Sky: Maldini’s departure a possibility as differences arise in meeting with Cardinale

AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale met technical director Paolo Maldini this morning, but the meeting between the two did not go well.

According to Sky, Cardinale and Maldini discussed not only on the budget for the summer transfer window but above all the greater autonomy that the director wants in making decisions and the club’s vision for the next few seasons.

The visions, from what filters out, are different. After this morning’s meeting, the idea of split between Maldini – and consequently also Ricky Massara – and Milan therefore cannot be ruled out.

It is not the most concrete, but it still a possibility. At the moment there are no official statements or communications from Milan, and it will be understood in the next few days if it will be possible to mend the relations.

Either one of Cardinale or Maldini needs to take a step back from their current stance or they need to compromise. If this does not happen, Maldini could really leave Milan, but the tensions can still be mended.

If you follow our Substack none of this would come as a surprise, given we reported last week that there are some differences that have arisen between the pair.

Tags AC Milan Gerry Cardinale Paolo Maldini

38 Comments

  1. Does he not understand if he goes to war against maldini who has done everything almost perfect to date he will lose the fans?

  2. If this happens the whole project could collapse. Wouldn’t be surprised if Pioli ended up leaving too if Maldini and Massara left. Then Leao would probably become unhappy, just having committed to the project. I hope this is just a bad rumor…

  3. My conservative estimate on gate receipts this year is around 140 000 000. Pretty sure Paolo said,’show me the money’ and Gerry didn’t like that. We can’t have a team running this well financially without reinvesting. We have the foundation to be one of the ten best teams in the world right now and we already have the fan base to support it.

  4. Haha so the guy is like “don’t qualify for UCL and you’re fired”, then “ask me to build a perennial winning team and you’re fired”. Seems like these billionaires are all morons.

  5. If cardinale were to sack maldini he would be playing with fire and will most likely get burnt as the great majority of fans would be furious with such decision, It might even bring cardinales own safety at risk if he meets the wrong people as not everyone will take it lightly.
    Anyways as things stands this is just rumors but i would be gutted to see cardinale jeopardizing the clubs future because he is a miser,

  6. Cardinals Gerry should know that maldini represent us as Milan fans and should always listen to champion like him.Hopefully they will be on the same page soon.

  7. Might be just a nonsense news. But the truth is Maldini never hides his frustrations towards the owner.

    “As we said last season, we are not yet built to handle two tournaments. We said that to the media, but also to the club owners, so they know that full well.”

    “I said we must be able to grab the moment, because if we let this moment go and don’t try to reach the highest step, it would be a pity and we’d risk taking two steps back.”

    – Maldini

    So it won’t be a surprise if he leaves. Maldini is everything, but compromising his value has never been his forte.

    And of course I’m fully agree with Maldini here. The last Scudetto was a sort of miracle. We already have a good foundation. It’d be such a shame if all those potentials will be just potentials by the end of the day.

  8. Maldini, Massara and Pioli should be emotionally free of reaching some top results with Milan. If owner have boundary with money on transfers spent it is his choice. They can’t force buying. If owner force them have nonsense results with this squad they should be emotionally free of getting fired. They don’t need to quit because of the pressure.
    This loan from Elliott could be time bomb, or Americans wants to lead club by artificial intelligence like Toulouse. They should use this experience for the future .

  9. Who is this Cardina ????? Did anyone force him to buy Milan ?? I guess he should go for farming business.

  10. Would lie if I said I’m surprised. A Qatari fund wanted to buy us last year. It’s a shame that it didn’t happen …

    1. First of all, it’s Bahrain, not Qatar.

      Lastly, don’t just look at the country. Private fund from Bahrain which is not owned by middle east royal family can’t be compared to the middle east royal families who owned the likes of city/psg/newcastle.

  11. As you can see Maldini vision is opposite to Cardinale (i dont trust him) he sees business first not a football side or winning side. Maldi stated : “It’s time to invest in this squad” because he sees the potential Milan to compete on high level.

  12. Both Cardinale and Maldini have valid points. Milan definitely need reinforcements in depth and starting quality. also, they way Maldini’s renewal was handled left a sour taste… But Cardinale should also be hesitant to entrust another 50mil+ to Maldini and Co as last summer the bulk of it went to CDK with no return… So Cardinale is in no hurry to shell out more without guarantees. He’s a buisnesman first, whereas Maldini has his heart tied to the club.

    It’s a double edged sword. Maldini needs to compromise, as does Cardinale. I hope they will come to some sort of an understanding.

    1. If you remember correctly, last summer Maldini’s number one target was botman. He would have cost 30m and the owners said no. Look how that turned out, he had an amazing season at Newcastle and we desperately needed a good defender. After that he wanted both dybala and ziyech which didn’t fit ‘the project’. We invested heavily into cdk which was a huge mistake but it can’t be all put on Maldini. Had he got botman would cdk even have been a thought? Who scouted him?

      1. Bingo. I was about to point that out. At that point we had to flex our muscles a bit as we were getting outbid by lesser known clubs and the image would have looked bad for us for future transfers. Maldini wanted Botman specifically as he’s the technical director he knew what the team lacks on a technical basis…but they refused to sanction the move. MANY ppl forget this

  13. Unfortunately all this was kind of obvious last summer. I wrote that Redbird and Cardinale was a bad option for Milan.
    These guys only want to go strictly by income/outcome…..Unfortunately for Milan and all us fans, that is not doable in European football, especially under a club like AC Milan.
    Redbird must invest money on transfers.
    I remind you guys what Fiorentina boss Commisso said : “Cardinale is a great person. But it’s not his money…”

      1. LOL. I’ve been bringing that up when I can. Everyone forgets about this. I’m not happy that we don’t have a big budget, I support the club and want us to be successful, but I also get that money doesn’t grow on trees and I also understand that the settlement agreement is even more constricting for us. Still, I fear a mortal wound to the project if the management team collapses. Particularly this summer when we obviously need 3-4 important pieces.

    1. Well if you’ve been here for a while, you know this web / forum cross post many writings / news from the other sources as well.

  14. I’m not sure but I think the disagreements are as a result of Maldini’s poor proposals. maldini has made Milan to be Chelsea’s trash in addition bringing players who are old enough to fade away.

  15. I’m not sure but I think the disagreements are as a result of Maldini’s poor proposals. maldini has made Milan to be Chelsea’s trash .latest being on Christian pulisic .in addition, bringing players who cold fade away soon due to age (Arnatouvic).

  16. Why doesn’t anyone ever let Maldini work in peace? Cardinale has 0 football experience so who is he to say who’s good and isn’t good for this team. If it’s strictly financial for him then he bought the wrong club. Us fans want success, not to be developing players and selling them for a huge fee. If Maldini has the freedom and fails then you can assess his work, fire him if needed to be.

    If I were Maldini I wouldn’t want to be here being told that you can’t do this or that. If reports are true cardinale will be the most hated president ever.

    In regards to the stadium, he thought he’d come in here and be able to do what he wants, he’s no further ahead with the stadium as any other owner. He’s a fraud and he’s going to have to do a lot to win me over.

  17. This is the naivety of American ownership, as many of you have attested, it is a battle he can’t win. Maldini surpasses the term legend, not many do…there will be riots. Maldini is a realist, he knows the economic struggles we face currently, he’s not asking for Mbappe and Bellingham…!

    You don’t mess with a club like Milan, where every layer of the city and stadium are rooted in history, this isn’t a new money side like City or PSG, you’d think someone as smart as him would have known this prior to purchase.

    Step up or eff off Cardinale

  18. If Maldini had his way last summer, it wouldn’t be CDK who’d be here.. instead, it would be Botman, Sanchez and Zaniolo. If those three were here.. I highly doubt we’d be in this position. Cardinale was the one who F’ed up by delaying Maldini renewal last summer. Even with a messed up mercato, Maldini still managed to find a starter in Thiaw. And we have no idea if Vrankxx or Adli fits in the team.

    I told you a long time ago, Cardinale has no passion for football nor he cares about the club. That’s very clear. I firmly believe the club will end back up in Elliot’s hand as there is NO Effing way Cardinale is able to pay up the debt. The bright side is.. No matter what we say about them.. Elliot actually is passionate about the club and the sport unlike Cardinale.

    Maldini literally is the only hope for Milan the club and us fans as we stand at the moment!

    Forza Milan.

  19. This would seem a bit stupid to be something that’s being thought about now. With the off season in full swing they should know long beforehand who the sporting director is and what the agreed objectives are, you don’t decide that on day one of the off-season and then start looking for a new director there and then.

    Maldini and Massara haven’t covered themselves in glory with their choices of investment last year but it’s one year and, ultimately, the club achieved both of its objectives; they’ve earned the right, along with Pioli, to have another shot at it.

    Unless Redbird have got a sporting director lined up and ready to go, this makes no sense.

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