5 coaches that AC Milan should be looking at

Following the sacking of Vincenzo Montella and the appointment of former legend Gennaro Gattuso as first team coach on an interim basis, AC Milan are looking for a new coach.

The Rossoneri had spent about 200m euros on new players in the summer transfer window but have looked disoriented, scattered and without a gameplan under the former coach.

Gattuso is not expected to make an appreciable impact as his record suggests that he is an average coach at best.

Here’s a list of five coaches that can make a long-term impact at the Italian club.

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#5 Thomas Tuchel

Tuchel can bring flair and technical football to the San Siro

The former Mainz and Borussia Dortmund coach is currently unemployed after a falling out with the Dortmund hierarchy over transfer related issues at the end of last season.

The German is an astute tactician who is capable of bringing the best of both the young players coming out of the club’s Primavera (Manuel Locatelli, Gigi Donnarumma, Patrick Cutrone, Davide Calabria) and the more established players like captain Leonardo Bonucci.

In the fiery German coach, Milan will be getting a man who is desperate to prove himself on the big stages and who has shown that given the right kind of support, he can get a team to play the vibrant, attacking style of play Milan fans are desperate to see returning to their storied club.

CEO Marco Fassone and sporting director Massimo Mirabelli acting for owner Li Yonghong have shown a willingness to spend money to compete, something the Dortmund equivalent (Joachim Hans-Watzke & Michel Zorc) refused or were unable to do and this should convince Tuchel to sign up for the project.

#4 Massimo Carrera

Carrera's appointment will be a surprise but he can do great things if appointed

One of the rising stars of the famed Italian coaching system and like most of the good Italian coaches, he was a former defender who played the game at the highest level.

In terms of actual coaching experience, he is the youngest of the candidates but what he lacks in experience, he more than makes for in what he offers.

Carrera is close friend and associate of Chelsea coach Antonio Conte. It was Conte who gave Carrera his first gig in football after his retirement following a long and eventful playing career.

In his first full job as a coach, Carrerra displayed all the skills he had learned working with Conte at Juventus (as sporting director and acting coach when Conte was suspended for match-fixing) and at the Italian national team to push Russian club Spartak Moscow to their first league title in 11 years.

Carrera has changed the culture of a club renowned in Russia for being flaky and made them stronger, more tactically aware and fitter than ever.

Despite his long association with rival club Juventus as player and coach, Carrera can do a great job for AC Milan if given the chance and will bring organization, defensive discipline and a strong focus on the collective to a Milan side currently struggling for a coherent identity.

#3 Luis Enrique

Enrique already knows the Serie A very well and can hit the ground running

The former FC Barcelona, Celta Vigo, and AS Roma coach has been out of work since he resigned from the Barcelona job and it seems he is ready for the next challenge.

The former Real Madrid and Barça player was seen as the second coming of Pep Guardiola when he was appointed as the manager given the similarities in their ascension to the job.

He started very well winning the treble in his first season but the Cules wearied of his style of play which put more emphasis on physicality over the technique prized by the Catalans.

The subsequent ouster at the quarter-finals stages of the UEFA Champions League in subsequent seasons and the incompetence of the board in refreshing what was a visibly tiring squad in need of new ideas made the atmosphere around the Nou Camp so poisonous that Enrique felt he had no choice but to call it quits.

His Barça experience would have made him smarter and more adaptable which would mean that AC Milan will be getting a better coach than Barcelona got at the beginning of Enrique’s tenure.

His understanding of Serie A from his time with AS Roma would mean he can hit the ground running if appointed and can make use of a squad that if properly coached has the personnel to play technical, attacking football.

His experiences at AS Roma and Barça mean that he is used to the pressure associated with managing important teams and he will not be fazed by the fans’ desires.

#2 Roberto Mancini

Mancini will bring stability and a guarantee of progress if appointed

Suave, debonair and a handsome devil to boot, Mancini may not be a very popular choice (he coached Inter Milan after all) but he has the pedigree to help propel AC Milan back into contention for the big prizes in European football.

Currently, manager of Russian powerhouse Zenit St-Petersburg, Mancini still harbours hopes of returning to the spotlight in a major European league and with a legitimate powerhouse club (or a club that can spend like one) as he did with Inter and Manchester City.

The manager who was a swashbuckling, technical goalscorer during his playing career has been accused of being a defensively minded manager who sets teams up to win with the odd goal and keep a clean sheet rather than going all out to score and entertain.

He will certainly bring defensive organization and cohesion as a competitive edge to a team that has looked all at sea this season especially in the big games against the big boys in Serie A (played 6 and lost all 6 against Serie A’s current top six).

A lot will depend on whether he feels he is ready to make the move from the Russia team whom he joined less than 6 months ago and has been recruiting a lot of talented players especially Argentineans (Sebastián Driussi, Matias Kranevitter, Leonardo Paredes and Emmanuele Mammana).

#1 Carlo Ancelotti

Don Carlo's return is one that would be welcomed by fans and media alike

The whispers about the Ancelotti to Milan move have grown into deafening shouts that even the hierarchy of AC Milan would be advised to pay heed to.

A man who knows the club in and out having played for and managed the club, there are many reasons why a move for 58-year-old silver haired fox will make sense for the club but there are compelling reasons why this move should not happen.

Ever since he moved on from Milan in 2009, the Italian famed for his raised eyebrow move has been conducting his own personal tour of Europe’s finest clubs collecting titles and money (as well as a few dismissals) from some of European football’s old and new royalty (Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid & Bayern Munich).

In this period, he has cemented his reputation as a coach who understands the demands of playing in and winning the UEFA Champions League while also gaining a somewhat unfair reputation for not being so good at the weekly slog of a league run.

He can be the man to turn the fortunes of the club around or given how his career has panned out in the recent past, he may just be a sentimental choice that creates more of problems instead of solutions.