Can Vincenzo Montella Unite AC Milan's Expensively Assembled New Look Squad?

Can Vincenzo Montella Unite AC Milan's Expensively Assembled New Look Squad?
10:00, 20 Jul 2017

It was summer 2012, and Fiorentina fans were staring into the unknown. In came a new and unproven coach, along with no less than 18 new players in the 29-man squad. Vincenzo Montella was the man to have been handed the task of assimilating those fresh faces, but at that point the ex-Roma striker only had experience of handling the Giallorossi youth team and a brief spell with Catania.

Any fears turned out to be unfounded though, as L’Aeroplanino turned acquisitions such as Borja Valero, Gonzalo Rodriguez, David Pizarro and Juan Cuadrado into a team that looked more than capable of improving on the 11th and ninth-placed finishes that had disappointed fans during the previous two seasons.

“I’d like to thank Mister Montella for having made me part of a beautiful, lively, fun Fiorentina,” Borja Valero wrote in an open letter to fans upon his departure for Inter this summer. “Not only for us but for all the people that were watching us.”

The Spanish midfielder – who had also joined the club in 2012 alongside Villarreal teammate Gonzalo Rodriguez – was right of course, Montella having united the new players in the very best of ways.

Through a mixture of his charismatic personality and firm but fair style, the Coach developed an atmosphere in which the squad wanted to play – and win – for each other, successfully transmitting their joyful expression of the game to anyone that watched them. The fans needn’t have worried. Under the intelligent new boss, the Viola finished fourth in Serie A in three consecutive campaigns and reached a European semi-final in his final year.

As the relationship with Fiorentina’s controversial owners turned sour, Montella was eventually fired for daring to ask for extra funds so that he could take the squad that little bit further, the players assembled on a shoestring budget not quite capable of gaining a Champions League berth or a European trophy.

Now at Milan, the 43-year-old finds himself in charge of a club that has spent the most of any European side this summer. The size of this mammoth will weigh heavy on him, as the Rossoneri have made a gamble, the new owners spending big in the hope it will propel them towards the extra revenue generated from success in the Champions League.

But is he the right man for the job? After all, his talent for man-management and uniting a squad has not yet turned into any genuine success. If you look at his first season with Fiorentina, the answer is a resounding yes. The only thing that is different here is the weight of expectation upon him but – despite his affable personality – the man certainly doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

This was clear when he stood up to Fiorentina’s famously penny-pinching owners Andrea and Diego Della Valle, knowing full well it would probably lead to his sacking. Jumping from the frying pan into the fire, he then diplomatically stood up to former Milan president Silvio Berlusconi – famous for interfering in first team affairs – an owner who had seen previous Coaches such as Pippo Inzaghi and Clarence Seedorf buckle under the pressure of his constant demands.

“I have great respect for Berlusconi and will always thank him for giving me this opportunity,” Montella told a pre-match press conference. “Obviously there can be some confrontations and I always accept them with the utmost respect, but you cannot agree with certain aspects.”

With the right personality, skills and tactical acumen, he clearly is the ideal leader to take this club forward not only to where it wants to be, but where it needs to be. Cesare Prandelli – the former Italy Coach and fellow ex-Fiorentina boss – agrees with this sentiment, pointing the finger of doubt not at the man in charge of first team affairs but towards the new owners at San Siro.

“We have to understand the corporate structure,” Prandelli said to transfer expert Gianluca Di Marzio earlier this week. “For example, how many meetings are organised per week to address the problems and the support that is given to the Coach. A club is not only measured by its finances. That said I think Montella is the right man to quickly find the right mentality for this revolutionised Milan because he already did so in the first year with Fiorentina.”

Doubts over whether repayments of a €300 million loan from US hedge fund Elliott are achievable will continue to rumble on. Whether or not this is a financially viable gamble for the Rossoneri will be revealed at some point in the future. But those Chinese investors at the helm can breathe easy knowing that Vincenzo Montella vastly reduces the risk of their investments failing to deliver what is needed on the pitch.

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