The AC Milan world has been rocked by the news that Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara are soon to be officially sacked as directors at the club.
According to what our colleagues at SempreMilan.it are reporting, the farewell of Maldini and Massara as the technical and sporting directors of the club means that the incoming operations carried out and not yet finalised by the duo are frozen.
Daichi Kamada has already accepted a €3m net per season deal with Milan that will run until 2027, but will now have to wait for ratification by the next Rossoneri sporting director, whoever that may be.
On the other hand, the track leading to Ruben Loftus-Cheek could perhaps be definitively closed as Milan will now have to reassess and agree once again on a list of targets to go for when the window reopens.
This is backed up by Calciomercato.com, who state that the news could have an impact on the transfer strategy too. Maldini – after receiving the news of his dismissal by Cardinale’s – had to cancel a meeting already scheduled with Loftus-Cheek’s agent at Casa Milan.
A new discussion will also have to be planned with the intermediary who is handling the negotiations for Kamada’s arrival at Milan, which was also scheduled for yesterday afternoon too.
At the moment the negotiations set up by Maldini and Massara for this market session will be the subject of a pause for reflection. The new team want to evaluate the pros and cons of each individual operation, also taking Stefano Pioli’s assessments into consideration.
Yes
Loftus Cheek and Arnautovic are false and wrong Maldini choices just like Renato Sanches and Divock Origi last year.
He missed Enzo Fernández and Kolo Muani.
I can’t tell that Arnautovic and Loftus Cheek would play bad football in Milan, but what is point in 27 and 34 year old players who are not world class like Zlatan was ?
Were you not paying attention? When Moncada went to met Fernandez last year, the latter already had a deal with Benfica. It has nothing to do with Sanchez.
It has. Milan could buy him for 20. Maldini waited Renato for so long. So he missed many opportunities and burned everything on CDK.
20 million for Enzo, Kolo Muani was without transfer fee, we could resolve 2 positions in last mercato but he didn’t. Now the club must resolve at least 5.
If he had higher authority, Maldini would choose Botman over CDK because Milan already has Adli, but cardinale doesn’t allow it.
Enzo was never in the running because Benfica snatch him before Moncada had chance to finish his scouting report.
I mixed up the chronology… Enzo didn’t come because he move to Benfica before Maldini renewal so Sanchez doesn’t matter in this case.
I’m upset that Maldini was dumped so unceremoniously. Definitely could have done better by the man. But am I convinced he was the best sporting director around? Hardly. He did bring in some great players, but he also brought in a lot of terrible ones…not too mention the ~150m we didn’t make from the sales of Kessie, Hakan, Romagnoli, and Donnarumma.
Oh yes. M&M can’t sell and many today Milan players are Moncada discoveries.
Regardless of who the chosen name is, they need to be in place quickly. Can’t have another freeze like last year. Wouldn’t surprise me if this is the spark that Kamada’s agents needed into pushing him elsewhere.
Exactly.
The potential interest in Loftus-Cheek and 8mill for an almost retiring CF is enough to get Maldini fired, my only argument is the manner of sacking. That said, there is a big gap between the players Maldini has been signing and the players he ought to be signing most of us here cannot deny that we have been in shock about signings.
Why spend 15-25mil on a 27yrs old who cannot hold a staring position when there are free transfers better than him ? It makes no sense.
What we can get for nothing to revamp the midfield… Youri Tielemans, James ward-prows, these are instant upgrade for no fees.
They are not instant upgrades tho, we need a ballwinner, holding midfielder. Not another Bennacer
Even tho Luftus-Cheek isn’t my preferred option he atleast tick those boxes.
How have we been shocking in the transfer market? only thing shocking is the fact that cardinal refuses to inject money when we are having success. The shocking part is sacking the only person who is demanding the club spend more. Another shocking part is Milan fans actually supporting the owners suppressing the only person willing to fight so we can get more money. Maldini want to get better players too. but when the club dont want to spend its impossible.
Free transfers are difficult to deal with when you have a salary cap and other clubs can just budge that cap and you lose.
What kinda sheep of a person is he gonna replace him with.
Mike maignan is not for sale period is out of transfer market
Anyone is for sale for the right price, we just have to hope that there’s a contingency plan in place like there was when Donnarumma left.
Unless he signs a new contract, his value will never be higher than it is right now and he missed a significant part of the season with injury (we fell away from a title challenge then).
I hope he stays though obviously.
I’m just so disappointed with how this whole thing has played out.
Taking a step back the reason for sporting directors is to bring stability to clubs where the sporting directors oversee the overall strategy and then coaches can focus on coaching. If things don’t work out coaches can be replaced without destabilising the whole project.
Since a different coach can get completely different results with the exact same players it allows for maximum impact with minimal disruption.
Unfortunately that system has stopped working as modern football has been completely taken over by the transfer market, Bosmans, and agents.
The biggest fall out from the Bosman ruling was not the end of the three foreigner rule but the free transfers and player (and therefore agent) power that now drives so much of the insanity of the modern transfer system.
The top 5 leagues (98 clubs) are involved in thousands of transfers each window (every few months). There are hundreds of transfers per club with 5-6 changes to the first team squad ie 25% of the first team changing every few months.
Imagine any other organisation with this level of staff turnover?
Imagine a formula one racing being fiddled with this much?
Unfortunately Maldini’s biggest failure was getting caught up in this madness. He started acting like Conte using the success to demand more transfer money.
But that was not his job. His job was to spend whatever the money he was given wisely. Last summer we added 9 players to the first team squad including transfers and loans in, and loan returns. We brought Adli back AND signed CDK despite already having Brahim for another year. 3 players for 2 positions in a squad of 30 players. It’s too much.
Pioli then took this massive squad and generally did a terrible job integrating players mainly because he was spoilt for choice. No squad on the planet can rotate 7-8 players for one game. That’s why the likes of Man City get knocked out of cups when they rest their entire first team.
Cardinale is also at fault. The way he has treated a club legend is nothing short of a disgrace and is enough for me to demand that he goes too. Whatever about the mistakes that Maldini and Pioli made the overall project was WAAAAAAAAAYYYYY ahead of schedule.
How do you sack a director or anyone who helped deliver back to back champions league qualifications after 10 years of failure, a Scudetto which was part of a 2 year title winning form, and a semi-final of the champions league?
But it all goes back to this absolute obsession with transfers that is the focus of fans, the media, managers, directors, owners and anyone else who is associated with modern football.
Agnelli said that young fans don’t follow clubs any more they follow players. Well is that any surprise when the clubs are constantly changing players?
What is a football club?
A name?
It’s history? That’s in the past. It’s not what you’re watching on any given Sunday.
What you’re watching, what you’re cheering, are these players. Not some other players. These players. If you keep changing players it becomes pointless. And it becomes impossible for teams to reach their potential because no organisation can function with high staff turnover.
We are all collectively at fault for this dark day in Milan’s history. And maybe I will go and support a player. Wherever Patrick Cutrone goes and I’ll follow?
“And maybe I will go and support a player. Wherever Patrick Cutrone goes and I’ll follow?”
Well… That might work for some but for me, I was born a Milanista and I will die as one. I didn’t choose the team, the team chose me and I couldn’t abandon it even if I tried/wanted (which I don’t/won’t). For better or worse. Rossoneri per sempre.