AC Milan were strongly linked with a move for Randal Kolo Muani during last season and it would be fair to say his career has taken off since that point.
Calciomercato.com speak about Paolo Maldini and his particular eye for talent, naming Theo Hernandez and Mike Maignan as two of his intuitions in particular, and the same can be said for Randal Kolo Muani.
Didier Deschamps has just called the French striker up for the World Cup to replace the injured Christopher Nkunku and while today he plays at Eintracht Frankfurt, it could have been different given Milan thought about a move in the summer of 2021 as they were looking for a striker to work alongside Ibrahimovic and Giroud.
The Rossoneri were looking for a striker to complete the department, and after evaluating different profiles Maldini’s eye was on Kolo Muani, but he was considered at the time as plan B for Kaio Jorge, for whom they had no intention of participating at auctions.
The then-Nantes forward was one of the best young players in his country, and the fact his deal with them was set to expire in 2022 made him even more attractive. A new attempt was made by the Rossoneri the following January when they could have secured a pre-contract, as Maldini believed in him and wanted him in Italy.
However, the player had a lot of interest from different leagues but what convinced him was the proposal from Eintracht Frankfurt: a contract until 2027 and an immediate key role. He already has 19 goal contributions this season, and that speaks volumes.
Maldinis, LOL like it’s not the work of the scouts also if his intuition was so right we would’ve signed him
Thank you @Gigi.
Moncada’s intuition was proven right, along with Maldini’s inability to close a deal.
Greatest defender of all time and Greatest Milan legend as a player, but his work as a sporting director has not been good. Since he took over in the summer of 2020 along with his babysitter Massara, he has weekend the team after every season
Maldini could signed him if the owner gives him the budget. But i guess you forgot that Maldini isn’t the owner.
Oh this guy again.
If you didn’t read the article, the kid was a free agent. Maldini instead signed Origi who I bet gets paid a lot more than Frankfurt pays Kolo .
And like I told you the last time Maldini would have higher budget if he is capable of selling players instead of letting them leave for free
So you say that Maldini should have spend 12m/yr for Donna? 7m/ur for Kessie? Because that’s what they demanded to sign, it was not Maldini who let them go. He offered reasonable contracts, they asked crazy salaries, they left.
And in fact, it was not Maldini who set up the salary limits in these cases.
Overall it’s pure insanity to blame him. It’s nearly a miracle what he (and his team) has achieved with the budget and salary limitations he was given. Just look around, how much our competitors have spent and what they have achieved.
Guy the issue isn’t why those guys weren’t renewed to the outrageous salaries they wanted, the issue is why they weren’t sold before they can leave for free.
You clearly dumb as fvck.
A free agent doesn’t mean he’s completely free. Maldini still needs to pay commission for his agent and his salary needs greenlight from Milan owner.
And why are you still blaming Maldini with Dollaruma, Cashie, or Kebab case? Everything about them don’t want to renew nor sell to other clubs are well documented.
Seriously you need to stop making yourself like an ignorant dumb.
Since you are so smart and I am so stupid, did Maldini have to pay commissions to sign Origi? He was a free agent also. I bet higher commissions, too, since he is way more established player than Kolo.
And I blame Maldini because he is the sporting director. He is in charge of sales. Every other sporting director can sell a player that doesn’t want to renew except Maldini.
Players that other teams want, not the washed up 30+ year Olds that hasn’t played in 3 years like you were mentioning Marcelo, Bale Isco etc the last time
LOL. Theo, Bennacer, Leao, Tonali, Maignan.
A scudetto and second round in the champions league for the first time since 2012.
You are delusional.
I’ll give you Theo.
Bennacer and Leao were Boban signings. Boban also was the one behind Zlatan’s return
Tonali fell into his lap once Inter backed out of the deal, and Juventus were more interested in signing Locatelli. People trying to forget that Tonali had personal terms agreed with Inter and Conte is the only reason he isn’t playing for Inter right now.
Maignan was bought after Maldini lost Donnarumma, €60-70 mil player, for nothing. And it wasn’t like he was scouting Maignan.
Most of the players that won the scudetto were brought to the club by his predecessors.
Players leaving the club for free also falls on Maldini
LOL
Maldini was talking to Maignan before the season even ended. Tonali turned down inter when Maldini called him and said his childhood team wanted him. Just stop it. Tomori (Maldini) Kalulu (Maldini) Leao (Maldini) oh lets not forget Giroud (Maldini),
Maldini’s fingerprints are all over the scudetto. You are ridiculous. What disrespect.
Exactly. And also, if we have Moncada, Massara and Boban (in the past), it’s because of Maldini. He chose them, he brought them, they came because of him. That’s how teams work – and Maldini created a top one with limited resources. It’s outrageous to blame him after his achievements.
Ha ha ha, Tonali didn’t turn Inter down. Stop lying to yourself so you can feel better .
Conte forced Inter management to abandon the Tonali deal, who was done, because he wanted an experience player like Vidal instead of young kid like Tonali.
Those are facts.
Moncada was hired by Gazidis and Elliott.
When Boban was at Milan, he was in charge, not Maldini.
When Boban was fired because of the interview, Elliott went hard after Lazio Sporting director Igli Tare . They didn’t go after someone who has been a very successful Sporting director with limited budget to work under Maldini.
Its a known fact he did turn Inter down. Stop spreading misinformation.
Agreed with you Phill 🤝
I’m not sure why this poli kid keeps disrespecting Maldini works and spreading false Information all over the place.
So much false information from this poli kid 🤦♂️
You think 2 years before Donna left, anyone willing to buy the guy with his market value, high salary demand, and his agent?
You indeed dumb as fvck
Wasn’t it just 2 years before Donnarumma left on a free transfer that Chelsea and Liverpool spent €80 and €70 mil on Kepa and Allison?
They also have high salaries and high agent fees.
You really are an absolute plank. All the best teams in the World had good goalkeepers, who needed a GK? Bayern? No. Real Madrid? No. Manchester United? No. Manchester City? No. Liverpool? No. Arsenal? No. Chelsea? No. Even PSG didn’t need a GK, they signed Donnarumma because of his status. That’s why Milan couldn’t get a fee for Donnarumma, plus he lied, early on, we all expected him to sign a new contract and he didn’t. Furthermore, Maldini has been a director for 4 years. In those four years, despite a limited budget, he has helped build a scudetto winning squad, which is why he was recognised as the best director in Europe. What he has done, given his limited experience, is remarkable, and in time he will only improve as he learns from his mistakes.
There are ZERO problems with the way the club is being run. Until Milan increase their revenue from a new stadium, which is probably unlikely until the end of the decade, they will have to operate in the way clubs like Dortmund and Ajax operate. That means selling our best players and having a salary limit.
Unless you’ve been a Milan fan for 5 minutes, having been a fan when we were the richest club on the planet and untouchable in the transfer market, the last thing we do is complain about money.
@poli
Your argument and false statement has been destroyed left and right.
You should stop making yourself like an ignorant dummmy.
Every team with the capability to afford Donna already has great goalkeeper behind their poles. Only because it was free and they are greedy maniac mtf with a lot of money that psg made a move for him.
It was the right move by Maldini that we let him go, and with the financial space we were able to renew our upcoming stars back then. Now we still have people that loyal to us instead of players who came at the chinese reign that had been promised more money we could ever generate with our state at that time
“Tonali fell into his lap once Inter backed out of the deal,”
Apparently you don’t know the facts. Tonali called the Inter-thing off as he heard Milan were seriously interested in him.
That fact that some fans you can just create money out of thin air is so perplexing. Look around! Players all over are leaving for free because they make more on contracts and clubs can spend less on transfers. I bet over the next 5 years free transfers (especially for players with large salaries) will become quite common.
To say Maldini is a bad sporting director because he didn’t sign players to bad contracts so stupid. You think Barcelona (given their financial situation) feels good about paying Kessie 7M to sit on the bench. I bet if UEFA actually enforced FFP with clubs outside of Italy they would’ve offered close to what Milan offered him. Sure Origi was a bust, even the best directors miss on players from time to time.
Honestly given the contracts and transfers fees past Milan directors have given out, Maldini’s misses are far smaller.
Me personally I did not call him a bad director haha but I wanted to give credit where it’s due and I’m sure that kolo muani was the work of Moncada considering he always looks in the french league and he was at Nantes at that point
We have some top players. Maignan,Theo,Tomori,Kalulu,Benacer,Tonali,Leao,and Giroud. Numbers says 8 ,so we still need 3 players to have top 11 players ready to fight for everything. The rest of the team can be bench players. I am said that we picked CDK over Botman since we clearly strugle in defence when it comes to the jump-play,our CB’s can’t play decent in the air.Our main problem this season is defending free kicks,corner kicks..and that’s why Maldini wanted Botman so much but the menagement did not do him a favor to buy CB too.They forced him to pick between CB and our big problem AM and that did not go well.
LOL
I think someone here doesn’t know anything about Ac Milan at all but likes making false statement which did not have any source. Maldini, Maldini, Maldini….ow no it is very ridiculous, the way some people are accusing Maldini with a failure to renew contract, buying players, players leaving for free and so on. It is that Maldini don’t want to do all that? The answer is NO. Maldini working under some parameters laid down by the owners of the Club which he can’t go beyond that. In terms of players leaving for free, the players themselves wanted to walk out for free so that they can get higher salary and their agents will get commission. If you can remember Maldini wanted to sell Kessi to Tottenham but him and his agent rejected them because they want to walk out for free. Please any amateur fan should go and find out how Ac Milan is operating/conducting it’s business before making any comment ignorantly…
Well said.
Kepa was so bad that Chelsea bought Mendy in 2020, while Gigio was still under contract with Milan.
Arsenal was looking for someone to replace Leno , that’s why they bought Ramsdale in 2021.
—–“they will have to operate in the way clubs like Dortmund and Ajax operate. That means selling our best players and having a salary limit”.—–
Those are your words. “That means selling our best players”. Clubs like Dortmund and Ajax sell their players for astronomical fees.
We’ll that’s the point of the whole exercise, the man doesn’t sell our best players, he just let’s them walk. Because according to you, they lied to him. 4 different players with ,I think, 3 different agents coincidentally managed to fool Maldini the SD. It’s embarrassing that you use it as an excuse to defend Maldini.
But I bet next time Messias, Saelemakers, Diaz, Krunic will have bad games you will blame the owners for not providing Maldini with enough money to buy a proper LW and a CAM, or a striker born in this century, or maybe some decent back ups.
-Juve bought Vlahovic, how?, by selling Kulusevski and Bentancur
Napoli bought Kvara, Kim, Raspadori, Simeone, Oliveira, how? , they sold Koulibaly and Fabian Ruiz. You think Napoli owner provides bigger budget than Elliott, no, but they cultivate more money because they are capable of selling. Those players were on the last year of their contracts.
Since you said that Maldini has been Milan director for 4 years, that means that when he got into that position Gigio and Hakan had 3 years left on their contracts and Kessie and Romagnoli had 4 years left. So, in 3 and 4 years he couldn’t negotiate an extension or agree a sale of none of them. Oh right, it’s because they lied to him.
Great managers think 2 steps ahead, they can see a problem around the corner before it happens, Paolo on the other hand just reacts after the problem happens, because he is so trustworthy and the players nowadays are liars.
This. Well said.
“the way some people are accusing Maldini with a failure to renew contract, buying players, players leaving for free and so on. It is that Maldini don’t want to do all that? The answer is NO. ”
But these so-called experts who have played FM for an hour or two are absolutely positive that they could do far better job than Maldini. 😀 😀 😀
Seems someone cannot understand that a player cannot be sold except he wants too or is forced out of the club. if you remember us trying to sell off jamel.mesbah in the galliani era, you could learn from the story or braithwaite at barca. If he was a starter, the story would have so much messier. So our choices were to bench donarumma ( our best gk), romagnoli (who was the captain), hakan (who was our starting #10), or give them the wages they ask for. Nice choices eh?. When milan wanted the release clause for donnarumma increased, Raiola wanted it reduced and refused to sign an extension due to this. Why blame Maldini? Those were the players who did not believe in the milan project and they are not better off now either. Concerning tonali, Inter wanted to buy him outright, conte wanted an experienced player. That is correct. But who negotiated with brescia to pay in 2installments with a 10m reduction in transfer fee? Go listen to the interview with the brescia president, and what tonali said concerning the interview. By the way, edin dzeko is a milan fan, should have come to milan before even joining man city, but could we match his transfer fee at the time?
Inter conducted good business selling lukaku for a huge sum and are paying almost 20m to loan him back…with little results to show for it. Smart DS aint it?
Maldini’s transfer budget is limited accept it. He was given hard choices. He made some calls , some were good sime were flops. All directors made these choices. If Maldini was a flop like you claim, then his colleagues would not nominate and present him the awardfir best sporting director in Europe. Go win a league with a 50m budget and 97m wage bill, tryin in football manager, if you do, then get a job as a manager and try it again. Then you will appreciate what he has done.
“Seems someone cannot understand that a player cannot be sold except he wants too or is forced out of the club. ”
THIS! Some people really don’t get it.
Maldini has done some good work, but also, he has been bad in some areas. No one is perfect.
I think that the last 2 summer transfer windows, outside of Giroud and Maignan, have been awful and the team is absolutely weaker this year than it was last season.
And I also agree that if we had lost 4 starters for nothing under a sporting director not named Maldini, most fans would be in front of Casa Milan asking management to fire that sporting director.
Hopefully, he gets Bennacer deal done and then either re-sign Leao or sell him, because if he loses Leao for free, then even his son Daniel will ask for his resignation.
Milan needs a couple of signings in January , at least on loan if there is no money. A midfielder with the ability to create for others is a must. A #10 that can pass the ball, will make everyone else up front look better, even our RW. Messias isn’t that bad at finishing chances, but he isn’t someone that can create.
@Poli, in your ingenious arguments please factor in the effect of COVID-19 and its effects on club finances. In that 2-yr period up to Dec 2021, please name a club (probably excluding the Arab-owned) that bought a player, any player for more than $80m.
Also factor in the fact that UEFA was on ACM’s back for FFP infringement penalising ACM by the time Maldini takes the SD. His negotiating position was already weakened by this, and the owner who wanted to steady the club.
To date, there are so many star players who are not signed elsewhere, including in the EPL. The focus should not be just about selling/renewing at all costs. The market conditions play a key role
Wasn’t Maldini – the manager some people love to hate and blame – just awarded the best director in Europe by at least two different organizations? Yeah, what the **** do they know? The “expert” fans with aaaaaaall the facts know better. LOL. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀