Paolo Maldini’s comments after the second leg against Inter regarding the decision to sign Charles De Ketelaere over Paulo Dybala have caused a bit of a stir.
Maldini is often a mysterious man when it comes to the media and gives little away when he does appear in front of the camera generally, but he lowered his guard after Tuesday’s defeat against Inter and we analysed his most interesting comments.
As our colleagues at SempreMilan.it report, Maldini hinted that the decision to go for De Ketelaere over Dybala was down to ownership policy: “It would have been much easier and much cheaper for us to go to someone like Dybala, but would it been right for our project and shared by the ownership? No.”
According to what our editorial team has learned however, it was Giorgio Furlani – the new CEO of Milan after Ivan Gazidis’ departure – who advocated the signing of Dybala as a possible reinforcement for the attack on a free transfer.
Despite this, the idea of signing the Argentine did not convince Maldini who then preferred to focus on De Ketelaere, negotiating for weeks before finalising a deal worth a total of €35m.
Dybala has 16 goals and 8 assists in 36 games across all competitions this season, while the Belgian has just 1 assists and 0 goals in 38 appearances.
This is why i love Maldini!!! He has the confidence in his players that’s why time will tell just like leao, tonali, kalulu and bennacer
Exactly everybody blames him for his mistakes but nobody praises for his huge successes
its easy to sh!t on the decision now with hindsight.
Dybala would’ve been a good addition, almost no doubt about it, but who could have guessed that CDK will have such a hard time adjusting to Italian football?
We needed a striker, AM and RW last summer (still do).
So yes signing a proven world class no 10 (ex serie a mvp)in his prime(28) for FREE over an unproven player from Belgium for 35m was the obvious decision. Especially given we could have spent the money on a striker/RW and have 2 high class additions.
Not to mention the fact we could still have signed CDK and Dybala.
Not to mention the fact we could have sold Dybala this summer if needed for PROFIT
DYBALA would have been a very viable addition. Wasted opportunity not to sign up on a free. We lack credible Europe ready players.
The real problem this summer is not who we sign or how much we spend.
The real problem is how do you get rid of so much dead wood on big contracts that nobody wants?
Tata
Mirante
Ballo Toure
Florenzi
Dest
Pobega
Bakayoko
Messias
Rebic
Origi
Zlatan
Vranxc
These players need to leave as first priority
with the possibility of
Gabbia
Diaz
CDK
also leaving
Thats a huge turnover that is required
Forgot to mention Adli who falls into the second category
Thats 12 players who must go and 4 who are up for consideration
I count 14 senior squad players who should be kept.
So out of 30 senior players we have 12 who must be moved on, 4 that are up for consideration and 14 who should stay.
If we aim for a 25 man squad, we can promote 2 or 3 Primavera players, we still need at least 6 or 7 good signings.
So, the incoming CEO wanted Dybala, btw, someone that was already member of the board of the directors while Elliott was the owner.
Which means the decision not to sign Dybala was technical decision by Maldini, not financial decision by the owners.
Well, we can’t use the excuse RedBird would have never paid Dybala salary demands to defend Maldini’s decision.
Also no one knows if CDK will come good next season.
And no matter if CDK turns good next season or not. His transfer is already a failure by Maldini and Milan because CDK’s zero production this season most likely will cost Milan a UCL berth next season.
Big money signing who was bought to contribute right away, not 2,3 years later
This.
Cdk signing cost 35m plus the 40m we will lose out on if no cl. And why didn’t we jist get both xdk and dybala. 1 starter 1 developing. No clue
The CEO was Rigjt than Maldini and the result Proves it.
The Failiture of CDK goes to S Pioli who is Secrect ememu of Milan Development
He says he is not ready is CDK from Horse Tounmemt,isnt he paid to scouting
Isnt football is Football.
The First Impressiom is the first Anwser.
It was tollay wrong to bench CDK from the first minute.
Just got a seazure by reading this
what language is this?
CDK was a gamble; You know what you are getting with Dybala.
Would be nice to hold your hands up and say ‘look guys, I fecked up’.
I love Maldini, but no-one is perfect; people make mistakes and imo, this was a big one which has probably cost us CL next year.
Well this is interesting 🤔
Somehow I feel is we had ended up with Dybala he’d be injured most of the times lol. And we definitely would not have been able to re-sign Leao if after he sees what Dybala would have earned. Pick your poison folks
From trusted source in many AS Roma fan page. J read dybala only get 4,5m euro nett / season with low release clause. If Roma want to remove that release clause ,they must renew him with 6m euro nett/season. I dont see why leao will not signing with AC Milan since leao can get 7m euro nett / season ( fabrizio romano say 5m euro nett but if you counted add on that can reach 7m euro for leao)
I use capology and they’re pretty accurate. For the sake of simplicity I’ll use the gross as with net you have to make certain adjustments and it’s more skewed towards the player not the club. Club has to pay gross. Dybala earns 7m per season base plus an additional 4m in bonuses for a total of 11m to the club. This is why I said Leao would have demanded something along that range if we had signed Dybala and therefore we probably wouldn’t be able to break the bank again for such a big wage. I believe from last I read Leao new contract is about 7m gross max and that’s it. Leao is also younger and has upside
😆 🤣 😂
Look at all the mental gymnastics Maldini fanboys are doing now making up new excuses and scenarios to defend Maldini awful choices that cost Milan this season.
Receipts are coming out.
So far we know that Massara chose to sign Origi over Kolo Muani, and Maldini chose to splash 35 mil on CDK instead of signing Dybala, who BTW makes 4.5 mil plus bonuses at Roma.
I can’t wait for the receipt to come out about Maldini’s choice not to sign Enzo Fernandez, even though Moncada traveled to Argentina and got the “Yes” from the player, and instead decided to sign Renato Sanches, who BTW he failed to sign at the end.
Ha ha 😂.
Thank God Furllani stepped in and got the renewal done with Rafa otherwise we would have lost him from free as well if it was left in Maldini’s hands.
The more you speak @Pioli the more stupid you sound lol. We weren’t getting Muani kid. Muani wanted guaranteed starting playing time something we could not offer with Giroud and Ibra. Everybody passed on Enzo and nobody predicted he’d have that good of a WC and he isn’t doing too well in England now. Again you either don’t understand English or refuse to read what Maldini said: he wanted Dybala but the owners did not. Simple. Your just a Maldini hater kid. We get it. You repeat the same $hit over and over. Embarrassing. Give Maldini the budget and freedom to choose the players he wants for 2 seasons then if he doesn’t produce fire him no problem. Until then relax man you sound like a lunatic lol
You are right @Juro I am the one sounding stupid, but your explanation that Kolo Muani wasn’t going to get a starting playing time in competition with 36 year old Giroud and 41 year old zlatan who was predicted to miss 60% of the season even before the season started, sounds very smart.
The issue with Enzo – Renato Sanches isn’t that much that he passed on Enzo but why he passed on him. And that was to sign the most injured player in the world Renato. How healthy has he been in PSG and how useful would have he been for Milan? Now that’s a lunacy. Knowing a player is injury prone and insisting on bringing him around our medical team.
Oh Enzo is not doing too well in England? Why, because the whole team is not doing well?
Milan wasn’t doing well JJan-April, just like Leao, does that mean leao is not a good player?
And apparently you also have comprehension problems.
THE CEO WANTED DYBALA, If the CEO, who knows the budget better than everyone wants Dybala that means the owners had no issues with his signing and salary.
Your idol chose not to sign him because he wanted CDK.
Like I said mental gymnastics performed by his fanboys continues.
@Juro added to that, people.on here go on and on about Enzo like he’s doing stellar at the club level. Sure he had a good wc but club and country are two different things. Just YouTube Enzo vs Adeyemi and see him get skinned for pace in the UCL. If that happened to Enzo if he was with us, we wouldn’t hear the end of it and about how Maldini can’t recruit and that Enzo is too slow blah blah blah. Remember how Vranckx was crucified after that Roma game? You just can’t win with these idiots.
The more you speak @Pioli the more foolish you sound lol. We weren’t getting Muani kid. Muani wanted guaranteed starting playing time something we could not offer with Giroud and Ibra. All the top European clubs passed on Enzo – he went to Benfica -and nobody predicted he’d have that good of a WC and he isn’t doing too well in England now. Again you either don’t understand English or refuse to read what Maldini said: he wanted Dybala but the owners did not. Simple. Your just a Maldini hater kid. We get it. You repeat the same $hit over and over. Embarrassing. Give Maldini the budget and freedom to choose the players he wants for 2 seasons then if he doesn’t produce fire him no problem. Until then relax man you sound like a lunatic lol
Give maldini the budget and freedom to choose player? Why not give coach freedom to choose which player he want to buy ? . If Maldini deserve 2 years more till his contract expire , i can say coach too deserve 2 years in AC Milan ?
This is more embarassing story, Furlani just accounting and he only know profit & loss ,cheap & expensive. But his vision more better than our legend that live on football . Furlani get leao renew by giving advantage to lille ,if not leao will walk free in 2024. That was smart from furlani. Too bad furlani cannot intervere stopping maldini sign CDK & Origoat that cost club alot and asking him sign dybala that only get 4,5m euro nett from Roma ( Origi get 4m euro nett with just 2 goal contribution) . Furlani advice dybala to maldini that means AC Milan can pay dybala salary 4,5m euro nett and willing to pay signing fee but maldini refused and insist signing CDK ( 0 goal ) & Origi ( 2 goal ) compare to dybala ( 16 goal )
So this article is claiming that Maldini told lies on the owners in public, about a player who doesn’t belong to Milan and apparently wasn’t even asked about? That’d be enough to get him fired. Right?
The last time I checked, Furlani wasn’t the owner of Milan and that’s why when Maldini said ” shared by the owners” , it was to make clear to whom he was speaking about.
Has anyone wondered about how Maldini would know that it would’ve been easier and cheaper? What makes him think that the player would’ve wanted to come to Milan, and more importantly, how would he know if the idea was shared with the owners, unless there was a discussion with said owners?