Kyle Walker is going from one crisis club to another: Underachieving AC Milan enduring a chaotic campaign ahead of huge derby date with rivals Inter

Milan were champions of Italy less than three years ago - but an awful lot has changed in the interim.

Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, the directorial duo that constructed a title-winning team on a shoestring budget, were unceremoniously sacked at the end of the 2022-23 season because of irreconcilable differences with Gerry Cardinale, the Moneyball-loving founder of RedBird Capital Partners, which holds a 99 percent stake in the Rossoneri.

Coach Stefano Pioli followed Maldini and Massara out the door just last summer and, by that stage, the fans were already expressing serious concerns over the club's alleged lack of ambition, cohesion and communication under their American owners.

They staged their infamous 'Sound of Silence' protest before last season had even concluded. By the midpoint of the current campaign, the atmosphere had turned toxic.

Milan commemorated their 125th anniversary ahead of the Serie A clash with Genoa on December 15 but, after a dour 0-0 draw that was greeted by boos within San Siro, furious fans gathered outside the Giuseppe Meazza to demand a change of ownership.

Some supporters angrily chanted, "We are not Americans!" Others asked, "Are you leaving or not?"

During further anniversary celebrations the day after, ultras unfurled many of the same banners they'd brought to San Siro, including "Incompetent management, a club without ambition. You are not up to the level of our history"; "Players without desire and dignity, you are the mirror of this ownership"; and "We have waited and supported you to the bitter end, we have had enough of your mediocrity".

Milan responded by sacking coach Paulo Fonseca two weeks later - but in such a disgracefully disrespectful manner that it only provoked further criticism of the club's owners.

Former striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic - who is working for RedBird in an advisory role even though he's effectively Milan's sporting director and calls himself "the boss" - declared Fonseca "the right man" to usher in a new era of excitement and success at San Siro after feeling that things had gone stale after five years under Pioli.

The Swede couldn't have been more wrong, though, with Fonseca falling out with key players such as Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez, and failing dismally to coax any consistency out of a team that rallied well in Europe to put themselves on course for a top-eight finish in the Champions League but continually underperformed in Serie A.

In that sense, his dismissal was justified. The manner of his exit was not, though, with journalists finding out before Fonseca that he had been sacked.

The net result was a humiliating and farcical final press conference in which the Portuguese talked about a job that he'd already lost and he ended up confirming his exit to reporters from his car window before leaving San Siro for good.

Milan were rightly slated for their handling of the whole affair so Fonseca's replacement, Sergio Conceicao, winning a derby - and a trophy - at the end of this very first week in charge was manna from heaven for the beleaguered board.

Milan will be hoping Sunday provides similar respite. However, a lot has changed since the thrilling come-from-behind win over Inter in the Supercoppa Italiana final on January 6.

Conceicao is no longer the smiling, dancing, cigar-smoking character that we saw in Saudi Arabia. He's now cutting an incredibly frustrated figure. In fact, he appears just as perplexed by Milan's propensity for switching off as his predecessor - and just as powerless to prevent it from happening.

After the midweek loss in Zagreb, he questioned the players' pride after watching them lose far too many duels against Dinamo and berated his team for failing to understand "the basics in football", chief among them, the requisite level of aggression at the highest level.

Conceicao also lamented the unavailability of several players, including David Calabria (suspended), Emerson Royal and Alessandro Florenzi (both injured), which forced him to field centre-back Fikayo Tomori at right-back.

Of course, the arrival of Walker will unquestionably help in that regard. Ibrahimovic quite correctly pointed out on Monday that the England star is capable of playing as a centre-back but it's on the right-hand side of the defence where he's unquestionably needed most by Milan.

What's unclear, though, is how much Walker has left to offer.

Ibrahimovic hailed Walker for being an "alpha male in the dressing room" but he's going to have to show a lot more than machismo to prove himself at Milan - because there's simply no getting away from the fact that he is not the outstanding player he once was, with the pace that served him so well for so many years seemingly starting to desert him.

To put it bluntly, he'd become a liability at City, which is why they were willing to let him go - midway through the season and despite being horribly short on defensive cover. Indeed, it's a sign of how far Walker's stock had fallen at the Eithad that the club captain started just 11 times during the first half of the season - and City lost six of those games.

Consequently, while the fans were quick to pay tribute to a defender that played a pivotal role in City's unprecedented period of success, few were sorry to see him leave, particularly as it was believed that his chaotic private life had also become a major distraction. The common consensus was that Walker, at 34, could no longer be relied upon to deliver in either the Premier League or the Champions League.

The perception is that the slower pace of Serie A should suit Walker but while the Italian top flight is not played at the same intensity as its English counterpart, it is nonetheless an incredibly demanding league. The standard of defending is on a whole other level to the Premier League and if Walker's legs really have gone, his positional play and reading of the game are going to be put to the test like nowhere else in the world.

Another legendary English full-back, Ashley Cole, was 33 when he arrived in Italy to play for Roma and ended up terminating his contract just 18 months into a two-year deal after realising he couldn't hack it in Serie A. It would not be a surprise to see Walker suffer the same fate during his loan stay at San Siro.

Sunday should reveal all. Inter represent the toughest possible for Walker and Milan, who sit seventh in Serie A. As they proved by going straight through to the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday night courtesy of a 3-0 win over Monaco, the Nerazzurri, who kept a staggering seven clean sheets in the league phase, are back to something close to their best, with Lautaro Martinez rediscovering his goalscoring touch in recent weeks and Marcus Thuram constantly tormenting defenders alongside the Argentine.

In Federico Dimarco, Walker will also be going head-to-head with arguably the finest left-sided wing-back in the world. In that sense, there will be no better indicator as to how the Englishman's loan stay at San Siro might go.

Things are tense at Milanello right now. Spain striker Alvaro Morata is said to be leaving for Galatasaray because of a falling-out with Conceicao, Calabria was involved in a heated argument with the former Porto boss after the Parma game and is now set to join Bologna, while Hernandez is said to be just as unhappy under Conceicao as he was under Fonseca. On the plus side, it's believed that Santiago Gimenez could arrive from Feyenoord before the close of the transfer window to replace the ineffective Morata, while Walker should, in theory, represent an upgrade on Calabria.

Rather tellingly, Milan's directors are trying to put on a united front right now, with Ibrahimovic, CEO Giorgio Furlani and technical director Geoffrey Moncada reportedly making it clear to the squad just how important the derby is to the club during an impromptu meeting at the training ground on Thursday.

A third consecutive win over their city rivals would also do wonders for morale. However, a loss would only provoke further awkward questions for Conceicao, Ibrahimovic and Cardinale, and probably also lead to Walker once again being asked if he has any doubts over his decision to leave a crisis in Manchester for an even bigger one in Milan.