CorSera: Pioli at the centre of RedBird’s new Milan – he will have more say on transfers

By Oliver Fisher -

With the farewell of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, a new era begins at AC Milan in which some figures will have an even more central role in the club.

According to Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews), among these figures that will have more responsibility is Stefano Pioli who has not only been told that he will keep his position as head coach, but  but will be even more at the heart of the RedBird project.

Pioli will be more involved in decisions relating to the transfer window, and he will now report to CEO Giorgio Furlani and chief scout Geoffrey Moncada. The coach will be able to have a greater impact on transfer strategies and will be more directly involved in the choice of purchases and sales.

In short, he will become more of a typical ‘English manager’, even if in England the duties of coach and sporting director practically coincide. Either way, Pioli will therefore be an even more central figure and will have more say.

Despite the farewells of Maldini and Massara who have always been by his side in recent years, Pioli’s position has never been at risk.

He is admired by the American ownership for his development of young players and his composed style when speaking to the media.

Tags AC Milan Stefano Pioli

30 Comments

  1. Pioli will have double job to analyze and train all potential players in the europe and manage the team also. what if he’s wrong at selecting players. Don’t get this wrong, if he wants a very good player but has salary and ego problem, thus making it to alternative players.

    1. Pioli will be offered players based on the criteria he is looking for and the style of play we have and stats of the player. Than he will be able to choose together with others on board. He will not go out shopping by himself.

  2. People here complained a lot right, Pioli was not using the signings Maldini found?

    Yeah cuz he never asked for them. He isnt gonna play every random player thats brought in.

    1. lol did you forget when giampaolo didnt wanna use rebic and theo? was that maldini’s fault or the stupidity of giampaolo?

  3. If this is true, I am really curious to see how Pioli will handle the (inevitable) difficult situations without Maldini (and Ibra to some extent).
    He could barely defend himself (how many times Maldini went forward to shield him?) let alone the team. Scary times ahead of us…

  4. Makes sense. Pioli couldn’t have cared less for over half of the new signings last season. No reason to buy players the coach doesn’t like.

  5. There was an article last week where Leao made a glowing tribute to Pioli’s guidance in his career. Reading that has made me more accepting of this report.
    No we can see what type of players ARE ready for Serie A if Pioli has more power. I agree with Cardinale, Pioli does have a touch of class in his media dealings.
    Best of luck to him

  6. “The coach will be able to have a greater impact on transfer strategies and will be more directly involved in the choice of purchases and sales.”

    I’m surprised it was apparently not the case before. Did Pioli not have a say in the matter when CDK (for example) was signed? I, for one, doubt it.

  7. lol what’s the use of having more power on transfer but the given budget will be a measle 30-35 M euros? after getting to UCL 3 years in a row and a semifinal lol this is how bad cardinasucks is

  8. I really want to see what Pioli will achieve, and I hope he does better things with more responsibility for picking the players he wants and that fits his system.

    With the activities of the past days, it can be thought that Pioli didn’t like the way transfers were made cus he secretly rebelled with not featuring the players. I may be wrong but time will tell.

  9. Funny enough, as Pioli was picked by Maldini and defended by him during the Rangnick fiasco.

    Pioli is good in developing young players? Who’s the last Primavera player that got promoted by him once again? What’s the use of our tiered Academy if we keep getting and playing young players from other leagues?

  10. Last year Maldini tried to get rid of rebic and sign chrivskelia at 10m before napoli but pioli told Maldini he want rebic to stay

  11. It’s funny how people believe
    that Maldini saved Pioli from getting fired and Ragnick coming in.
    If people remember, Ragnick was coming in to be in charge of the sporting department and be the coach in the 1st year, then hire De Zerbi to be the coach from the 2nd year on.
    If Ragnick came in, Maldini was getting fired too not just Pioli.
    The covid stoppage and the great play by the team after the stoppage when they went on a 30 games unbeaten run saved everyone jobs. Not no Maldini saving Pioli job. It was more of the other way around.
    Ragnick was more known as a director not as a coach

    1. “The parties had reached a three-year agreement with Rangnick set to earn 5 million euros per season covering the role of coach and sporting director.”

      He wanted a full control. Don’t know where you found that De Zerbi stuff.

      1. The plan was for Ragnick to be the coach for only 1 year and de Zerbi was mentioned to be the candidate to take over, with Ragnick concentrating only on the sporting department role.
        But my point was still that Maldini didn’t save Pioli’s job, because Ragnick was supposed to come in and everyone was getting fired, including Maldini.
        Why do people think that Boban spazzed out?
        Gazidis was ready to clean house.

        1. Yes, where’s exactly the reliable source saying such thing?

          And what made you think Maldini desperately need that director job? If it’s for money, he can always go anywhere else. Or even accepting less stressful ‘iconic’ roles. If it’s power, it’d be easier for him to join the Yongho Li team. Where he could get more control and more budget.

          Maldini doesn’t need that job. Everyone knows why he’s doing what he’s doing. You talked like Maldini’s life really depends on that job. The fact that he could just leave when things are not in his ideal state again only

          1. Maldini doesn’t need that job. Everyone knows why he’s doing what he’s doing. You talked like Maldini’s life really depends on that job. The fact that he could just leave when things are not in his ideal state again only adding proof. If he really needs that job, he’ll defend his position just like you assumed. Which is not.

          2. De zerbi was nowhere mentioned in any of Ragnicks plans. It’s Poli lying as usual. LOL This Poli guy cant shake off his old habits. Lies 24/7 left and right. lmfao You are just wasting your time talking to this hater my friend.

  12. The water is under the bridge now.
    Maldini is gone.
    Can we all move on?
    On the other note, i kinda feel bad for pioli if it’s true he didn’t have a say or just have a little to say on player transfers.
    Not to mention, i feel like fans have been very harsh on Pioli.
    When milan won scudetto and reach ucl semis, it’s all thanks to Maldini’s brilliance.
    But when Milan on bad performance streaks due to lack of team depth, it’s all Pioli’s fault, or saying that he doesn’t want to play the new players, etc.
    I guess now we maybe know why, if it’s true that Pioli didn’t want most of those players.
    I feel like, to the fans, Pioli always under the shadow of Maldini, like he was nothing without Maldini.
    I’m not trying to say anything bad about Maldini, i just want to give more credit to Pioli.
    Both Pioli and Maldini have a significant effort in building this current team.

    1. Yes, where’s exactly the reliable source saying such thing?

      And what made you think Maldini desperately need that director job? If it’s for money, he can always go anywhere else. Or even accepting less stressful ‘iconic’ roles. If it’s for power, it’d be easier for him to join the Yongho Li team. Where he could get more control and more budget.

      Maldini doesn’t need that job. Everyone knows why he’s doing what he’s doing. You talked like Maldini’s life really depends on that job. The fact that he could just leave when things are not in his ideal state again only adding proof. If he really needs that job, he’ll defend his position just like you assumed. Which is not.

  13. What young player has pioli developed? He was given a team with an average age of 24 and had no choice but to start young guys. He developed Diaz who isn’t even owned by milan. Players like hauge, cdk, lazetic were never given a sniff of minutes. Especially cdk who when you were up by 3 goals remained on the bench but when you were down he came on, how does that help motivate a player that is clearly lacking it?

    I fully support keeping pioli now that Maldini and massara are gone because he’s the last connection to those players, but pioli has shown me this season that he can’t adapt to a situation where a team Parks a bus or a play style like inters. I wouldn’t have got rid of anyone but If someone had to go it would have been pioli over maldini

  14. Something isn’t right. And someone isn’t telling the truth here. I don’t get the feeling Pioli didn’t have a say in the players he wanted (my gut instinct) by the way Maldini and Massara are always by his side physically and in interviews. It just doesn’t seem to make sense.

    1. @IKWYDLS,
      You’re probably one of the few reasonable, genuine fans here. All these fairweather fans who say stuff about Maldini are just inhaling & exhaling Cardinale’s farts.

      The coming of Kjaer and Ibra changed Elliott’s policy on young players only. Gazidis came from Arsenal and Elliott chose him because of what he achieved with Arsenal – zero trophies, huge profits.

      Maldini had to bring the Milan legacy to play. Older players must come to guide the younger ones. Milan is a club of champions. To achieve the aim, Milan must spend. The top teams always spend. Man City has no history in Europe, but it’s on the verge of winning its first UCL. They spent good money.

      Last season, Real Madrid won its 14th. Look at the quality and depth of the squad.

      Do you remember that Modric could have joined Milan? But that was a departure from Elliott’s project.

      For those crediting Pioli with developing young players, well… Let’s not deny him of his flowers. He certainly has some good points. But there’s a reason why Pioli has always been a stopgap until he came to Milan.

      Miha bloodied Donna. Mongella bloodied Locatelli. Yet, in how many years, Pioli hasn’t called up one single Primavera. Chaka Traoré already has Série A experience. Yet, he’s been stuck with Primavera since he came to Milan about 3 years ago.

      It brings to question: why did Kerkez really leave? You can’t tell me he expected to be first choice ahead of Theo. Apparently, the young man felt he was ripe for the team, meanwhile somebody demanded for a vice Theo and based on available funds, Ballo-Toure arrived. I don’t hate BT, but if Pioli was such a good developer of young talents, couldn’t he have spoken up for Kerkez as his vice Theo?

      1. Yup exactly my point above. I can’t remember the last time he promoted our primaveras. Maybe Daniel, but he didn’t blossom under Pioli either. There’s no point on having academy if we keep getting young talents abroad. Even Allegri does better in Juve for this matter.

      2. Pioli, never developed a SINGLE Talent in his entire Career.

        The players he has in Milan squad, were already made players. They performed very well in other premiere leagues then reached here. Not a single player was developed here under Pioli from a young age. The guy couldn’t improve his own existing players in 3 years. The concept of development shouldn’t be associated with Pioli in ANY sense. he is a good man manager, that’s about it!

        Evidence is right here.. it took leao 3 years to ‘develop’ under Pioli while Krava took 10 days under Spalletti? Leao is about 10x times more talented than Krava.

  15. Center? Pioli?
    LOL.

    His biggest achievement in his ENTIRE Career was a 4th place finish before Maldini offered him a job and gave him the players and the team.
    He is the center piece? LOL

    This surely is just another article from SempreMilan to gain views for sure. Then again, when you match it with the fact that Cardinale has No idea about European football, it may just be true lol

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