AC Milan director Paolo Maldini discussed a number of talking points regarding the club at the moment including Fikayo Tomori’s future and three renewal situations.
Maldini was interviewed by Sky Italia before the game against Roma, with his comments transcribed by MilanNews and translated below.
On Tomori: “I’m lucky enough to work in a club that calls when he calls. When Milan calls, it affects several players, even if we haven’t won the Champions League for 14 years. Fikayo has particular characteristics, intensity, speed. In our opinion it was a possible reinforcement for this season finale.”
Peppe Di Stefano of Sky (via MilanNews) reported how the management believe Tomori has done well since he arrived despite the difficulties of the language. At Milanello they are already talking about exercising the option to buy as part of the deal.
On the idea of the option to buy being used: “There is an option to buy, it is very high, it will be an assessment between now and the end of the season whether to exercise it or not. It is a fairly clear situation.”
Tomori has been chosen to start alongside Simon Kjaer in the heart of the defence, replacing the captain Alessio Romagnoli, who has not been left out of a Serie A game by technical choice since 2017.
On Romagnoli: “He is certainly not happy, this is normal. There has been rotation for everyone. If Milan have 17 points more than last year, we owe it to those who have played all the games so far and Alessio is one of these.”
On Ibrahimovic: “Everyone expects a great match from him, I don’t think he is influenced by a particular week, that it is a particular week is clear and we don’t hide it.”
On a possible speech to the team: “I thought about talking to the team, then I wondered what more I could ask these guys. Last year the growth was exponential, we are not Bayern and City but we are much better than we we could have waited at the beginning of the season. The energy has changed, they pulled the cart for 13 months, it is quite physiological. Apart from some dialogue with some players, there was no need to speak to the team.”
The Rossoneri currently have three players who are under contract until the end of the season and all three are hugely influential in their own right in Gianluigi Donnarumma, Hakan Calhanoglu and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
On the renewals: “With the three expiring players, I also add Zlatan, we have weekly meetings, there is no big news to tell you at the moment.”
On Ibrahimovic in Sanremo: “I know he is a great professional, last year we were late in renewing him, there was a particular situation within the club, and he had already made a commitment. He did not tell us what commitment. Then we discovered that it was Sanremo. We are absolutely capable of handling this situation, we are a serious club and he is a serious professional.”
