Milan chief backs under-fire coach
Print Edition
AC Milan chief Marco Fassone has backed under-fire coach Vincenzo Montella despite the club falling to a third straight Serie A defeat to fierce city rival Inter on Sunday night.
“Vincenzo is staying with us. When you change this much, as we did, you need time,” said Fassone.
Milan overhauled its squad in the close season, spending 230 million euros (US$270 million) on new signings following the takeover of the club by Chinese businessman Li Yonghong.
He already paid 740 million euros to buy the club last April.
But despite the heavy investment, Milan has failed to find its rhythm on the pitch yet, with Montella’s side dropping three places to tenth after its latest defeat — 12 points behind leader Napoli and ten adrift of second-placed Inter.
“AC Milan should not be in that position and we have to climb back,” insisted Fassone, appointed managing director after Li’s Rossoneri Sport Investment bought the club from former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
“We are starting to see the first positive signs, but Montella will still have time to continue his work. Things will change eventually.”
Mauro Icardi converted a late penalty to complete a hat-trick that gave Inter a 3-2 win in front of a capacity crowd of 80,000 at the San Siro.
The gate receipts for Sunday’s derby clash hit a new Italian football record of 4.8 million euros — over a million euros more than the previous record set when Inter met Juventus in October 2015.
“Derbies are always incredible matches, this time we made a mistake at the end and we have to see their fans celebrate,” said Fassone. “I am sure the next derby will be a good one for our supporters.
“The second half was played brilliantly, it looked like a completely different game. We have to start from here, from the second half performance.”
This weekend, Inter visits Napoli.
While there’s still plenty of room for improvement, Inter is already far ahead of where it was at this point last season when it appeared lost under Frank de Boer.
Including Roberto Mancini’s surprise resignation two weeks before the season began, Inter struggled through four managerial changes in 2016-17 and finished seventh to miss out on European competition.
But order appears to have been restored with the appointment of former AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti in June.
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