AC Milan fan and investor Riccardo Silva believes that the club ‘have a dream team of executives’ in Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada.
MilanNews are among the reliable sources reporting that Gerry Cardinale has decided to fire Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara from their position as technical and sporting director respectively.
It brings the end of an era at the club and now there are question marks about what the future holds under RedBird Capital and what the plans are for who succeeds the two directors and whether it will be an internal or external hire.
SempreMilan spoke with Riccardo Silva who is a minority shareholder in AC Milan as well as the owner of Miami FC to get his take on the stories circulating.
Things at Milan seem a bit chaotic at the moment…
“No, no I wouldn’t call it chaos. It’s just a change. I only speak as a fan and as an investor, not as a representative of AC Milan. First, I think Paolo Maldini is a legend, he’s amazing, he represents AC Milan on and off the pitch,” he said.
“I think he did great in these five years as a football executive so we must thank him, he will always be AC Milan regardless of if he is at the club or not. Of course, everybody knows what Maldini is, and I think he did a great job and he will always be loved by Milan fans.
“I think he was great also in the front office, he did a great job, and we must all thank him. He’s a great man, he was a great player and a great executive.
“At the same time, if Gerry Cardinale thinks this is the right time for a change, we trust him. Things can change, things can evolve.
“I want to also say we have a good team in the front office at Milan, especially Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada, that we must also be aware of. We have a dream team in our front office.
“Furlani is one of the top three football executives in the world in my opinion, and he was super important in the Elliott period to grow the club, to clean up the accounts that were horrible after Yonghong Li’s ownership.
“At the same time improving the performance on the pitch and bringing us the Scudetto, so he already proved on the Elliott side how good he is and he’s proving it now as the CEO of Milan.
“Another part of this dream team is Moncada. He is one of the best kept secrets at AC Milan. He is one of the top scouts in the world, also on the rise. I think he can handle more and more important positions.
“So, Paolo Maldini is a legend, a great ex-player and he proved to be a great executive in his five years at Milan and we must thank him forever, and we will see him as a symbol of AC Milan forever whether he is at the club or not.
“At the same time, we have a dream team of executives in Furlani and Moncada, so we are not only in great hands but we have among the best executives in the world so we must be optimistic about the future and improving more and more.
“If Gerry Cardinale thought it was the right time for a change, we trust him.”
Was the possibility not there for Maldini and Massara to continue as part of this ‘dream team’? Differences in opinion and strategy happen in football, were they just too great to continue together?
“I don’t want to step into these details, I just think things can evolve and if Gerry Cardinale thought it was the right time for a change, we trust him.
“Again, Maldini was and is great, but we have other executives who are among the best in the world, so we have to be optimistic.”
Based on what you said about Furlani and Moncada, it will be internal promotions to fill the void and there won’t be anyone coming from outside?
“I cannot comment on this, I just say we have fantastic people in our club already and they can all do a fantastic job. We must be aware of this, because I don’t think this was observed enough by Milan fans and also by the media.
“Of course, Paolo Maldini is Paolo Maldini, he is a symbol of football around the world, but at the same time maybe most Milan fans aren’t fully aware of how good Furlani and Moncada are.
“They are among the top, the very best, each one in their own expertise. We must be happy and optimistic. I think RedBird are doing a great job, so I am very optimistic about the future.
“We have done great in the past couple of years, and we can do great in the future.”
