While he was not averse to pulling the trigger on coaches who dared to go against his tactical advice, Silvio Berlusconi only had 15 tacticians in 31 years at Milan, turning many into legends.
The legendary patron has died at the age of 86 and leaves an indelible mark on the Italian football scene, above all for his three decades with 29 trophies at Milan, but also more recently bringing Monza to their first Serie A campaign.
Despite his reputation for publicly dictating the tactics of his squads, particularly galled by the idea of a three-man defence and even resistant to Carlo Ancelotti’s classic Christmas Tree formation, he largely stuck by his coaches.
In 31 years at San Siro, Berlusconi only worked with 15 different coaches.
Arrigo Sacchi was the first real appointment and a move that would become Berlusconi’s trademark, identifying a talent and promoting him to the main job without waiting.
It took Milan to two European Cups, one Scudetto, two European Super Cups, an Italian Super Cup and two Intercontinental Cups.
Fabio Capello followed from 1991 to 1996, again racking up the silverware including the 1994 Champions League victory over Barcelona and a run of Serie A titles.
Oscar Washington Tabarez did not last long, but Alberto Zaccheroni secured a surprise Scudetto on the last day of the 1998-99 season.
Zac wasn’t going to resist any setbacks with his three-man defence, though, and Berlusconi famously said of him: “A bad tailor can ruin good material.”
Cesare Maldini and Fatih Terim passed through before Carlo Ancelotti’s arrival in November 2001 and he remained for eight years, winning everything there was to win.
Of all the coaches, Ancelotti was the best at letting Berlusconi dictate and take credit, but ultimately sticking to his own plan and making the President feel like it was his idea.
Berlusconi was less kind to Leonardo and Max Allegri, openly criticising their ‘pig-headed’ refusal to listen to his advice.
In later years, the patron tried to bring back some of the glory days by promoting former players to Milan coach, but Clarence Seedorf, Pippo Inzaghi and Cristian Brocchi didn’t really make the grade in that role.
Sinisa Mihajlovic and Vincenzo Montella rounded out the list of Berlusconi’s bosses at Milan.