Divock Origi left Liverpool having won the Champions League, albeit by playing sporadically, and many hoped that his path would be similar at AC Milan. However, this has not been the case.
After winning the Scudetto, Milan believed that Origi could play a part within the squad as they looked to continue to grow, but in the years that have passed, the decision seems more questionable. The striker, as of now, is nowhere to be seen as Gazzetta dello Sport writes, and his last Rossoneri-related appearance came in July – four months ago.
Even then it can be questioned if it was an appearance – Zlatan Ibrahimovic demoting the striker to the Futuro squad, without training at Milanello. Whilst Fode Ballo-Toure – who was given the same message – has featured for the younger squad, Origi cannot be found.
Instead, he has been seen in Florence and Rome, given he cannot leave the country for tax reasons. The Growth Decree benefits require him to stay in Italy for at least half of the year, and given the nature of his contract, he will abide by these rules.
Currently, the striker earns €300,000 per month as part of his €4 million a year contract which runs until June 2026. A deal that will not be replicated elsewhere. A deal that the Diavolo hope to rid themselves of.
An exit in January is hoped for, but the striker will have to accept a lesser deal. At 29-years-old he still has plenty of football left in the tank, but Gazzetta questions whether he will continue in his current position, or move for the sake of his career.
Either way, the decision is out of Milan’s hands and 2026 is agonisingly far away.
Origi in my opinion has no intention of continuing his failed football career. He wants to enjoy his high salary without having to work, until it runs out in June 2026, and then he will retire from football. The way he has always refused any permanent deal with other clubs is telling. How I believe he thinks is like this: “why would I leave one of the best cities in Europe where I am a young millionaire? I will enjoy it for as long as it lasts, and then invest wisely the millions I’ll be left with; I don’t need to work any longer.”
This was one of the worst signings in Milan’s history. And this one is on Paolo Maldini. I’m grateful to Paolo, of course, for his glorious days as a footballer. However I believe that he was less than successful as a sporting director. Sure, the team won a Scudetto during his tenure, but all the good he did with signings such as Theo’s and Rafa’s, need to be balanced in face of failures like Origi and pretty much the entire last mercato he presided over. And he wanted Pirlo to be the coach. Ugh. Sure, Fonseca is not that good but is still less bad than Pirlo. However Pirlo was Paolo’s personal friend, and I disagree with running a club to favor a friend instead of looking at what’s best for a club.
I know people are likely to bash me for this opinion, but I can’t help; that’s what I think.
What about Caldara
Can’t foresee injuries. What excuse does Origi have?
Caldera was the worst transfer ever but the circumstances let me forgive the parties involved. Origi is a fraud, from what I’ve seen this guy belongs in the park with me and the boys not in a stadium
Pirlo is only a rumour, so I will not talk about it. But for Origi, it’s as bad a transfer as it is, and our current management does not help! They are not trying to use him or revive his career as they are now doing with Jovic. Every sporting director has bad transfers, and the transfer market is not the only task for the sporting director. It is one of many. and you can find the amount of chaosin Milan after Maldini departure. Talking about the current management and comparing what Maldini spent to them; Musa is good player but 21 Million for a bench player is too much, same for chukwezi, loftus, okafor. 76.8 Million for bench players is more than what Maldini spent in 3 years!! and I am not talking about terraciano, pellegreno, romero, and jovic. for the current year; fofana, palovic, royal, and morata are flops so far and we spent 66 Millions on them. that’s without talking about other bad dicions like selling young prospects. So, in two years, only Reijnders and Captain America are successful transfers.
What??? Fofana and Morata are flops??? Are you out of your mind???
He is
And you’re weird for that
HOW DARE YOU? HOW DARE YOU SAY ORIGI WILL WISELY INVEST THE MILLIONS HE’LL BE LEFT WITH?
Origi is big mistake, but is not pure Maldini, strict budget + salary cap owner also take part.
we can’t judge Maldini just w/ Origi case, there’s Theo, Leao, Mike, Tonali, Tomori, Beni, Kalulu & scudetto all under-priced by Maldini, even Puli & Thiaw it was Maldini who start the move
Bad signings happen, get over it. He wasn’t allotted much in terms of funds while a director either. Cdk was a good buy, he was right to see the talent in him. We just had the wrong coach at the helm who didn’t know how to properly nurture talent. How else do you explain cdk going to Atalanta and instantly hit the ground running ?? Origi had tellings he could have been good but never proved useful for us. Its like he left any talent he had at the Liverpool camp and then joined us, because he has performed night and day for both clubs. Maybe because of a coach like Klopp he was over exceeding , but point remains about the difference of a good coach. And maybe Maldini saw things in pirlos tactics that he felt would suit our players and team? We will never know of course. Overall Maldini has a director is still better for the club compared to what we have now. Id like to see our current ones handle the market even half as good as Paolo did with the funds he had available to him.
LOL.
Even Klopp said this was a great signing for us on a FREE when it happened. Hindsight is 20/20.
Easy to judge in retrospect and easy to forget all of the hits Maldini had, ummmmm, I don’t know, maybe players like Theo, Leao, Tonali and Mike to name a few. I will take 5 Origis if it lands me Theo, Leao, Tonali and Mike. I will take that any day of the week.
Some transfers just don’t work out. I don’t know, maybe a Chukwueze and his 4M salary AND his 28M transfer fee?? Convenient forgot that one eh chief?
Yikes
“At 29-years-old he still has plenty of football left in the tank”
LOL. Nope. Never a baller and never will be. He knows it too. No one would hire him even for 1M€ as there are millions of better players out there.
That guy is among the smartest people in the world. He is making 4 million annually by doing nothing.
u mean lazy & shameless
Why not to try him for back up striker ? For a while maybe..
If you saw what most of us have seen you’d agree this guy is not a professional footballer besides you want to block Camarda for this guy? Thats the most daft thing I’ve read in a while.
Another black eye left by Paulo Maldini
This is the only fault I would ever have with Maldini as SD. He was a good and upcoming SD, especially with the constraints placed on him by club, and the ward he had to fight to sign players that benefitted and are now benefitting Milan.
But bringing Origi even by back then standards was a bad move. We needed an out and out striker to replace Ibra in the events he had a knock. I remember many Milan fans praising Origi and thanking Pool for releasing him to Milan.
Gah Origi needs to go. Man was never anywhere what we needed, not then not ever.
Maybe he could be tried as a striker again with the first team. At least make him work for his pay anyway, anyhow.
This is the only fault? What about Bakayoko? Dest, Ballo-Toure, Vranckx, … What about letting Kessie, Calhanoglu and Donnarumma leave for free? That’s good business?
Are you giving the current management the same generous consideration? Are they not constrained financially?
Did Maldini let them go willingly or was it not the same financial limitations placed on him that did not allow him to keep them.
And seriously this management financial limitations 🤣😂🤣😂😂 did u seriously just say that..
This management has wasted thrice the money Maldini had on markets, and still yet no headway or reason to buying.
At least Maldini had a vision, and fought wars to convince the gods that be on that vision. What has this management achieved since almost three years at the helm.
Accept it or not Maldini did more GOOD THAN HARM. and at least he was growing on the job. Maldini knew we weren’t ready, had goals on how to get there, and wanted the funds to achieve that with the kinds of players. Yet the same second set of people who wrecked that are still there.
Maldini got scapegoated for CDK, surprise surprise that was a good move too, just needed the right coach, and also for speaking against the management for not winning to do the best for the team. But with this current management and the epic and continuous gaffes, who has been axed yet.
90 million wasted on two markets and more still to come and yet they are given more leeway to continue. It’s laghuable to compare this incompetence and maldinis time.
It’s very easy to put the blame on Kessie, Donna and Hakan leaving for free, when it was clear financial constraints placed on Maldini by his bosses prevented him from keeping them or hiring their equivalents.
Or the fact that it wasn’t those same players who were chanting Milan praises and promising to stay.
Maldini detractors would never ever accept but he was good at his job. Mistakes YES, but at least he was growing in it. It’s more than I can say for this present eye sore that passes itself as Milan’s current management backed up by their never changing forever stubborn boss Cardinale
SO you’re saying Cardinale is willing to spend much more money than the previous owners? Because I thought the argument was he was just a cheap american businessman who doesn’t care about winning, only making a profit. It’s funny how the argument changes depending on whether the haters want to attack the owner or the management.
Maldini was not growing into it, that was the problem. He made the same mistake over and over. You don’t let your most valuable players leave for free. And you don’t wait until they are in the final year of their contract to make an offer, then you have no leverage. You make your best offer before they get into the final year, and if they don’t agree you sell them so you then have the money to replace them . He made this mistake time and time again. That;s why we had no money to replace Kessie or Calhanoglu. That’s why the team was getting worse.
Just look at his last two mercatos. They were awful. Flop after flop. I’ll take this management’s last 2 mercatos over Maldini’s last 2. Not even close.
CDK was not a good signing. Just because someone does well elsewhere doesn’t change that. You sign players that fit into the system you are running. He didn’t fit. It was a bad signing.
The Maldini fanboys are just living in another reality. They just make excuse after excuse for him. All the good signings were him and all the mistakes and bad signings were ownerships fault.
Some are even trying to give him credit for the Pulisic signing. Next they will be giving him credit for Reijnders as well.
Must be nice.
😂 🤣 😂 🤣 😂 🤣
The fact you said you would take this last two transfers over Maldini. Espensive non fitting players.
I am done. And Cardinale really spending more, really, if Cardinale was really serious, he would bring in actual sporting people that know how things are run. Does the 20 million cap look like Milan are attracting top talents. You Redbird diehards are always amusing. It’s not even insulting or aggravating, it’s so funny yall are seeing Redbird fail and still give them blocks to stand on but crucify Maldini for the same mistakes Redbird and its managers keep. Making 😂🤣😂🤣🤣🤣 I just can’t anymore.
Don’t worry we Maldini fan boys as we are called at least can see you Maldini detractors would never admit the truth. Even if Milan continued this downward trend.
Plus wasn’t Maldini already on Pulisic case, and then he goes on to say you sign players that fit the system. At least Maldini wanted those players. Does your current management spend money that fit Milan system, doe smilan even have a system or goal or vision under this management.
But thanks for the laughs tho. 🤣😂🤣😂😂
All Redbird fans you do you I guess. It’s pointless trying to make someone who prefers to believe something actually see the proof. Upon all Maldini came out with his interview, he is still the bad guy and this management the heroes. 😂🤣
You can always tell when these kids are losing an argument by how many emojis they start putting out.
The more emojis, the weaker the argument they have.
Not even sure you understand the argument you are making. All of Maldini’s mistakes were due to financial restraints. Are you saying the current management is not under the same restraints? Is Redbird willing to spend or not spend? Which is it?
“it’s so funny yall are seeing Redbird fail and still give them blocks to stand on but crucify Maldini for the same mistakes Redbird and its managers keep. Making”
How are they failing? They took over a team that finished 5th in points the previous season and took them to second in points in their first season. Colossol failure.
How are they making the same mistakes as Maldini? If they let Leao, Theo or Maignan leave for free I would criticize them just as strong. Haven’t seen it yet.
“The fact you said you would take this last two transfers over Maldini. Espensive non fitting players.”
Please tell me the good signings of Maldini’s last two mercatos… I’ll wait.
Is pulisic an expensive non fitting player? It was an absolute steal. Reijnders? Fofana? Morata?
And please stop trying to give Maldini credit for Pulisic. It reeks of desperation. ANd at the time most of you “experts” on here were killing the signing, calling him Chelsea trash that was only signed to grow the Milan brand in America by the stupid american owner. Keep rewriting history.
1 Redbird are not willing to spend, they put a cap looking for talent bargains that hinges on hope to work, rather than actual talents that are needed now. The amount they have wasted far surpasses what Maldini was given to spend, and yet they have fixed nothing. But don’t let that stop you. Was Maldini given the same funds this present management are given or not, and was his wordings to actually develop the team with needed immediate talent that would hit the ground up and running taken or discarded for the more cheaper alternative.
2 “they took a team that finished fifth” did the team win a trophy prior to that or not. Did Maldini ask for better spendings on the market for quality needed players or not prior to the finishing fifth??
3 so maignan, thiaw, CDK whom Milan would be getting a pretty penny from, are considered not good enough.
4 Maldini was demonized for his mistakes. Yet the current management has wasted more money than he ever had on mercato that has not brought Milan any closer to any form of silverware, yet they are doing a better job. 🤣😂The effort to even say the team is better, when they play one good game and have severe lapses in plays, and have expensive flops that don’t fit anywhere is staggeringly amazing.
Damn Redbird diehards truly are something else. My good lord I have seen denials and blind optimism, but damn. Am sorry laugh will put me on the hospital bed if I continue any further.
The emojis are me actually laughing. I would stop here. I no where reason is wasted. So you win😁.
Keep on hyping Redbird and hating Maldini. We are all in for the long haul.
Who knows with the next market Redbird would pull up a new backups to the backups to the starters. They never fail to keep things interesting. I’ll be watching, I always am.
Oh and the way you think am a kid because I use emojis. 🤣😂🤣😂😂😂 Priceless. Like I said you Redbird loving, Maldini hating folks never cease to amuse. Never cease🙃🙂😉☺️
VIVA LA REDBIRD
Again, a lot of excuse making without really being able to answer any of the questions. Or outright contradicting your own statements.
You say Redbird is not willing to spend , then in the next sentence your arguing that this management has had a lot more money to spend then Maldini did. So again, which is it?
If you are going to make excuses for all of Maldini’s mistakes by saying it was financial restraint , then the same should apply to the current management, no?
And once again, the reason Maldini didn’t have a lot of money to spend was because he let our most valuable players leave for free. It’s his own fault. Letting Kessie, Donnarumma and Chalhanoglu leave for free, along with the Origi, CDK, Bakayoko, Ballo-Toure, Dest, Vranckx, signings are more than enough reason to get anyone fired.
I don’t hate Maldini at all. He’s the greatest player in Milan history and an incredible person.
The difference is there are two types of people here. Ones that can be objective and differentiate between Maldini the man, the player from Maldini the manager, and ones who cannot and just worship him and think he is infallible and never made mistakes and just make excuses for him. It’s clear which one you are.
Who wouldn’t want to get paid 300,000 per month, not do sh*t AND live a lavish life in Italy half the year, AND even have a personal trainer?! Jesus!
Origi won the lotto!
Maldini is gone, then why Origi still here?
so is too hard for so called (current) great professional aka finance genius sporting director to sell 1 player?
if they enjoy Tonali money then why blame Maldini for their failure to sell Origi,
just because lately Maldini shown in good news, ac jerinisti desperately degrade him w/ boring (Origi) case of course
Funny how Maldini is blamed, yet the new ownership’s biggest mercato was due to the sale of Maldini’s signing. Origi was a free transfer who did not play out well. 70% of the new ownership’s transfers were paid for and they suck.