Exclusive | Mark Hateley on Milan’s problems: “It’s about getting the right people in the right place” | OneFootball

Serie A side Milan have now lost two league games in a row right after they got knocked out of the Champions League and problems are now brewing for Sergio Conceicao.

The Portuguese is ‘isolated’ at Milan over the last few days and there seems to be a battle of power ongoing amongst the club’s senior members.

Amidst that, Get Italian Football News spoke exclusively to ex-Rossoneri striker Mark Hateley about the problems at the San Siro.

He stated that Paolo Maldini’s exit from the club was a vital turning point in history and due to ownership issues, the ex-Italian champions are a mess and that doesn’t help the manager.

He told GIFN, via NewBettingSites.uk: “I’ve known Paolo [Maldini] for a long time. And I think if you go back to when Paolo left the football club, I think you can start to see where it starts to unravel a little bit.”

“I think, generally all around the football club there is a big disappointment this year because I think when you look to when Paolo was back there, I know Franco [Baresi] is still there at the club, but Paolo was a more active part of the environment, if you want to call it that.”

“It was a pretty close-knit sort of communication. And I see them go from winning a league to Champions League semi-final, and then all of a sudden, next season was a difficult one to bounce back off that. It is always difficult during the second year. And then all of a sudden, Paolo’s not at the football club now.”

“And then you see what happens from there. I think it’s difficult when you keep changing people in the background, especially a man of his stature, his personality, his gravitas, I think you will always struggle.”

Hateley stated that while he doesn’t know the Milan ownership personally but things unravelled when Maldini departed and all of it is a hallmark of what has gone wrong at the club.

“I don’t know the ownership, I don’t know them personally, and it’s very difficult to comment on something you’re not really close into and you don’t know.”

“But you cannot just put a player or a personality or a guy like Paolo away from a club that he’s been there all his life, understand everything, everything about it, what it takes to be a Milan player, how the supporters think, which is the most important thing. And he has that intelligence and humanity as well within all that.”

Emphasising further on the issues at Milan, the former striker said: “You know, it’s about getting the right people in the right place to keep the people focused on the job.”

Hateley also revealed that he still knows people at the club and considering everything and the problems right now, there are bigger things to worry about for the Diavolo than just the manager or a certain section of players. The problems higher up just trickle down on a weekly basis.

Conceicao will look to turn things around on Sunday, when Milan take on fellow top-four chasers Lazio.

Kaustubh Pandey I GIFN