Sergio Conceicao Faces Weight of History as AC Milan’s Interim Manager

Sergio Conceicao hit all the right notes ahead of his debut as AC Milan manager against Juventus in the Supercoppa Italiana on Friday.

“Life’s all about taking chances, right? I’ve put in the hard work to get here. I could’ve stayed put, but coaching Milan? That’s a dream come true,” the Portuguese told the media in Saudi Arabia.

The former Porto manager replaced Paulo Fonseca this week after his compatriot was sacked just six months into his three-year deal, with Milan eighth in Serie A after 18 matches, 14 points behind league leaders Atalanta and Napoli and already eight points adrift of the Champions League spots.

Conceicao was very philosophical about the challenges ahead and so he may well be, for history shows that taking on the job of interim manager at Milan seldom ends well.

The Rossoneri have sacked nine managers since the infancy of the Silvio Berlusconi era in 1987 and their interim replacements have almost all verged from uninspiring choices to unmitigated disasters. For every Carlo Ancelotti and Stefano Pioli there’s a Clarence Seedorf.

Here, Destination Calcio takes a look at how interim managers have fared at Milan from the past four decades.

Fabio Capello – April 1987

Long before he led AC Milan to four Scudetto in five seasons, Capello was parachuted into the Rossoneri dugout as interim manager in the spring of 1987 after Niels Liedholm was sacked with five games left in the season following a 2-1 defeat against Avellino.

The then-Milan youth team manager seized the opportunity, winning two of his games in charge and losing only to eventual champions Napoli, before beating Sampdoria 1-0 in the UEFA Cup play-offs.

Capello stepped aside at the end of the campaign as one Arrigo Sacchi strode through the Milanello gates. The rest, as they say, is history.

Arrigo Sacchi – December 1996

A decade on from Liedholm’s defenestration, it was Oscar Tabarez’s turn to get the sack. The Uruguayan had come in to replace Capello, whose tenure had delivered nine major trophies in five seasons.

Tabarez took over the reigning Serie A champions, but his reign got off to a disappointing start as the Rossoneri lost the Supercoppa at home to a Gabriel Batistuta-inspired Fiorentina.

And things would only get worse for Tabarez, who was dismissed at the end of November after a defeat by Piacenza left Milan 13th in Serie A with Sacchi returning to San Siro over five years after stepping aside for Capello.

In his first spell with Milan, Sacchi had revolutionised football forever, but there was no such magic in his stint as interim manager.

He oversaw a calamitous 6-1 defeat at home against Juventus, before leaving at the end of the season after the Rossoneri finished 11th to be replaced yet again by Capello.

Mauro Tassotti and Cesare Maldini – March 2001

“A careless tailor can ruin a fine fabric,” was Silvio Berlusconi’s verdict after Milan were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Deportivo La Coruna in the second group stage of the Champions League.

The tailor in the metaphor was Alberto Zaccheroni, who was sacked the following day less than two years after leading Il Diavolo to an unexpected Scudetto.

Mauro Tassotti and Cesare Maldini took over as interim managers, and managed to secure a UEFA Cup spot and, more importantly, thrash Inter Milan 6-0 in the Derby della Madonnina.

Carlo Ancelotti – November 2001

On the face of it, Berlusconi’s decision to get rid of Fatih Terim in November 2001 may have seemed harsh. In his debut season in Serie A, the Turkish manager had already overseen a win over Inter and the Rossoneri were fifth, just a point off third-placed Roma.

As it turned out, replacing Terim with Carlo Ancelotti turned out to be a masterstroke. Milan secured Champions League qualification on the final day of the season, the first seed of the third triumphant cycle of the Berlusconi era, which would deliver nine major trophies over the next seven seasons.

It was a remarkable turnaround for Ancelotti, whose only trophy in four seasons at Juventus was the Intertoto Cup.

Clarence Seedorf – January 2014

Milan went down the tried and tested route of appointing a club legend as interim manager again some 12 years after Ancelotti replaced Terim. This time it was Clarence Seedorf’s turn to step up in place of Massimiliano Allegri after a 4-3 defeat away against Sassuolo left the Rossoneri 11th in Serie A, 30 points behind Juventus with only 18 matches played.

Seedorf, however, couldn’t repeat Ancelotti’s success and Milan finished the season in eighth, outside of the European places.

The Dutchman departed the club in June, while Allegri went on to win five consecutive Scudetto with Juventus.

Christian Brocchi – April 2016

Hopes were high when Sinisa Mihajlovic replaced Filippo Inzaghi in the summer of 2015 after Superpippo’s solitary campaign in charge. But the optimism soon vanished as Milan found themselves eighth in Serie A in April, prompting the club to sack the Serbian in the hope to launch a late rally for the European spots.

But like his former teammate Seedorf had done two years earlier, Christian Brocchi failed to steer Il Diavolo to European qualification as Milan finished seventh, 34 points behind eventual winners Juventus.

The Bianconeri also had the better of Milan in the Coppa Italia final, with current Rossoneri striker Alvaro Morata scoring the winner in extra time.

Gennaro Gattuso – November 2017

The dawn of a new era in Milan saw the appointment of Vincenzo Montella and the arrival of a new ownership, with a Chinese consortium headed by Li Yonghong bringing down the curtain on the Berlusconi era after three decades.

A summer of free spending ensued, with Lucas Biglia, Leonardo Bonucci, Hakan Calhanoglu, Nikola Kalinic, André Silva, Ricardo Rodriguez and Franck Kessié all arriving at Milanello.

The new Milan seemed to live up to the hype, racking up 10 points in the opening four matches, before slowly but inexorably going off the boil.

A stalemate draw against Torino at the end of November left the Rossoneri eighth in Serie A, 18 points adrift of then-league leaders Napoli after just 14 matches and convinced the new ownership to part ways with Montella.

As Berlusconi had done, Milan again turned to a club legend to salvage the season, this time in the shape of Gennaro Gattuso. The 2006 World Cup winner steered Il Diavolo to a respectable sixth place finish and secured qualification for the Europa League, earning himself a permanent contract in the process.

Stefano Pioli – October 2019

With four defeats in seven matches, Marco Giampaolo’s reign at Milan was over before it had even properly begun. The Rossoneri acted swiftly, replacing the current Lecce manager with Stefano Pioli, a somewhat surprising choice at the time, but one which turned out to be inspired.

Pioli steered Milan to a sixth-place finish and the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, before finishing second in his first full season in charge. Far more was to come the following season, when the Rossoneri chased down Inter to pip their city rivals to the title, clinching their first Scudetto in 11 years.