Maldini moots idea of competing with Liverpool and PSG and he sheds light on Milan’s project

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan director Paolo Maldini has insisted that the future of the club will be to invest in talented young players to move Elliott Management’s project forward.

Maldini gave a long interview to Bein Sports about a number of different topics including Theo Hernandez, the future of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and other renewals. He also spoke on other subjects such as the future of Milan and the season so far.

Milan entered the year of 2020 fighting for a spot in the top half, while they ended it in a fight for top spot in the table, and his comments are transcribed by MilanNews.

On the season: “It is certainly a special year, a year that sees us play every three days. The absence of the public makes everything more complicated. It’s a football we still have to get used to, the home crowd still has to get used to it, but for the players this is their job.

“It must be said that with the lack of the public a young team like ours managed to achieve positive results. The change is due to the mentality. Milan started a year earlier than what happened in the world with the pandemic to try to achieve self-sustainability and achieve a balance. This is done through young players, with a team with certainly different costs.”

Maldini continues to be hailed for the impressive work that he has done as a director, helping restore the Rossoneri to being title challengers with clever moves on the market, backed by Elliott Management.

On the future: “We have an American ownership that came after the Chinese era. The road to achieve results is long, we must be self-sufficient in the market without signing the elite players. We need to look at young profiles to strengthen the team.”

On what happened after the 5-0 loss against Atalanta: “In 2019 we started with Giampaolo but it didn’t work. After the defeat in Bergamo against Atalanta Elliott listened to us about Ibrahimovic, the idea of ​​giving the young team points of reference like Zlatan and Kjaer worked, and from here excellent results have come.”

On what the club did during lockdown: “We talked on Skype, we insisted on telling our players that we could improve our position in the standings. When the championship resumed we demonstrated the qualities of this team.”

On how Milan can compete with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, and PSG in the market, he added: “I think Milan’s gap with teams like Bayern, City, Liverpool in recent years has widened a little. Milan are not at that level yet, even though we have been leading the league since matchday one.

“We probably need two stable Champions League years to have a really competitive team to go and fight with these teams for the Champions League. Let’s not forget that Milan have been missing from the Champions League for 8 years, this makes the difference economically.

“The FFP is certainly a good thing for the economic security of football, but it seems that the gap between the teams that would like to return to the top and those who already are increases.”

Tags AC Milan Paolo Maldini
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