Champions under the microscope: what led AC Milan to the title or where did the Rossoneri find their real strength?

AC Milan celebrates winning the championship after eleven years. Although most fans, not only of Italian football, probably did not expect it, it is the AC footballers who reached the highest podium. But where did the Rossoneri find their real strength, or what led AC Milan to win the Scudetto?

The nineteenth championship title in the club’s history. It should be noted, AC Milan footballers are celebrating winning the Scudetto after an incredible eleven years, when the club was not doing well for several years, both financially and organizationally.

In 2014, 2015 and 2016, AC finished successively eighth, tenth and seventh in Italy’s top competition, while even in the following two years the Rossoneri were unable to peek among the top five teams in Serie A.

Milan only managed to do so in the 2018/19 season, which AC finished in the number five position with a two-point lead over sixth-placed AS. But the following season did not bring any significant improvement in terms of results, quite the opposite. The Rossoneri dropped back to sixth place.

But that changed the following year. In the 2020/21 season, AC were already fighting for the title, but in the end it was Inter who were happy to win the Scudetto. This year, however, the tables have turned and the Rossoneri are the overall champions.

So what led AC Milan to win its 19th title?

Pioli’s on fire

Stefano Pioli was appointed as AC’s new coach in 2019 when the club decided to sack Marco Giampaolo. However, fans greeted him with disbelief, with many posts on Twitter at the time with the hashtag “PioliOut”.

After his arrival, Milan fans promoted the view that Pioli was a poor replacement for the sacked Giampaolo, only being in the position of head coach because AC couldn’t sign Luciano Spalletti at the time.

The latter still had a valid contract with Inter Milan at the time, although he was replaced in that position by Antonio Conte at the time. Over time, however, Pioli became a popular man, with fans even taking advantage of the rhythm of a well-known and much-used song in football called Feed from desire, which they changed to Pioli’s on fire.

Pioli is one of those managers who focuses more on on-field performances rather than being a media charismatic leader who does most of his work in press conferences. However, his first ten games on the AC bench have not been easy – the Rossoneri have won only four of those ten contests.

The 56-year-old former Fiorentina and Lazio coach has decided to bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the club. A person who can stir up some serious wind in the cabin when things are not as they should be has returned to the club.

However, AC’s players were still struggling gamely, whereupon it was the coronavirus pandemic that probably saved Pioli’s engagement with AC. The management of the Italian club had already agreed terms with Ralf Rangnick, who wanted a real revolution. But that would also mean the sacking of Paolo Maldini, who is currently AC’s sporting director.

According to CBS Sports , everything was supposed to be announced at the end of the season, but after a three-month coronavirus hiatus, there was a twist. AC Milan did not lose a single game from June to August. Thus, after a very skeletal start, Pioli began to exert his influence on the team, whereupon the club’s management announced him as head coach for the next year.

However, despite a great “spring” performance, AC Milan finished the 2019/20 season in sixth place with an abysmal 12 points behind the Champions League places.

The 2020/21 season – the first successful season in 9 years

AC finished the 2020/21 season in second place in the Italian top flight, allowing fans to finally talk about a successful season after several years. After seven years, the Rossoneri qualified for the Champions League group stage and fought Inter for the title.

However, after several losses, especially in the spring part of the season, the Milanese had to settle for second place. However, 79 points is not a bad result at all, Inter had an excellent season.

The Nerazzurri won twenty-eight of their 38 matches. On top of that, they added seven draws, after which they suffered only three defeats in 2020/21. One of them came against AC in the fourth round of Serie A.

Stefano Pioli, chapter two – Sensible selection of reinforcements

The end of the 2020/21 season and the summer transfer window – this is another key point and a necessary sequence of events that probably had to happen for the Rossoneri to be able to rejoice in winning the title a year later. It was then that Pioli showed a very sensitive eye when it came to selecting reinforcements.

On the day PSG confirmed the arrival of Gianluigi Donnarumma, fans were worried whether Pioli and Maldini would even be able to bring in an adequate replacement. And today, with hindsight, we have to objectively state that the bet on Mike Maignano was actually no bet at all, but an absolutely brilliant move.

The club’s management made it clear to Donnarumma as part of the new project that if he is no longer interested in being part of the club, nothing will keep him in Milan, or the player is simply not more than the club. Maignan has already performed admirably at Lille and came to Italy for €14.4 million.

And today we can already say that he has not only matched Donnarumma, but even surpassed him. For the amount of money the club’s management had available for transfers, they really made their choices. The most expensive was Fikayo Tomori, who had a perfect run at AC. The Rossoneri sent nearly 30 million euros to Chelsea.

The Tomori-Kalulu stopper duo has become a fixture of the entire AC lineup, after all, the Rossoneri have only conceded five times since March 1! Three of those goals were scored by Inter in the Coppa Italia return leg. If we consider only the domestic competition, then in the last eleven games Maignan has only fished the ball out of the net twice.

But players like Olivier Giroud, Sandro Tonali and Junior Messias have also been important figures on the road to the title. Especially without the first two, AC would probably not have reached the title.

Twenty-one-year-old Tonali came from Brescia for just under seven million euros, while Giroud was let go by Chelsea for almost free, i.e. for just one million euros. The aforementioned Messias was scouted by Pioli and Maldini at Crotone, where he was one of the best players. AC sent €2.6 million to the port city.

AC Milan were also helped by the experience of Alessandro Florenzi and in terms of offensive activity, Brahim Díaz, whose two-year loan from Real Madrid expired in Milan after this season, was a very valid player.

A lot of fight, determination and hard work

But rather than individuality, AC reached the top step thanks to team cohesion, dedication and hard work. It is the efforts of Pioli, Maldini, Ricky Massara and Ivan Gazidis in short that come through. And a lot of it. Although there aren’t many star names on the roster, the team has played to near perfection.

“Nobody believed in us at the beginning, but that made us even stronger. I’m really proud of all of you. Now do me a favor and celebrate like champions. Because it’s not just Milan that belongs to AC Milan, the whole of Italy belongs to AC Milan!” said Ibrahimovic in his speech in the AC booth.

They always say that great success is due to the whole team. For AC, this is doubly true. Still, it would be fair to single out three stars who have been AC Milan’s driving force throughout the season.

Rafael Leão & Mike Maignan & Theo Hernández

Leão transferred to AC from French side Lille on August 1, 2019, for €29.5 million. The 22-year-old Portuguese winger was already showing his great talent at Lille. However, he has come on leaps and bounds in the current campaign and has become an integral part of AC Milan’s line-up.

In 34 competitive games, he has scored 11 goals and added 10 assists. He also made his mark in the Champions League, scoring one goal and one assist in four games. However, AC fans accused him of often looking like he was playing on the pitch. On the other hand, it is unpredictability that adorns the rising Portuguese star.

In the last game of the season at Sassuolo, all three goals went to him. You can watch a short clip of the match above. It has to be said, the eleventh team in Serie A knew beforehand that this match would be extremely difficult. And Leão was simply unstoppable.

It will be very difficult for the club’s management to keep hold of him, with PSG very interested in the talented Portuguese. The Rossoneri have made no secret of the fact that a potential transfer would cost the Parisians between €80 and €100 million. At the moment, Leão even has an exit clause stating an amount of 150 million euros.

The aforementioned Maignan has developed into one of the best goalkeepers in the world. He has played 32 games in Serie A in the current season and has kept 17 clean sheets. Needless to say, he has made a number of great saves and saved AC some important points.

Similar to the Portuguese star, Maignan’s market value can be expected to rise.

The third to the party is Theo Hernández, who arrived in Italy from Real Madrid on July 6, 2019. The club’s management sent a total of 21.5 million euros to Spain at the time.

With this goal, Theo shone in the penultimate game of the season against Atalanta and took care of one of the most beautiful goals of the current Serie A season.

Hernández is also a player who has claimed the attention of many big clubs across football Europe with his performances. He is a modern, quick, edge-of-the-post defender who has great crossing ability, supports AC’s offensive significantly and can pick up a lot of fouls. However, as he himself stated recently, he is not even interested in any transfer at the moment.

Change of owner, financial injection for the future

Apart from the sporting aspects, we must not forget the economic side. In 2018, the Milan club was bought by the Elliott Management Corporation, because before that AC was owned by the Chinese, namely businessman Yonghong Li.

However, the latter was facing major financial difficulties and was also reportedly under investigation by the Chinese financial authorities for various financial flows.

Now there is set to be another change of ownership, with RedBird the closest to a buyout, having overtaken Investcorp in the Italian club’s hunt for profits. They are offering €1.3 billion plus financial clauses that are expected to bring another €500 million to the current owner.

With a potential new owner, the Rossoneri should have around 200 to 300 million to spend on transfers and there are currently plenty of names on the reinforcement list, such as Atlético Madrid’s Joao Félix and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling.

Organizationally, AC Milan is a healthy club and if the new owner fits into the harmony of the club, the plan of Maldini and others, that is to make AC a world giant again, is more than realistic.

Sources: AC Milan, CBS Sports, Transfermarkt