Padovan names favoured Maldini replacement and says ‘Cardinale couldn’t take it anymore’

By Euan Burns -

Italian journalist Giancarlo Padovan has named the man he thinks should replace Paolo Maldini at AC Milan and shed more light on the situation between the former defender and Gerry Cardinale.

Writing for Calciomercato.com, Padovan explained how Maldini forced the hierarchy at the club to give more money for transfers as well as complete control over which players signed for the Rosssoneri.

He then said that it was a failure of a transfer market for Maldini and a situation that caused confusion among many key members at the club, such as Stefano Pioli.

“A year ago, with a sensational interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport, Maldini had forced the new ownership’s hand and obtained what he wanted, that is a decent budget (€50 million) and carte blanche on the market,” Padovan wrote.

“Unfortunately for him, for Pioli and for Milan, it was a failure. From De Ketelaere to Origi (and I’ll stop here out of charity) it was a succession of mistakes that produced a harmful climate. First, leading to misunderstandings between Maldini and Pioli. Then, even unmotivated exclusions of Pioli towards the new ones. Cardinale couldn’t take it anymore and decided to go with someone else.”

After explaining how the season was much more of a failure than the history books will show, with Champions League qualification only coming due to Juventus’ suspension, Padovan named his ideal replacement.

He thinks that former Lazio director Igli Tare is the correct name to come in and there are others at the club who are good at what they do.

“If I were him, I would go straight for Igli Tare, who has just left Lazio after eighteen years of great work. Geoffrey Moncada, in charge of the scouting area, is very good at what he does, although he has the advantage of being an insider. Decisive, in my opinion, will be Giorgio Furlani, managing director and genuine Milan fan. If Cardinale listens to him, he certainly won’t make a mistake,” he wrote.

Tags AC Milan Igli Tare Paolo Maldini

55 Comments

    1. You know, I was struck by the comments regarding Pioli. Pioli hated playing all of them. Origi, Adli, Vranckx, CDK. I wonder if Pioli didn’t sanction any of these transfers and they were simply foisted on him. He did give CDK more of a run out than the others, so I think he might rate him in the end, but he just did not care for the rest. This is telling. Origi is clearly a fail, but many fans have expressed bewilderment at the fact that the likes of Vranckx and Adli were never given a chance. Many of the same people defending Maldini (I never liked Vranckx, ambivalent about Adli). Why didn’t Pioli play them? Because they were not good enough or was it because they were not the players he wanted?

      1. Yes pioli deserve to be sacked . But that dont erase Maldini mistake wasting club money 50m euro . After Maldini failure this season , he ask more money and more power control in transfer market that make owner angry. If only with that 50m euro he use to sign dybala and amrabat for kessie replacement, we would have fixed 2 weak position we have this season but too bad that 50m euro not fixed anything in squad , wasted like money burn in floor . I dont blame gery for sacked Maldini , i blame Gery for keeping pioli too after sack maldini

  1. It’s a pity it didn’t work out with Maldini as he’s a club legend etc but apart from defenders all of his choices have been pretty bad. And recently he was pushing for Zaniolo Berardi and El Shawaary which just shows he doesn’t have a clue when it comes to non-defenders. It’s a weird blind spot to have but I can see how these last two mercatos pushed Cardinale over the edge. Good luck with your next move Paulo- you’ll always be in our hearts. 🖤❤️

    1. Yeah, only defenders like Tonali, Benacer, Leao, Krunic. Great input on your end. Now watch Leao leaving and buying some 13 year old kid as a replacement

      1. Okay calm down… I see I forgot to say his choices “recently” – I’m talking about Origi CDK Pobega etc etc while snubbing Dybala Enzo Di Maria etc etc

    2. Who’s Pauli?

      Ok what planet are you when you don’t think Berardi, a proven Serie A scorer and assist maker doesn’t improve our team when we have literally no output in his position? El Shaarawy was only ever going to come back as a back up, it would be a good move. Zaniolo divides, I think he’s a good player.

      Still…let’s stick with Messias

      1. “Paulo” as in Maldini………

        We’re all entitled to our opinions and I happen to think Berardi’s an overrated small team player, El Sha isn’t worth 3.5 mil as backup and Zaniolo’s an injury prone Diaz. You’re welcome to think they’re all exactly the players we need if you want.

        1. It’s Paolo Maldini. That’s Paulo Dybala.

          Berardi have been hitting double numbers in both goals and assists almost every season and he’s usually one of the first players in Europe to reach those numbers. He is not overrated, period.

    3. What the hell are you talking about Dejan? All his decisions were pretty bad? Are you even a Milan fan or your just an Inter fan trolling?
      You do realize Maldini brought over Tonali, Leao, Theo, Benna and on and on.
      Berardi? I’ll take him in a heartbeat. Scores at least a dozen goals a year. El Shaw? Won’t cost much with low wages and is very serviceable. Zaniolo needs to be tamed but can be a really great player. He’s only 23. But did you hear this from Maldini? Or was it just speculation in the media.
      You guys with your crap I swear. Your blind to all the good players that were brought in but you keep harping on CDK and Origi.

  2. yeah true Leao is defender same as Tonali and Bennacer and Giroud loooll…
    Maldini is Milan and knows better than anyoneeee
    This is when American come into the business its all about business dudee do u think they care abt Milan etc… this clown cardinale he did not know even that Milan has won 7 CL 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ …
    Goddddd

    1. That’s the point. It’s all about business. Do you think this guy will make money when his investment (Milan) fails?

    2. Thiaw, Leao, Theo , Kalulu were all scouted by Moncada … You wanna know who was not Mandzukic, Pelegri, Origi, Dest, Messias..should I go on?

  3. My love for Milan is supreme to any other being. I respect Maldini. I respect his choices and appreciate his contribution.
    I welcome any move that will have Milan moving to greater heights. I believe Milan is moving in the right direction in bringing in new management to build on what Maldini and Massara achieved.
    Time will vindicate us.

  4. Let’s ignore the elephant in the room of not being given any transfer funds…..!

    Padovan is talking sh!t here. When your budget is 30m what are you meant to do? Last
    Summer we needed a Romagnoli replacement, a Kessie replacement, a striker under 30, and a RW at least. Then quality squad depth…the market didn’t even get going until late august.

    CDK wasn’t a bad transfer, it was a transfer for the future. The very fact he expected CDK to be Kaka v2 shows he’s clueless. Origi was about the best option for free which is what you have to sign players for when you have NO MONEY! personally I’d have taken Belotti but he failed at Roma anyway.

    You strengthen from a position of strength, we didn’t. That wasn’t Maldini’s fault, that was stupid American bankers and their clueless knowledge of this sport.

    1. Jup but who lost all of those player on a free who ignored all those position for two seasons RW for even more? And he spent his entire budget on one unproven player in a spot that was not critical.. We brought in fucking Mandzukić at some point there is still no young striker at our club and now he wanted Arnautović or Morata like we are in 2015. I mean I love the guy as a player but his decision in past couple of season were kinda sus

      1. Last year, all here agreed that AM is top 3 priority for new signings.

        For the record, I said CDK should have been for RW (another top 3 priority) as his heatmap suggest he played on flank.

      2. $umma contract was too expensive to extend, so was the snake. We were still on the running for the title, so Milan had to make the decision. We all know too that Raiola demanded a lot of money to make the deal happen. Milan still had Gazidis at that time, so it was not solely Maldini’s decision. The same bet made the next season with Kessie’s renewal.
        During this period, the salary cap has been implemented, so Maldini’s hands was tied in those negotiation. On the other hand, players reputation and salary demands had went beyond Milan’s budget.
        What can you do if you don’t have money to buy quality players or renew the ones you already have? You go for cheap and loans. So be compromised about the qualities we have now

        1. I don’t know how about sell a player that has only one year left on a contract and does not extend to a specific deadline…

  5. Just shows what kind of owner we have, mediocre at best. “A year ago, with a sensational interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport, Maldini had forced the new ownership’s hand and obtained what he wanted, that is a decent budget (€50 million) and carte blanche on the market,” Padovan wrote. So this moron cardinale didn’t even want to reinforce the squad after winning the scuddeto. On top of that, he didn’t give M&M a contract until almsort the last day of the transfer window. CDK was a gamble as it is with most of the young players, many teams were after him, sadly didn’t work out. And that happens to any team. I’m only mentioning Hazard as a “charity”. Origi, no one thought he would be this bad honestly. He was always supposed to be a back up, and for free transfer on the last day, not much to be expected. Screq redbird and any fool, delusional person that still backs him up. Time will tell. Eventually cardinale will fold. #redbirdout

    1. I think your quoted sentence can be read two ways: 1. That without Maldini’s push there would not have been 50m to spend or 2. Without the push Maldini would not have had carte blanche to spend the 50m. I think it’s the latter. I think the club, assuming CL qualification, is always going to have ~50m to spend (for the time being at least), as they do this summer. For those that have trouble adding, Milan spent 93m in 21/22 and ~30m in 20/21, which averages out to ~60m. So I find it disingenuous to assume that last summer’s budget would have been less than 50m has Maldini not spoken out.

    2. it was 100% clear that origi will be that bad if you understand soccer, its much more easy to look good beeing supported by salah mane taa and so on….thats different to salad and cap

  6. @Dejan10, “…apart from defenders all of his choices have been pretty bad.”

    Okay Leäo is defender? Tonali, Bennacer, Ibra, Giroud are all defenders… Good observation.

  7. “If I were him, I would go straight for Igli Tare, who has just left Lazio after eighteen years of great work.” Lol I’m assuming Padovan included Tare’s time as a player in there because Tare became sporting director in 2009-10 season (he received his licence in April of 09). That makes it 14 seasons at the helm and….

    ….his best accomplishment in the league after so many years was *drum roll please* 2nd and that was this year 🤔. Assuming the 09-10 season, we can get as low as 12th and as high as 2nd. In those 15 seasons, Lazio have qualified only 3 times for the UCL, once with Pioli as the helm mind you when they finished 3rd in the league. They’ve finished between 5th and 8th 8 times out of those 14 years and the rest were below 8th place. Further to his “great work”, he won the Coppa 2x and runners up 2x. Outstanding.
    Highest achievement in UCL was R16 and the other time didn’t even make it out of quali because……..as you’ve guessed Lazio didn’t strengthen the squad. Perennial Europa League team but only have gone up to the quarter finals as the best result.

    Those are sporting results. I won’t post Maldini’s record as it’s too short for comparison but …..well we know.
    He did bring in exciting players over time though. Luis Alberto among my faves and the likes of Immobile, Lazzari and so on.
    Let’s hope there’s a leap that can be taken.

  8. You think Maldini’s signings are bad? You guys might wanna take a look at Igli Tare’s.

    In three years, Maldini made 7 marquee signings that turned into stalwarts in Milan squad namely Theo, bennacer, Tomori, Maignan, Tonali, Thiaw, Kjaer, Kalulu. Igli tare.. in the entire 15 years as the man in charge.. had just 2. SMS and Luis Alberto. Zero trophies. He is no replacement. Just another yes man. Now, you can count the number of FAILURES Tare has brought over the 15 years.

    Igli Tare is the best we can do to replace Maldini? LOL

  9. Need to reminds you all that calciomercato journalist wrote tons of garbage and unfounded news. And this situation is the best for them because they can write more garbage for clicks.

  10. Can we get some understanding of what qualifies Furlani to be involved in transfer decisions?

    Is it that he played Championship Manager and Milan signing Dybala worked really well?

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