The official announcement is expected in the next few hours with Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara having been sacked from their positions, and it seems last summer is what is behind the decision.
According to Corriere dello Sport (via PianetaMilan), the main reason behind the decision on the part of Gerry Cardinale is that there are different visions regarding the way to take the club forward.
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Cardinale is believes to have pointed at the 2022 summer window as being a major disappointment, given that only Malick Thiaw is the one who made a meaningful conversation out of the players that arrived.
The RedBird founder and the soon-to-be former technical director met in a city centre hotel for a brief discussion, where Cardinale made it clear that he did not want to continue with Maldini and that he wanted to change course.
This revolution has probably only been postponed for a year given that one year ago Maldini and Massara risked not renewing their contracts right up to the last minute, with different visions and opposite methods compared to the ownership emerging.
The plan is to give more power to CEO Giorgio Furlani and to the head of the scouting area Geoffrey Moncada. The plan is to implement a more sustainable policy, moving forward in steps rather than making a big leap like Maldini wanted.
Cardinale has a different way of doing and understanding football than Maldini. In fact, the American entrepreneur has in mind a model of gradual growth, where one can profit from sponsors, stage and progressive development of turnover.
Young players need time man why do we have this American
If we thought CDK’s confidence was low, imagine now, being the reason Maldini was sacked…
LOL. Let’s hope the boy doesn’t see it that way. He’s a pathetic crybaby already and that would just finish him for good.
Lol, and CDK was product of Moncada’s scouting.
And what happen if CDK shine next season? Do they understand that success in football need patience? Not even middle east money can bring UCL trophy to man city or p$g in less than 10 years, so what do they expect with vastly lower budget?
To be honest… Thiaw was the only decent purchase last summer. Everyone else was just a waste of money. So that’s not helping M&M’s case here.
Problem is Maldini took me 50% – 50%
Cardinale obviously wants 100% Moncada players. So Maldini blew on Origi instead of Kolo Muani. Maldini wanted Sanches, Moncada advised Enzo Fernández….etc…
You forget that CDK is from Moncada’s scouting and when Moncada met Fernandez, turn out the latter already have deal with Benfica.
The ‘Sanches’ case was also a good example of a pathetic management. In hindsight, we can now say that fortunately, we did not sign him but we passed up Enzo Fernandez whose value has tripled since and who could have been a notable reinforcement in the midfield.
We also have to keep in mind that Kesié, Donaruma, and Hakan all left without generating a penny for the club and representing between €70 and €80 mio of loss.
Maldini is, and will remain, a legend but his status should not occult the results (we are extremely lucky to be in CL next year)
Enzo Fernandez value has tripled?
Benfica paid 10 mil plus 8 million in bonuses and sold him for 121 million.
His value has skyrocketed, not tripled
Losing Fernandes is not related to Sanchez. A bit reminder: Moncada met to interview Fernandez, the next day Benfica announced they had signed Fernandez, and it was revealed agreement was made few days prior which means Moncada was late in completing the scouting report.
My bad, I forgot the chronology, but still he signed for Benfica before Maldini renewal so it has nothing to do with Sanches.
Also, Maldini signed Maignan before $umma decided to leave. And hakan is not worth 70-80m.
As a rule, if a player has not renewed his contract a year before its term he should be sold. Full stop.
One year of Kesié’s + $rumma’s + Hakan’s contract might not be worth €70 mio but between €40 and €50 mio. To my mind, it was an (expensive) mistake to wait till the last minute.
As for the players signed over the last 2 years, of course they are young and we have to be patient but for most of them their contribution was close to nil. There is a huge difference between a young player with a potential who plays regularly even if he’s not a starter and one who plays 70′ in an entire season.
There is unfortunately a long list of players who cannot pretend to play more 70’/season ans some of them are everything but cheap
There is always exception to the rule:
I will not sell Kessie on his last year, he is pivotal in the scudetto campaign. I gladly lose him for free as it means we got scudetto.
When you have to buy (and sell) 7-8 players each year,I tend to think something is wrong …
From FootballItalia:
Here are all the transfers completed by Maldini and Massara from 2019.
Rade Krunic from Empoli – €8.6m
Theo Hernandez from Real Madrid – €22.8m
Rafael Leao from Lille – €29.5m
Ismael Bennacer from Empoli – €17.2m
Ante Rebic from Eintracht Frankfurt – €7m
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Free agent
Alexis Saelemakers from Anderlecht – €10m
Asmir Begovic from Bournemouth – Loan
Simon Kjaer from Sevilla – €3.6m
Pierre Kalulu from Lyon – €1m
Brahim Diaz from Real Madrid – loan
Sandro Tonali from Brescia – €19.5m
Ciprian Tatarusanu from Lyon – €1m
Jens Petter Hauge from Bodo/Glimt – €4.8m
Soualiho Meïté from Torino – loan
Diogo Dalot from Man Utd – loan
Fikayo Tomori from Chelsea – €31m
Mario Mandzukic – Free transfer
Mike Maignan from Lille – €15.4m
Alessandro Florenzi from Roma – €2.7m
Olivier Giroud from Chelsea – €3m
Fodé Ballo Touré from Monaco – €5.4m
Pietro Pellegri from Monaco – loan
Tiemoue Bakayoko from Chelsea – loan
Antonio Mirante – Free transfer
Junior Messias from Crotone
Marko Lazetic from Red Star – €4.5m
Yacine Adli from Bordeaux – €10m
Divock Origi – Free transfer
Charles De Ketelaere from Club Brugge – €32m
Malick Thiaw – Loan with option to buy from Schalke 04
Aster Vranckx – Loan with option to buy from Wolfsburg
Sergino Dest – Loan with option to buy from Barcelona
Devis Vasquez from Guaranì – €470k
No doubt there signings got progressively worse with every passing year.
Last 2 windows were bad not just the last one
Isn’t Thiaw a permanent deal?
I think M&M’s mercato work played very little part in this decision. I want to believe this was already in Cardinals mind since the start of the season.
The story in the first instance hits you, and it’s an unbelievable and wrong decision. On the other hand, you kind of get Cardinale’s logic.
Which ever way, this is reall a shock.
This is a power issue. I’ll repost my comment here as it more appropriate for this article:
Now that I’ve slept on this I think I see why Cardinale fired M. It’s because he was becoming too powerful and he needed yes men around him. With M being so powerful it’s like a conduit between the fan’s feelings and expectations and the club as others here have pointed out Maldini is like the soul of AC Milan. Cardinale is hoping this blows over early in the summer in preparation for next summer. I don’t know the extent of how the ultras and the players are going to react but truth be told their voices are too small for Cardinale. The jabs M were giving at him in interviews are what Cardinale didn’t like as it affects his ego.
I’ll support whoever is running Milan as a fan but you don’t go about what they did..that was not in good taste for what Maldini represented for Milan.
Oh we talking about the season Cardinale F’ed up by renewing Maldini after all of his primary targets were gone? If that’s the case, Cardinale should just fire himself as well.
Oh we talking about the season Cardinale F’ed up by renewing Maldini after all of his primary targets were gone? If that’s the case, Cardinale should just fire himself as well.
The best plausible explanation is, Cardinale needs to repay the loan to Elliot. And the only way to do so, is to pocket revenue and sell star players. Maldini would NEVER agree to that. So he fired Maldini and Massara.
Cardinale needs someone who would fetch the best price for the stars we have. It has NOTHING to do with recruitment. He and Furlani would ask Moncada to scout younger replacements for the stars we have. That’s why Furlani and Moncada are the center piece. No CEO/SD/Management with ambition would agree to that. No player would either. We are heading into dark times.
“Cardinale has a different way of doing and understanding football than Maldini. In fact, the American entrepreneur has in mind a model of gradual growth, where one can profit from sponsors, stage and progressive development of turnover.”
Makes NO Sense. We just had the best finance year in the entire last 15 years of the club this season with record Attendance. If that’s what Cardinale wanted, Maldini would be renewed for 10 more years. lol