is huge, but any coach looking at this objectively will probably question the role. Firstly, a guy like Van Gaal may get respect at Man Utd and even Moyes got a significant amount of money. At Milan, not only has every coach since Ancelotti left been undermined and insulted publicly, but we literally have nothing to spend, as evident of our transfer market for years now.
Regarding a strong coach, or rather a coach with a strong personality coming in, Seedorf's pretty much that. He's always been a very strong personality, for better or worse. When he came in he all but tried to undermine Galliani by trying not to deal with him, instead looking to work with Berlu. Galliani is not only essentially micromanaging him, but he's effectively pushed him out the club. If Barbara Berlusconi (another director and Silvio's daughter) couldn't take power from Galliani, I honestly don't see how a coach can.
As for the other aspects you mention. In all honesty a large fan base isn't a motivation for a coach, unless they're fans coming to the stadium (we barely fill half of San Siro every match). A large fan base is of interest to those running the business and want a bigger market share to sell products or services to (i.e. Barbara).
Likewise, expanding sources of revenue isn't going to be of immediate interest to a coach unless that money is reinvested in the squad. We're not investing what we have coming in anyway and by the time things like Casa Milan and a new stadium are actually in place and generating the revenue we hope for, the coach will probably be moving onto another job. At this point, these things are long term projects that probably won't have immediate impact a coach coming in would want.
Finally, yes we have some excellent young players, but at the same time we can't ignore we have massive problems in our squad. We have an excellent defender in De Sciglio, but every other part of defence is a mess (even moreso as Rami's looking less likely to stay). In midfield we have Cristante and Mastour, who are great, but unless the managment show patience, no coach will have time for such young and incomplete players. Likewise, you have uncertainty around El Shaarawy's fitness after this season and quite honestly no coach can be looking at Balotelli without getting a headache. The irony in all of this is that of the 5 names I've mentioned, 4 are being rumoured to be sold, with the 15 year old looking most likely to stay.
Truth is, if I'm an older coach (particularly a successful one) looking for a final challenge, I'd want something where I can build one last project with lower expectations and demands. For example, replacing Guidolin at Udinese or something, as this would be a project about building on my knowledge, experience and ideas, rather than having pressures to win competitions which the club can't really compete for.