Paolo Maldini has become one of the certainties of AC Milan’s project since he returned to the club and got the role of technical director three years ago, and it is thanks to his work on the market.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) talks about Maldini’s time so far as Milan’s technical director, a job that he got in 2019 after returning to the club a year prior. He has completed 33 transactions so far in the mercato, starting as a trio with Zvonimir Boban and Ricky Massara before the former was sacked.
The overarching philosophy has been about sustainability and spending within the club’s means in order to help the financial situation recover, something that Elliott Management have pushed over the past four years. Over four seasons with Maldini, Milan have invested over €238m in reinforcements, net of proceeds from sales.
Many of those signings helped build the backbone of the team that won the 19th Scudetto in May, but the paper mentions that there were risks taen like Léo Duarte and Mario Mandžukić that did not pay off and must be mentioned.
There has been a pattern so far featuring a summer window with around 5 or 6 signings and less in January to fill in the gaps that might have emerged. There have been investments on young players like Ismael Bennacer, Theo Hernández and Rafael Leão, then the squad was ‘recalibrated’ in winter with arrivals like Simon Kjær and Zlatan Ibrahimović.
There has always been precise movements to improve the squad and add variety, with Fikayo Tomori coming in to help reinvent the defence and Olivier Giroud coming to bring experience in big games. Pierre Kalulu and Sandro Tonali needed patience but are not shining.
When key players like Gianluigi Donnarumma, Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Franck Kessié raised their demands to renew, Maldini and Massara did not give in and instead trusted their work to replace them, as seen with the arrival of Mike Maignan in goal and this summer Charles De Ketelaere for the playmaker role.
The Belgian is Maldini’s latest gamble and we must wait patiently to see if it pays off, but it was a long and drawn-out negotiation that ended with the director getting the player he wanted. That in itself shows the trust he has.
