Winning requires incredible discipline and mentality. The ability to inspire others to win requires even more, it requires leadership, charisma, character, empathy, and confidence and belief that are unshakable when everything is stacked against you. It also requires an incredible work ethic and attention to detail. As someone whose origins meant the odds were stacked against him, Sérgio Conceição somehow developed all of these qualities and then some. He won as a player, he has an unbelievable winning record as a manager, and off the pitch, he is devoted to his family and his religion and the people he loves in this life. He played football at the highest level, now manages football at the highest level, and works tirelessly to be successful in both his professional life and his personal life. He is a tenacious warrior.
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| He will fight to the end for Milan, and the players are responding. |
Philosphy and Origins
Despite being a very successful player and manager in Portugal, and having played in Italy during his career as well, Conceição was not as well known to the Milan fanbase when he arrived at the turn of the calendar year. With very short notice, he assembled his team and and arrived in Milano, rescheduling an earlier training session that had been cancelled for the evening hours because he wanted to get started immediately. His humility and his desire to get to work were refreshing, and his knowledge of the Italian language and of Serie A allowed him to hit the ground running.
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| He arrived ready to work, and he understood the assignment. |
He also said something upon his arrival that led me to believe that he immediately understood the assignment: "This intensity, this aggressiveness, and the desire, the hunger to reach the final whistle knowing we gave our all... The players need to understand that their eyes should light up when they enter Milanello." We have plenty of talent in our squad, but this level of discipline, passion, and mentality is what the team has been missing the most. Not only was his diagnosis correct, he was also the perfect type of manager to bring the mentality back.
At the age of 50, Conceição has 13 years of coaching experience under his belt. He also has averaged a trophy per year now and already has a stadium named after him, too. Not only did he set the record for the most matches as a manager at Porto, he also had an incredible win percentage of 72% over his seven years at the club. People are quick to dismiss this amazing statistic because Portugal is not one of the top five leagues, but he also managed some incredible and very memorable Champions League matches at Porto as well, taking the "smaller" Portuguese team head to head with clubs who went on to win it all.
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| Conceição and Porto's long-serving President, Pinto da Costa, with his 11 trophies won in 7 years. |
To understand how he became so successful, it is important to understand who he is and where he came from. He was born Sérgio Paulo Marceneiro da Conceição in 1974 in humble circumstances in a village near the Coimbra region of Portugal. He learned his ethics of hard work from his father, who was a bricklayer, and his mother, who was a homemaker, as he was one of eight children. He would also help his father work on holidays from school to help the family.
Conceição's father was very strict, and rarely expressed love to his children, while his mother was everything to him. He also has said that religion was "extremely important in terms of my balance, my growth and everything that was my parents' education, in their own way." But he has said that he is grateful for his strict upbringing, describing his father as a "village man, hard-working and with fantastic principles," and believes that his father's disciplined ways helped shape his "character, personality, and way of relating to others."
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| Académia, Conceição's local club. |
Although Conceição was a fan of Sporting as a child, as most people in his village were, he played for his local club, Académica in their youth teams. His father used to take him to practice on his motorbike. The opportunity came for him to sign for a big club, with Benfica, Sporting, and Porto all showing interest in the young player. But it took months for both Sérgio and the Porto directors to convince his father to let him go to a big city like Porto. So, finally, in 1991, as a 16 year-old, his father relented, and went with him as he signed for Portuguese giants Porto. However, only one day after signing for such a big club, disaster struck, and his father was killed in an a traffic accident.
As if this was not hard enough for a young teen, he also lost a brother not long after in a steel factory accident, and his mother was paralyzed on one side and confined to a wheelchair. She also passed away less than two years after his father's death. He has described the loss of his mother as the most difficult moment of his life, and said that he simply felt lost afterward. He even thought about quitting football after losing her, and has said that his difficult childhood has left him with a "dark side" that will never allow him to be "100 percent happy." Gratefully, though, his traumatic experiences did not make him quit football, and he remained at Porto.
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| Kissing the crest at Porto, age 20. |
Sérgio Conceição the Player
For most of his career, Conceição played as a right winger. His first three years of his senior career at Porto were spent on loan at clubs in Portugual's second division. Upon his return to Porto, he scored nine goals over two years and was part of the team that won back to back league titles and also a Taça de Portugal (Portuguese domestic cup) trophy. His success there won the attention of Serie A side Lazio, and was transferred for a fee of €11 million in 1998.
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| Conceição on his debut with Lazio with another former Milan manager, Siniša Mihajlović. |
Sérgio's debut with Lazio was in the Supercoppa vs. Juventus. He scored the winner in that match, and also played an important part in winning their UEFA Cup Winners' Cup that season as well. His first Serie A goals were a brace scored in a big win against Inter, and he would also go on to help Lazio win a Scudetto, a Coppa Italia, and a UEFA Super Cup.
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| Conceição impressed at Parma, and was even linked with Milan. |
As part of a transfer deal that saw Hernán Crespo go to Lazio, Conceição went the other way to Parma, where he spent the 2000-01 season. Once again, he scored on his debut, a UEFA Cup match. He had a strong season with Parma, although it ended with an injury for him, and was actually linked to Milan as well as Juventus and Manchester United. However, Parma used him in a transfer deal to go to Inter for another player in return. Although he spent two seasons at Inter, he only scored one goal, so left by mutual agreement in 2003. Returning to Lazio, he again struggled, and left the club by mutual consent to return to Porto in January of 2004.
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| What might have been... Conceição with countryman Rui Costa at a time he could have been at Milan. |
However, Sérgio's return to Porto only lasted six months. He got a fresh start in Belgium in the 2004-05 season, transferring to Standard Liège. In his very first season at the club, he won the Belgian Golden Shoe award. During his three years at the club he scored 21 goals, his best tally for any single club. However, he was also involved in controversy there, as he received a ban for spitting on an opponent and assaulting a referee in March of 2006. The ban was 4.5 months immediate ban, with an additional 31.5 months suspended, pending good behavior.
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| Conceiçao won the 2005 Belgian Golden Shoe award his first year at Standard Liège. |
The 2007 season saw him move to Kuwait side Qadsia, but he was unhappy there and looked for a transfer in January, hoping for a return to Portugal. He ended up joining Greek side PAOK in January of 2008, where he returned to fitness and was actually appointed captain for the 2008-09 season, having become beloved for his leadership and devotion to the shirt. The beginning of the 2009-10 season saw him struggle constantly with knee injuries, and so in October of 2009, he announced his retirement from football.
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| A fan favorite at PAOK for his devotion to the shirt. |
Conceição also represented Portugal at the U21 level beginning in 1995, being capped seven times and scoring one goal. He then went on to feature for Portugal's senior national team, debuting in 1996 and making 56 appearances for his country. At UEFA Euro 2000, he scored a hat trick vs. Germany, and he scored four goals during Portugal's qualification for the 2002 World Cup.
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| Representing Portugal was a particular sense of pride for him. |
He was a part of the team that was considered Portugal's "Golden Generation," but that generation did not actually end up winning anything. And his time with the national team was cut short at the age of 28 by the appointment of Brazilian manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, something that Sérgio has expressed regrets about. He felt he deserved to play in the Euro 2004 tournament, which was played in Portugal, and the national team went to the final, although they lost to Greece.
Mister Conceição, the Manager
Conceição retired having won 13 team trophies as a player, in addition to the Belgian Golden Shoe individual honor. Immediately upon Conceição's retirement as a player at PAOK, he accepted a director position at the club, and remained for that season until the Portuguese manager whom he had played for resigned, and he also left. From there, he joined his former Standard Liège club in Belgium as an assistant to manager to Dominique D'Onofrio for the 2010-11 season.
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| His first management job was an assistant at Standard Liège. |
His first head coaching position was with Olhanense, who were playing in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, the top league in Portugal. When he joined in January of 2012, they were in 10th place, and they finished the season in 8th place under Conceição's managerial debut. His time at the club ended in January of 2013, and he took legal action against the club for unpaid wages, something their players went on strike for later in the season as well.
In April of 2013, Conceição took charge of his local club Académica, where he had played as a youth. While he was hired to avoid relegation, coming in when the team were in 13th place, he was able to guide them to an eighth place finish at the end of the following season, in 2014, which when he left the club.
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| At Braga with the trophy he would end up losing on penalties. |
From there, he went to Braga, who had finished 2013-14 without qualifying for European competition for the first time in ten years. Conceição averaged 1.8 points per match for the 2014-15 season, leading them to fourth place and the Taça de Portugal final. The semifinal was played at Rio Ave, a club Milan fans will remember well, and their win meant he walked 24 miles home due to a bet he had made with his players if they won.
Braga lost in that cup final on penalties (3-1) to Sporting, which was a disappointment, but became controversial after Conceição's private reaction to Braga's President's public statement, and he was sacked, despite having exceeded his sporting objectives for the season. Ironically, he was replaced at Braga by one Paulo Fonseca.
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| Even in his early days as a manager, he was beginning to show what he could do. |
His next appointment was at Vitória Guimarães in September of 2015. Despite a big home win against Porto, something they had failed to do in 14 years, he struggled to repeat his success consistently and Vitória finished in 10th place that year, with no European competition. Sérgio left the club by mutual consent at the end of the 2015-16 season.
In December of 2016, Conceição was hired by Ligue 1 side Nantes, who were languishing in 17th place in a league made up of 18 teams. With an average of 1.7 points per match, he was able to guide the troubled French team to a seventh place finish. At the end of the season, despite having a two year contract, he quit Nantes and took a position at Porto to be closer to his family. This also reunited him with club president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, who was like a father to him, having actually come into his life right as he lost his father.
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| Conceição's season at Nantes was fantastic, taking them from 17th up to 7th in the league. |
His move to Porto in June of 2017 was also a challenge for him, as Porto had not won the league for four years, and their rivals Benfica had won four straight titles. For reference, Porto is to Benfica kind of like Milan is to Juventus – while Benfica claim more league titles and domestic success, Porto has more international success and European trophies. In fact, Porto has actually won four different titles (the Quatro?) in a single season twice. Their fierce rivalry was one of the reasons Porto were anxious to bring a winning manager to the club to get it back on track.
The challenge also involved a significant pay cut from his wages he was making at Nantes, but it has never been about the money for him. In fact, he typically refuses severance wages when leaving a club. Having signed a two year contract, Conceição made a promise when he was unveiled at Porto, saying his parents were happy wherever they were, but they "would be even happier in May." He was able to make an immediate impact at Porto, winning an amazing 82% of his league matches to lift the Primeira Liga trophy in his first year as manager of the club, and, remembering his promise, he dedicated the win to his parents. Porto also reached the Round of 16 in the Champions League his first year, and his contract was renewed for another year at the end of the season.
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| Sérgio with his dear friend and Porto President, Pinto da Costa, who passed away last month. |
The following season, he also took them all the way to the Champions League Quarterfinals, being knocked out by the eventual winners that year, Liverpool. Additionally, although finishing second in the league, Porto won the Supertaça trophy in the 2018-19 season. The 2019-20 season saw Porto win the double – both the league title and the Taça de Portugal, in which they defeated rivals Benfica in the final.
The following year, after the COVID lockdown, they finished second in the league, but won the Supertaça and reached the Champions League Quarterfinals again, once again being knocked out by eventual winners Chelsea. Conceição signed another contract extension, this time for an additional three years.
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| Conceição hugs his wife after winning his first title with Porto in 2018. |
The 2021-22 season was perhaps the most massive season at Porto for Sérgio. In the league, he won 85% of his matches. In the Champions League, Porto met Milan, who were playing in their first Group Stage in seven years. In October, Conceição's Porto defeated Milan 1-0 in Porto. The following month, Milan managed a 1-1 draw at the San Siro, in a legacy match where both Conceição's son Francisco featured for Porto and Paolo Maldini's son Daniel featured for Milan.
The young Francisco Conceição also scored his first league goal for Porto that January, an 89th minute gamewinner that produced a beautiful, epic father and son celebration. That April, Porto tied Milan's record of 58 consecutive unbeaten matches with a 7-0 destruction of Portimonense. They would then go on to win the league for his third time, sealed with a victory over Benfica, when he celebrated with his infamous cigar and dance with the team. Porto also won the Taça de Portugal once again.
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| When you win so many trophies, you don't know where to put all of them. |
Sérgio followed this up by breaking the record for the manager with the most matches for Portugal in the 2022-23 season. His team also won Porto's first ever Taça de Liga, the Portuguese cup for the top two leagues. He also won the Taça de Portugal and the Supertaca titles and went to the Champions League Quarterfinals that season, while finishing second in the Primeira Liga.
Last season, Porto finished third in the league, but once again won the Taça de Portugal, the third manager to win this title four times, and the first to achieve this with the same team. Porto were also runners up in the Supertaça final, and reached the Round of 16 in the Champions League once again. He signed a new contract through 2028, but that was before the club's heavily publicized presidential elections, which saw the end of Pinto da Costa's 42 years of success with Porto.
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| Sérgio and his staff with one of their Supertaça trophies. |
Conceição immediately discussed the possibility of also ending his years of success with the new president, having been linked with a possible move to Milan last May with rumors of Pioli's departure. Despite Milan ultimately making the wrong choice in the summer, Conceição did terminate his contract with Porto at the beginning of June. In his seven years at the club, he won 11 titles, becoming the Porto manager with the second most titles in their history. Sérgio's agent told him that he is even more talented as a coach than he was as a player, and his impressive time at Porto seems to have already proven that.
After leaving Porto, Sérgio did have other offers, of course. Including a petition from the fans of his former club Académica, in which they stated that they did not have any money, but they offered lots of love and would take him to great dinners at Taberna Casa Costa. When he was made aware of the petition on social media, he replied, "It is an honor to have my name associated with this club and with this city. I never really left!" I feel bad for Académica, because he was clearly still holding out for the train wreck at AC Milan. I don't know how good the food is at Taberna Casa Costa, but apparently he was craving some Milanese food.
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| Bringing the team together from day one. |
Milan: Triumphs, Trials, and Tactics
Milan fans know very well how inept our management are and what a mess they made of the first half of the season, but when they finally sacked Fonseca and called Conceição, he and his staff were in Milano in less than 24 hours to get to work cleaning up the mess. If you're wondering why Conceição might accept such an insane position midseason with a formidable calendar ahead, perhaps the words of his agent regarding Sérgio and the challenge of returning to Porto will clarify something about the man and the manager: "He loves anything that's confusing... Underestimating him or trying to hurt him is the biggest mistake an opponent can make. He lives with that in an extraordinary way. He thrives on it."
This makes his move to Milan make sense, and we saw how he came in, and immediately utilized the discipline and work ethics learned from his father to restore some normalcy in the squad. His struggles as a child and watching his parents work so hard, combined with having lost them, have also made him a deeply empathetic and compassionate person, and he used these skills to immediately reach out to everyone at the club, not just the players, and try to get to know them all. This was a top priority, as he indicated in his unveiling press conference, a sign of a good leader. He also sought to calm the fans and expressed the importance they held at the club. (Althiugh I am not sure they got that memo.)
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| It's Conceição time. |
His start for Milan is already legendary. He arrived Monday afternoon to sign his contract, held a training that night, had his press conference, and departed for Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. His first match was the semifinal against Juventus, ironically his son Francisco's team. Despite being sick with a fever, he still did all the press conferences and ran the trainings. And his winning spirit inspired a 2-1 comeback win. Pretty impressive, considering the broken dressing room and poor mentality he inherited.
From that first match, though, we saw him hug each player after the win, and they formed a quick huddle after the match, further demonstrating the new spirit of unity. This was immediately and visibly a different team. The final a few days later was a Derby against Inter, whom we had agonizingly lost six times in a row to in the past two seasons. But the still hoarse and coughing Conceição said that the team needed to "face Inter with humility but without fear." And once again, after going down two goals, Conceição's new Milan came back and won 3-2 in stoppage time. Milan were the Supercoppa champions.
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| Tears of joy at the final whistle, winning means so much to him. |
The tears in his eyes and the hugs he gave to his staff at the final whistle tell you so much about what this meant to Sérgio. And I doubt he even realized in that moment that he will forever be the manager who set the record for winning a trophy with Milan after only two matches. But the way he celebrated with the players both on the pitch and with his trademark cigar and dance in the dressing room afterward showed how much he already loved these players. And how much love and respect they had for him, as well.
His tenure at Milan has been filled with highs and lows since then. No one talks about how well he has managed his players through the inherited injury crisis, and that now they are all healthy, in spite of playing an unhinged amount of games. His first 17 matches were played in a dizzying seven week period in which he never even had a full week to train with the team, mainly just recovering between playing every three days in four different competitions. To put that in perspective, Fonseca was at the club for five months before he hit 17 matches in only two competitions, and although he also came in midseason, Pioli played his first 17 matches over a four month period of time. Worse still, there was the transfer window, which saw five new players in and five players out.
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| Mister Conceição had his favorites from day one. |
One of the players who left was Captain Davide Calabria, with whom Conceição nearly had a physical fight with at the full time whistle of a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Parma. If you've followed his career, this was hardly Conceição's first physical confrontation, but that does not justify anything. After being dragged apart by teammates, both Calabria and Conceição publicly addressed the incident, saying that it was a misunderstanding. Calabria further elaborated on it, saying, "It's not a positive season like some of the others have been. There are situations, even personal ones, that no one knows about."
Calabria had also often been benched by Fonseca for much of the season, and was questioned in the criminal investigation of the Curva Sud Ultras, having had dinner with them at least once. After the club had splashed €15 million on Emerson Royal to push Calabria to the bench, now they were bringing in Kyle Walker from Manchester City to start ahead of him as well. Conceição also came in and unceremoniously handed his captain's armband to Maignan. But even if things were, in fact, fine with Conceição, Calabria, who had already basically admitted he was leaving at the end of the season, had plenty of reasons to leave when the club asked him to accept a transfer at the end of the window.
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| Learning about the existing players was hard enough, but Conceição also had five new players come in. |
With five new players coming in, and the drama of a captain who had been at the club his entire life leaving, as well as Bennacer, who had been at the club over five years amongst those who left, Conceição had his hands full helping everyone adjust to such major changes, all whilst playing this insane run of matches. And he had not even had time to impress his ideas on the team that was already there. Not to mention that he was also immediately dealing with the toxic environment at the club due to issues with management.
Additionally, there were the constant protests from the fans, who left the team alone in away matches, were silent at home matches, and have now begun to come fifteen minutes late to every match, then simply sing songs in protest of management, rather than support the team. In fact, they have taken to whistling the players, even when they have won. I was happy when the team walked off the pitch after the Como win at San Siro without acknowledging their own fans whistling and jeering at them, because those fans don't deserve it.
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| Two men who personify grinta, but the fans refuse to support them. |
But Conceição is frustrated, because he has said that never in his career has he experienced this kind of atmosphere from fans. When asked about his desire to win, he said, "This arrogance transmitted by this determination has to do with always wearing, with fervor, the jerseys of all the clubs I have been a part of. I always go in to win. I don't like to lose, not even by a whisker, in anything in my life." That all-in mentality of wearing each shirt conflicts with the Curva Sud's self-centered protests, fans who have done anything but support the team this season. So it is no wonder that he is so confused by their behaviors.
Jorge Mendes, his agent and friend also confirned Sérgio's animosity toward losing, mentioning that he is also "strict, suspicious, and even obsessive about his work," which honestly tracks, given his history. But he is also known for rewarding hard work as well, arranging fun team activities, taking his teams for dinners, even reportedly booking a spa day at a five star resort for his Porto players one year. Reports of his military-like strict rules he immediately set for the players upon arriving at Milan include limits on cell phone usage, daily weigh-ins, and staying overnight at Milanello as a team ahead of all matches. While that level of discipline may seem over the top, these players have benefitted from this, and also having more focus on professionalism and a better work ethic.
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| Coming in hot. |
All of that has translated to the pitch, where they have courage and determination to play to the final whistle now, even when negative events happen. In fact, in the 10 victories since Conceição has arrived, six of them occurred after coming from behind, giving them a reputation as a comeback team. Since his arrival, he has emphasized that this tenacious spirit and mentality is more important than tactics.
Conceição oversimplified his tactical approach, saying, "For me, football is very simple: there's a goal, and you have to score and not concede." Between this and not really having a chance to put his identity on the team yet, Milan fans have been quick to dismiss his tactical prowess. However, not only is he very capable of lining up whichever system he has players available for, he is confident in his fluid and dynamic tactical changes within a match, often using impressively game-changing substitutions.
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| He says it's not about tactics, but he also plays tactical Jedi mind tricks to change the match. |
His style of play is very direct and focused on possession, playing fast, aggressive, football and pressing the opponent. He has encouraged his players to play vertically, but also to remain compact to help defensively. Whereas Fonseca had some good ideas for complex tactics that required every single player to be perfect all the time and were quite rigid, Conceição's tactics in comparison might seem more like a battering ram – simple, yet effective. (And yet still quite flexible.)
However, a more in depth look at how his Porto side played demonstrates that his ideas are not some kind of "tactics for dummies." For example, Thiaw and especially Pavlović have thrived under him because he likes to have his center backs push forward, letting the midfielders drop back for coverage. The flaw with this is that Milan don't have any midfielders who can really defend, so he has some work to do in order for that concept to work.
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| Master of Press Conferences. |
While he often preferred a 4-4-2 system, and it is thought that bringing in more attacking players like Santiago Gimenez and João Félix may have been specifically to help him implement that, he has typically stayed with a 4-3-1-2 or 4-3-3 system more often at Milan. However, having Loftus-Cheek available now and pretty much everyone available now that they have returned from injuries, he will have new options after the international break. He has also utilized players like Musah, Álex Jiménez, and João Félix at multiple positions as he tries to find the best fit for this team.
Despite disappointing results in the Champions League that saw Milan fail to progress to the next round, Conceição booked a double Derby with the now top of the table Inter in the Coppa Italia Semifinals that will be a true test of how the squad has improved. And a win would give him a chance at another trophy this season as well. Additionally, while a shocking poor run of results seemingly guaranteed no Champions League for Milan next year, Conceição has not given up on his mandate to finish top four, even if that will also require teams above Milan dropping points. Again, he does not like to lose. Ever.
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| He lost this match then he lost his dear friend the same week of the anniversary of losing his mother. |
Sérgio Conceição the Man
In addition to his devotion to his parents and surviving siblings, Conceição is a devoted husband and father. He married Liliana, whom he met when he was just 17 and she was only 14 years old. Liliana's father was not excited about them dating when she was so young, but has since become more supportive of Sérgio, particularly since he is forced to see the stadium that bears Conceicão's name right in front of his own home.
Sergio and Liliana married just three years later after meeting, when he was 20 years old, and 30 years later they are still together. They now have five boys, the four oldest are all footballers, while it remains to be seen what the fifth son will choose, as he is still young. Conceição did not ever tell his sons to play football, but it turns out they are all decent footballers an very competitive like their father.
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| Sérgio with his wife and children in 2023. |
Another contradiction to the fierce, strict, and sometimes explosive manager people know is that Sérgio is still very devoutly religious, and attends mass regularly, while firmly believing that everyone has a right to believe whatever they want to. Perhaps even more surprising is that he is quietly very charitable. Ever since he began to have personal success, he has taken pleasure in helping children who are in need, often supplying them with basic necessities. In fact, Jorge Mendes says, "People have a completely wrong idea of him," citing an example like Sérgio seeing a television program where someone is in need and then calling the production team and buying that person a wheelchair. Or the time he spent €60,000 on a match ticket to help his local club Académia. Or during the pandemic, he personally and very generously supported ten families who were struggling through the "Football for Life" program.
Since his days at Lazio, he has supported a youth center in his native Coimbra that is run by Mother Teresa Granado. He had asked his agent to find an institution for him to support. So, one day, he just walked in, introduced himself and asked how he could help. Even though Mother Teresa had no idea who he was and no interest in football, she later became a fan of his, they remained friends, and Conceição has offered his time, money, and supplies to help the orphaned and needy children in the area for over 25 years. He doesn't speak about the good works that he does, but he has a big heart and loves to help others.
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| Sérgio with Madre Teresa in Coimbra, with whom he has partnered with to help children in need for years. |
Which brings me to my final point. Milan have found an incredibly successful manager with an obsessive winning mentality, the likes of which we may not have ever been seen, or at least not for some time at this club. Maybe a little like the Portuguese Gattuso, but with a winning record and a lot of trophies. He is one of the hardest working, devoted, passionate managers who is also empathetic, compassionate, and genuinely cares about his players and impressively has strong moral character, too. It is a combination of skills and personality traits that are incredibly rare to find in one human being. Yet, as he recently pointed out, "Every day they bring new coaches to the club." Still, he believes and refuses to give up.
Why has the media already moved on from him and just speak incessantly about his replacements every single day? It's beyond disrespectful, it's disruptive and counterproductive to the work of everyone at the club. As long as there are matches left to play, I want this man fighting for my team. He has not even had a chance to breathe, let alone to shape this team to his winning standards or even to let the new players gel, for that matter.
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| This is my manager. |
I would love to give him the entire 18 months of his contract just to see what he can do, or at the bare minimum wait until the end of the season before we start talking about his fate. He is literally just what Milan has been needing. Sure, he can be unpredictable at times – we joked about looking forward to him being sent off on the podcast, everyone has their flaws. But if being too passionate about your work is a flaw, then I am okay with that one. Largely misunderstood, he is a good man, a winning coach, and a tenacious warrior.
This post inspired by the music of Rage Against the Machine's "Testify"
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Reviewed by Elaine
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