Padovan claims Ibrahimovic should leave with Fonseca: “A disastrous season ahead”

With AC Milan’s start to the season, the talk of a managerial departure is rife, and it could happen as early as this weekend. If Paulo Fonseca does depart, Giancarlo Padovan has suggested that Zlatan Ibrahimovic should also leave. 

Fonseca never imagined the Milan job would be easy, but he probably did not expect it to be as difficult as it has been. Only winning one game in his first five competitive fixtures as the head coach is woeful, and there is only one chance at survival.

To keep his job, Fonseca must beat Inter in the Derby della Madonnina on Sunday night, but there have been suggestions that this may not even be enough for him to keep his job with the game being seen as a potential postponement rather than safety.

Taking stock of the situation, Padovan commented on Fonseca’s job when speaking to Milan News also claiming Ibra should depart if the Portuguese coach leaves.

Even in the managerial role, Ibrahimovic does not give up the character…

“Ibrahimovic still believes he is a player and will remain one. It is yet another demonstration that you don’t become a manager or a coach just because you have been a footballer. They are different professions, different systems, different culture.

If anything, Ibrahimovic has neither sporting nor footballing culture. He has that of the locker room, which is the receptacle of all conformism, the place where hazing reigns, where whoever speaks the loudest or plays the loudest music reigns,” he said.

A receptacle, strangely and unjustly elevated to a football shrine where anything goes. With the words used by Ibra and with his tone you go nowhere but down. Then there is Fonseca’s choice, which he claims and this is the result. And on Sunday I fear the rest will come…”

Six derbies in a row lost, you arrive in the worst possible conditions

“I don’t see how Milan can hold their own against Inter. There is a basic difference, which is that one is a team and the other is not.”

Does Fonseca still deserve the last call, with the derby?

“For me, on the Milan bench he shouldn’t even have sat, let alone been there. I fear that the picture of desolation will be the defeat in the derby and then everything will be inevitable. Thinking of a Fonseca still on the Milan bench seems risky to me.”

It would be the first certified failure of Ibrahimovic as manager…

“If Fonseca goes, Ibrahimovic should go too. The most honest people tie the coach’s fate to them, especially if it is their choice. Ibra is the one who chose not to bet on Conte who, for goodness sake, costs and demands.

“But then you find yourself in a situation where the fans at the fifth game boo you and protest. The fifth game. And it feels like the 25th game of the championship. With a disastrous season ahead.”