Incoming Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has been told by local media to copy Milan if the Premier League side want to be successful again.
The two European giants have endured similar difficulties in recent years following from a successful period under a long-term manager – though Carlo Ancelotti’s eight-year stint at San Siro is dwarfed by Sir Alex Ferguson’s 27 years at Old Trafford.
Both sides went from Champions League final regulars to struggling to qualify for the competition but Milan are a point away from winning their first Scudetto since 2011 while United are on course to finish sixth in the English top flight.
And the Manchester Evening News have urged Ten Hag to copy the blueprint set out by the Rossoneri on how to turn the fortunes of a fallen giant around.
The report compares the poor transfers and mismanagement which proceeded the appointment of Stefano Pioli to United’s current plight.
It points to the turnaround under Pioli as evidence United can halt their slide.
The report suggests Theo Hernandez, Fiyako Tomori, Mike Maignan and Rafael Leao are the types of smart signings United need to look to replicate if they are to enjoy success again.
Erik ten Hag has been given Manchester United blueprint by AC Milan #MUFChttps://t.co/Nb5sbWRIQs
— Man United News (@ManUtdMEN) May 18, 2022
That’s reasonable if man utd can do that actually. However, I doubt it because the streams of revenue flowing into the clubs coffers wouldn’t make it possible. It’s actually true that necessity is the mother of invention but the notoriously competitive nature of the premier league for players may not allow such blueprint to work anymore esp in the premier league.
This is the weakest Serie A champion in quite some time. While Milan deservingly won the league it doesn’t make them the powerhouse they used to be, the race to the end could have been a lot closer but teams like Napoli and Juve failed to keep up the pressure. I don’t think this AC Milan could beat last year’s Inter or previous years of Juventus on their best day.
Adel, yes but financially it’s relative. Man U can still outspend Milan, so in terms of their financial positioning in the EPL vs the other clubs it’s the same as Milan vs. Juventus and Inter. Actually it may be better. Thus signing a player like Leao for 35m (as Milan did) is much more attainable for Man U than it is for Milan, who really had to stretch to make this signing. I think the difference will be in how players are evaluated, so that money isn’t just burned to try and solve a problem. Potential and development will be given more weight over whatever shiny object happened to pop up that season at a lower club.
It’s ridiculous for untd to sign unproven player like Maguire for that huge amount.
Milan deserve to win for sure and have done well in the transfer market without doubt but and a big but is the fact that the rest of seria A has been awful. In fact the league is in total head allowed this potential victory for ac Milan. This would never happen in the epl because the rest of the league is so much more competitive, at best this blueprint would allow a return to the champions league but not winning the epl.
@Joh Smith, you say it would never happen in EPL? On Word: Leicester City.
Bye.
lol
Premiership is competitive!! Milan is winning the league because other were poor!! It can not happen In premiership!!!
Some of you loud mouths think football is your playstation, Milan is winning the because they play better football….no premiership team is in the final of any competition except Liverpool….the UK that suggested this, are you guys more learned than them?….milan is a good example to other teams, with the inflation and economic crisis, every club need to manange their funds well and Milan is the blue print……so shut your mouths up and face your playstation
John Smith @
How awful was the rest of premier league the season Leicester won?
Why? Cause he’s bold?
This can never happen in the EPL, EPL is this and that and even if a player has conquered the whole world, they still say because he hasn’t done it in the EPL, he’s not good enough and that’s so wrong! I remember having this argument everytime about Ibra with EPL fans in his first stint at Milan and they said he wouldn’t survive in England and then he went to England at old age and became a King and these EPL fans were mostly Man United fans and they wouldn’t stop talking of how good he is! That’s just one reason I never support EPL! Liverpool although they had more renue used the same model to rebuild and have been winning and Leicester won it too. Instead of giving Milan credit, they say it doesn’t happen in the EPL. Liverpool was lucky in both legs against Inter and that shows the rest of the serieA teams are not as bad you many would like to point out!
The melancholy truth is all clubs in Europe need to act and behave the way AC Milan‘s management is working, employ competent managers and staff, who will set rigid parameters for buying players, paying agents and building and enhancing the commercial value of clubs, this Milan management has rarely put a foot wrong, and we can clearly see the results, not going out and wasting money on over hyped players like Maguire and Pogba, take a look at the clown show in PSG, clubs need to understand that wasting money will never achieve anything, but planning and implementing goals will reward you better, I have been saying this before AC Milan will win another UCL before either PSG or Mancity win their first titles…
There were some difficulties when Milan set this blueprint at first:
1. No good players want to join Milan because they were not in the UCL.
2. Limited transfer budget.
3. Serie A is not as attractive as in the past.
Man U should have no problem with poin 2 and 3, they just need to find young and hungry players that understand the weight of wearing United’s shirt and (if they could) they should find players which support them as fans, such as Tonali in Milan.
Very well said Usman, and I hope you’re right about the UCL too – would love to see Milan return there before PSG.
John snitch or whatever you call yourself. Man City won it a decade ago and Rooney can’t get over it, and they are still winning. Leicester City won it six years ago and both teams were and are nobody. Ignorance is eating you up
McDaddy allegri- in fact milan beat inter last year and this year also. and milan beat juventus 2 years ago when juve won the scudeto (4-2)
milan also beat atletico madrid in madrid. so think again..
People saying the epl is competitve might want to look at the table there now and in recent seasons. There’s 2 teams in it, Chelsea are good, and the rest are pretty average.
As for it being competitive, it isn’t at all. The top 1 or 2 have enormous points/goal differences and wins – higher than anywhere else.
M City or Liverpool beating teams by 4/5/6/7 goals is now commonplace.
Problem for Serie A is that although the games are far closer and less predictable than the epl, they lack quality. There are no tops teams in Italy.
I think the point around Leicester is valid but this was an extraordinary achievement. A point I was trying to make is while Milan have been going about their business the other clubs have stood still or regressed, I don’t see this in the epl. City and Liverpool are never going to sit there and not doing anything, they are constantly improving.