A couple of weeks have gone by since the sacking of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, plus the anger and emotions that came with it.
Many Milan fans saw this decision as a huge shock, but now that the waters have calmed down a bit it feels like the right time to properly assess if the decision was a good idea and how this will impact the club moving forward.
For starters, it needs to be said Maldini was, is, and always will be AC Milan. Nobody can represent the club better than him. Not many possess the aura he does and almost everyone will be grateful for the job he has done.
Early days
Maldini was one of the main protagonists behind the rebirth of the club when he first rejoined the club in August 2018 to be part of the management team, shortly after Elliot Management took ownership of the club.
Initially, he was appointed as a sporting strategy and development director, and he worked alongside Leonardo who at the time was the sporting director. The pair worked together in the transfer market with the latter having more power in making the final decisions.
Following the department of Leonardo, Maldini got promoted to technical director and formed a team with Massara and chief scout Geoffrey Moncada which got to be known as ‘MMM’.
The three was in charge of improving the squad along with the vision the owners had: to focus on youth and make the squad more competitive while making smart investments.
This worked well as during his first summer as technical director, as Paolo signed the likes of Theo Hernandez, Rafael Leao, Ismael Bennacer and Rade Krunic, players that have become integral parts of the squad and who’s value has more than tripled.
More smart additions were made following this as Fikayo Tomori, Pierre Kalulu, Sandro Tonali, Mike Magnian and Malick Thiaw joined the club on some very good deals and without having to ‘break the bank’ when dealing with the contract negotiations too.
This new approach in the transfer market turned out to be great as this allowed the club to become competitive again, reaching the Champions League after almost 10 years, wining the Scudetto after a decade and even reaching the semi-finals of the UCL.
All of this came while taking great strides forward from financial point of view which made the Rossoneri healthy again after the disastrous reign of Yonghong Li, which resulted in European exclusion and a Settlement Agreement with UEFA.
The aura at work
Of course, Maldini is not the only reason behind this success as everyone played a big part but his part in dealing with the negotiation process and how he spoke for the club to the media and fans was instrumental.
Many of the players who signed during the Maldini era also expressed to the media how talking to Maldini made their decisions to join the club so much easier.
“He called me because he wanted to see me, he surprised me, and it was a very nice meeting,” Theo Hernandez said, reflecting on his arrival at the club.
“He said I had talent, that I could become a great player. We talked about my situation at Madrid, my years at Alavés, at Real Sociedad. We did it as if we were two friends.”
Rafael Leao said similar: “Milan revealed their interest in me. When Maldini calls you, I couldn’t refuse. And I took up the challenge.”
These are just two examples showcasing how great Paolo was from a ‘human’ perspective. Other than his huge image as a player which has earned him respect in the entire footballing world, he possessed a certain charisma that many appreciated.
This is something that helped him build a relationship with the entire Milan squad and was also a big reason behind the ‘family’ type relationship within the squad that has been created over these past three years.
Maldini has been ever present from his first day at the job, from daily appearances at Milanello to stay close to the team to being present at every game and suffering/celebrating along with the rest of us.
It is rare for a football club to have a legend of this calibre this involved with it and for sure something that has been very helpful in terms of growth within a relatively young squad.
The close relationship of Maldini with the entire Milan environment was showcased the moment he was sacked as the entire fan base rioted online and most of the players posted a picture with Maldini on their personal social media account in a way to show their support to him.
As previously mentioned, it is a decision that in the moment caused a lot of controversy and had the entire fan based worried, but with things calming down now we can evaluate the pros and cons.
Cons
As mentioned, Maldini always knew the right thing to say, whether that was to the fans or the media. He represented the club in a very respectful way and his name alone gave a very strong credibility to the club. This for sure will be missed and something that will be very hard to replace.
This also applies for the negotiation process as, although it is Moncada who has found most of these players, it is Maldini who done the second step which was to convince the players of the project. It will be hard for Milan to find someone who will be able to do this better than how Paolo did.
The presence of Maldini around the squad is another thing that will be missed massively, he built a very strong bond with each player, with Theo Hernandez in particular.
With Maldini gone, this again will be a massive void within the squad and players will miss an important role they saw on a day-to-day basis over these past few years. It makes it even worse knowing they lost him along with another important figure in Ibrahimovic in one go.
Finally, Paolo made it clear in numerous interviews how he wanted serios investment into the squad. He had the right intentions and all he wanted was for the club to be back to where it belongs.
This ‘vision’ will obviously be missed as with the new people in charge, Milan fans are not too sure what exactly they are trying to achieve. With Paolo at least that was clear as his intentions was only to make the club successful on the pitch.
Pros
One way to look at it is that Milan can now move forward with a unified vision. Previously – given Maldini and the owners had different views – it affected the club.
A clear example of this was in the summer of 2022 in which a month was wasted in Maldini negotiating his contract and that costed the club some important players in the market that seemed done (Sven Botman and Renato Sanches).
As big Maldini is nothing and nobody comes before AC Milan. The new owner’s intentions are not clear yet but it is good that we are all moving towards one direction and no longer wasting more time when the focus should be the transfer window and how to improve the squad rather than anything else.
Secondly, although Maldini played a huge role in some very successful transfers, with 90% of the singings during his time at the club being a huge success, he was not the guy who scouted most of these players.
The person who deserves the merit for this is Moncada, the guy who has taken over Maldini’s role now. Moncada has been working behind the scenes, but his work this past three years should not be overlooked.
He is the man who found so many names that are famous now, but nobody knew about less than two years ago like Kalulu, Thiaw, Leao, Bennacer, Theo and many more.
Moncada also discovered other names that are gone onto do amazing things elsewhere like Enzo Fernandez and Julian Alvarez at Manchester City, who were offered to Milan before anyone else through him, but the management decided to overlook them.
Maldini’s role in acquiring these players was fundamental as he is the one who dealt with the hiring process, but it is Moncada who followed the lower leagues to find these gems.
By giving him more responsibilities in the market, this can be a blessing in disguise as Moncada is known to find gems that are not worth a lot of money, something that is in line with the vision of the ownership and how the club has been operating.
Finally, this point kind of goes with the previous one but Maldini made some mistakes in the market.
He is not to be blamed as making a mistake is human and it will not overlook all the good work he done, but he did opt to go for Divock Origi instead of Randal Kolo Muani (who Moncada recommended) and for the same wages he offered Divock Origi he could have had Paulo Dybala.
He also failed to sell players and allowed the likes of Kessie and Donnarumma to leave on a free. These players could have brought in some good funds that could have been used to improve the squad.
Paolo also decided to renew Pioli in the middle of the season and then few months later rumours emerged that he was thinking of replacing Pioli.
As said, some mistakes that could have been avoidable, but they were made and the ownership was not happy with which is understandable to why they decided to sack him and hopefully the new management will not make these kind of mistakes which would benefit the club.
What comes next?
So, with the pros and cons mentioned about the decision to sack Maldini, what should the Milan fanbase expect from the updated management moving forward?
For starters, giving more freedom to Moncada is not a bad idea at all, he has proven multiple times that he has a great eye for talent.
It is yet to be seen what the transfer strategy will be like but with this issue with the management resolved very soon, hopefully the new guys in charge can get to work without wasting any time. The next few weeks will give a better clarity to the fans, but we need to stay optimistic and trust Moncada.
Secondly, with Maldini gone and the void he has left, another personality is needed. Someone who represents Milan. Someone who can be close to the team but at the same time speak out for the club well to the media and maintain a relationship with the fans, things Maldini done well.
Lots of rumours have emerged that the new management are trying to get Zlatan Ibrahimovic in for this role, but it is looking unlikely that the Swede is willing to take on this offer, partly because he has just taken a break from football and partly because he probably feels he owes some loyalty to Maldini.
So, although Ibrahimovic would be the best person to replace Maldini as he knew the squad really well, as it is looking unlikely, the second-best option might be Clarence Seedorf.
The Dutchman is one of the most underrated footballers in the history of the game. He was great for the club, won multiple titles and really represented the badge and the No.10 shirt well.
He had an underwhelming stint as head coach few years ago but for someone to stay close to the team and maintain a relationship with the fan base he would be great at.
He can speak 6 languages and is still very much loved by the supporters. His son Denzel is also in the youth sector of the Rossoneri, something that would probably make it easier to convince him to take over the role.
This is how things are looking now, more clarity will come out within the next few weeks. As sad it is to see Maldini leave and as grateful we are for the work he has done, nobody is bigger than the club so us fans need to look forward and hope for a better future with a streamlined project.
We didn’t hear anything about Maldini leaving the club until his infamous interview in which he asked for some investment to improve the team, understandably arguing that Milan was doing well and could do even better with a few established recruits. He was fired a couple of weeks later, so it appears clear that the new ownership was not willing to spend money. Considering the Curva Sud banner asking for a quality leap, fans did agree with Maldini.
The “mistakes” look like PR damage control. As said, he wasn’t the only one taking the decisions. People were fine with Origi because he was the supersub for a strong Liverpool team and nobody wanted Dybala, even Juventus. We didn’t hear anything about the players leaving for free until he got fired. He was even praised for not bending to the greedy agents of Calhanoglu, Kessié and Dollarumma.
Anyway everything has been said already, we can do nothing, let’s see now.
Well said 💯
Would you rather hear these news and rumours while we’re playing a CL semi final and CL spot in serie A? I liked maldini a lot but let’s not say whatever
First of all There were reports after the all time worse January in clubs history that even though they aren’t going to fire anyone mid-season that at the end of the season management and coach will be evaluated and that Maldini and Massara might not be safe.
So there was a talk about the possibility of those e getting fired before the interview.
You didn’t hear anything about
the players leaving for free until he got fired?
Those players leaving for free has been a topic in the media for 2 years. We didn’t lose back ups and about to retire overpaid washed up players but we lost our best players in their prime. Maldini friends in the media were praising him for not bending to their demands buy the club lost big money by those players departures for free.
Also, Maldini acted childish in that last interview. A kid will ask his parents for something at home and if they say no , he will then test them with the same request In public in front of other people and usually the parents, not wanting to look bad in front of the other people, say yes.
Maldini probably asked for more investments behind closed doors, they told him no, so he tried to test them in public in front of the whole football world.
Well Maldini is not a kid and his bosses are not his parents so they deemed that unacceptable and unprofessional.
Maldini was very close to the players and spent way too much time at milanello watching every practice. His best position in the club should have been the one they are trying to offer to Zlatan, a team manager. But Maldini big ego wouldn’t accept that position, because he wanted decision making position that he was unqualified for.
How many times since he retired he was offered a job to be part of Milan management even while Berlusconi was still the owner? But he wanted Galliani’s position.
Just compare Zlatan and Maldini.
After Zlatan retired he was asked if he is going to get a job in football. He said probably Yes, but He said he wants to start at the bottom, learn, grow and reach the top like he did as a player. That’s a mentality of a man who had to work for everything in his life.
Compare that to the ego of Maldini who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, wanting decision making position at Milan without the need to pay his dues in a new profession that he knows nothing about.
His ego , lack of accountability and being unqualified for the position cost him his job.
Alright you have your opinion, we disagree as usual, but it’s well argued, I respect that.
I’m not convinced though that the people in Casa Milan, including Pioli and Massara, were telling him “Paolo we don’t need more investments on the market and we will recruit only free agents and young unproven players”, since many people here think he was fired for the 2022 mercato, which was made of free agents and young unproven players. Maldini had the responsibility to talk to the front staff as a spokesperson for his entire staff and he did exactly that, using all tools at his disposal. To say he was unqualified after what he did to bring back the club to national and continental prominences is unfair. Even fat fck Scaroni said something like “we are here because of him but we don’t need him anymore”.
And your last point is irrelevant. You don’t know him, you can’t tell about his ego. You don’t become a starter for Milan during 25 years and a football legend by being “born with a silver spoon in the mouth”. You need talent for sure, but also a lot of hard work and dedication. He always has been praised for being a perfect gentleman also, ask his teammates, coaches, opponents. Why Zidane’s sons are not famous then? Either you don’t like Maldini for whatever reason, and it looks like it, either you think he was a poor manager, which is weird considering what he did for the club recently. As of myself, I will always cherish the player and be grateful to the manager for having brought Milan back at the top.
Poli is like those “fans” who booed Maldini in his last game as a player.
The rumour was they did it because they considered him to be aloof. This is the sort of mentality you’re dealing with. It’s a waste of time.
This is a perfect example of people not being able to separate the best defender of all time and Milan biggest legend as a player Maldini, from Maldini the inexperienced, unqualified incompetent Director.
Aren’t you the one that keeps saying that our squad is too big. Well guess why our squad is too big of mostly useless players. Yeah that would be Maldini’s inability to sell
I am not one of the people that thought Maldini was fired because of his last mercato.
He was fired because he couldn’t sell anyone and was losing players for free. I’ve been saying that for 2 years now.
Last 6 years.
Real Madrid has spent 671 mil on players, while they have sold players for 679 million. The biggest club in the world is plus 8 mil from transfers, but some people wanna push an agenda here that we will become Ajax or Dortmund.
-Milan in the last 6 years
684 million spent on players, 256 million received from sales.
-Only under Elliott, last 5 years,
500 million spent on players, 216 million received from sales.
-Just under Maldini the last 4 years: 303 million spent on players, received from sales 128 million.
That’s minus 175 million just in transfers under Maldini. When you add that he lost 4, 5 players for free worth at least another 130 million.
The club was in debt of almost 300 million when Elliott took over and they are about to brake even and maybe even post profits without selling any important players and with Maldini losing players for free and inability to sell.
If you can’t sell and that’s part of your job how else are we suppose to characterize him but unqualified. In today’s football you have to sell players to balance the books. The eras of Berlusconi and Moratti is over and done with it.
And it’s funny how you wanna quote scaroni when he praises Maldini but when he says that Maldini didn’t work well as part of the group that’s a PR spin.
So when people praise Maldini is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but when people say negative things about Maldini, it’s all PR spin.
My friend read what @Ibrahim ba posted under our thread about what Moncada said. It speaks volume about the importance of Maldini at the club. Also, it was reported that he wasn’t the only one making decisions. And the guys leaving for free is a thing of the past, all our key players were extended recently and the Leao soap opera showed us that the front staff learned from their mistakes since he was ready to be sold this summer if he would have not signed a new contract.
You are comparing Real Madrid that has won five UCL since 2014 and Milan that was at rock bottom.
His firing was abrupt and made a lot of noise, so of course PR are involved. I work in communication and media, crisis communication is essential in that kind of case.
@Bartholomeo, the comparisons with real Madrid were to point out that even the best club in the world has to sell players to buy players.
Maldini was awful at selling players. Maldinisti have been pushing this agenda that Milan will become Ajax with every article they read that another club is interested in our players.
When you look at the money spent and received, which one of Milan or Real Madrid is closer to being Ajax?
The guys leaving for free is a thing of the past? It happened just in the last 18 months. And how else are you supposed to evaluate someone work but not on things he has done in the last 2years?
Maldini wasn’t the only one making the decisions, but he was the one that had to make the last decision. Which players to sign, to sell, to extend , coach to fire, hire, extend, Maldini had to make the final decision. That’s what happens when you push to be the man in charge. At the end you will be the one judged if things go right or wrong.
With great power comes great responsibility. Maldini wanted the power That’s why he negotiated for a whole month to get full decision autonomy but then he hide from the accountability.
We are not Real.
Players have to be convinced to come here. Which requires a reason. Playing time. Money. Or personality/fame of the recruiters.
We could have offloaded Kessie. Who would we have purchased that would have come here? Hakan for who? Yeah it’s a lot of money but we’re not prize destination anymore.
I was one wanting Pioli to be gone after January. He’s tactically inept. Instead of growing young players like Calabria, Kalulu, Tonali, Theo and others because he had to. He needed to win and the only way he knew how with with his 14 players. It cost Maldini in the end because Pioli was crap.
We caught lightning in a bottle. This coming year we’ll see Pioli come back to his normal mid table self that he was before Milan. Then we’ll be without one of our most prized assets. Maldini.
@ Poli haha yeah that’s exactly what I meant by “it’s a thing of the past”, the last 18 months (and nobody left for free this summer) are the past and you can’t say this past year has been a mess on extending players. Especially since our key players earn small salaries compared to what they could earn elsewhere.
As for Real Madrid, they had one of the best teams in the world over the span we are talking about, so of course they can offload players. We don’t have much players to sell at Milan if we want to remain competitive. But yeah let’s hope we will be in the same situation soon.
Stop with the “Maldinisti” thing, it’s not helping the debate and it’s too much Manichean to be accurate. Some of us just think he has a strong part of responsibility in Milan’s resurgence, see the post from @Ibrahim ba again. And if you expect Maldini to be Spider-man if can understand your disappointment 🙂
We’re not allowed to speculate on his ego? His actions appear a tad egotistical to me. You don’t think the guy who says I want full control over transfers, gets it and then balls it up, thinks he can air dirty laundry in front of the media, leaves the club after being offered a different role even though it’s detrimental to the players, and wants to install his mate as coach even though he was horrible at Juventus might have a teensy weensy bigger ego than the average bloke?
(Disclaimer: I don’t hate Maldini.)
Maldini has an ego for sure. And I think he was wrong for sure to publicly ask for more funds via interviews instead of behind closed doors with Gerry. The rumors about Pirlo were just that – rumors. But maybe he understood that Pioli had reached his ceiling and Milan needed a better coach to move forward (that’s not Pirlo).
At this point I don’t think it makes any difference as to why Maldini was let go or where to point the finger. I think we need to accept it and move forward to see how the summer plays out.
Couldn’t agree more about moving on – but I couldn’t let a statement go like “And your last point is irrelevant. You don’t know him, you can’t tell about his ego”. This kind of talk is just because Maldini’s a club legend. They make plenty of statements about Cardinale or whoever without knowing jack about them but the same rules don’t apply there obviously.
I agree with dejan10 here and I’m a huuuuuuge Maldini-fan. I think he’s the best LB ever. Even as a CB he was one of the best. But I’m sure I’ll still be called a Maldini-hater for saying this. 😀
Bro u hit the nail on the head. Dude just hates Maldini for whatever reason, no ifs or buts. There’s yet to be a positive post about M. Smh and I don’t even need to read what was written to know it’s the same drivel over and over. Either there’s an avoidance of context or stuck in a one sided mindset
Why do we always treat our legends like this 🙁
Just for your information, whoever replaces Maldini will be very obedient to Redbirds cheap policies. I can’t believe I’m saying this but Inters ownership is so much better. At least they got themselves a strong roster over the years and are very active in the market.
We have no money, no world class players under the age of 22 and no vision or style of play. Lazio, Inter and Napoli will have a stronger team and style of play than us next season. So sad..
Inter ownership is debt ridden and will need to sell eventually to another American investment firm. That’s if they don’t default to Oaktree and relinquish the club in the mean time.
Sure their depth is superior to ours but if it’s at the cost of losing the club because you can’t sustain the losses/costs, what good is it? Keep in mind the context.
So you mean Maldini is behind Marotta? Inter spent around 30++M last season while Milan spent 40++M and you said they have better squad? Whose fault then?
Inter’s depth is not a product of one transfer window and Marotta is pretty outstanding in the business. He is definitely more experience than Maldini. But Inter is in debt because of their spending whereas Milan isn’t, solely due to American Financing Regimes. Had it been for Paolo, I think we would have overspent (as we clearly did last winter).
RedBird’s way isn’t what we’re used to in terms of caps and spending, but we have to get used to it because its fiscally responsible and they are definitely in it for profit. But profit and sporting results aren’t mutually exclusive.
So I’ll say it again – lets see how the summer plays out.
#sempremaldini
Sempremaldini never semprecardinale this guy is a farce
There were nothing happening, so even this page trying to cool down fans.
In the end we get no one except 1 or 2 young players. We will be lucky if Pioli give them any chance
I dont think anyone has said that Paolo Maldini is bigger than the club, not one to my knowledge at least but funny enough some people around here in the threads and for that matter on sempremilans editorial crew seems to keep saying that but with no proof to substantiate that type of argumentation to have any validity.
It can be argued that the entire europe missed out on muani and fernandez except benifica and frankfurt as im sure those players had already been scouted by a lot of european teams, Even though chelsea has shown willingness to spend big on transfers im sure they would have prefered the cheaper summer option than instead paying 120 mil in january.
Naming botman and sanchez in the same sentence doesnt make much sense because its not like we would have been able to spend that sum combined and that is certainly not his fault as he according to media reports already had to beg for a bit more cash than what initially was offered to him.
I have trust in moncadas abilities no question there and as ive said numerous times i ‘ll leave my judgement for september 1rst but it wont change the fact that cardinale seems to have handled maldinis sacking completely disrespectfull and sure he is the owner of the club but in reality he is just a custodian for the time being so he should show respect for a player that is a synonym with the club.
should show respect for a former player….
“I dont think anyone has said that Paolo Maldini is bigger than the club“… he says under a guy’s post that reads “#sempremaldini”.
thats not the same but sure dejan10 if you want to twist “always maldini” to that fine but thats not the same as saying maldini is above milan is it ? nope it isnt and you hopefully knows better than that but i cant say im surprised people loves to twist and turn what people says in this forum to something different.
Oh come on lighten up – You have to admit it’s a bit ironic saying “no one says Maldini’s bigger than the club” when people on here regularly say #sempremaldini #forzamaldini? That’s like calling your wife the wrong name. Or defend his position to the death over the club the owners the coach the media. One guy was just saying you can’t even say he’s got an ego because you don’t know him. Oh okay. Good to know 😆
Not to mention that some people have regularly stated that “Maldini is Milan” and that none of our players would wanna stay or we won’t be able to attack any other players to come to Milan now since Maldini is not part of management anymore.
Yup – there’s too many examples to mention. It’s been one major yawn fest from them throwing tantrums and insults over this sacking. It’s only the last day or so I’ve seen some actually say “well let’s see what happens I hope it works out.” Now there’s a thought… Acceptance is the final stage of grief I guess.
Ill just make a reply here in one post for both dejan10 and poli
I can see what you mean but i dont think it excludes eachother, Isnt it possible to support milan and also say sempremaldini, in my book at least it is,
Maldini is a synonym with the club as he is the player who has played the most games and won the most trophies for the club so of course its within reason to say that maldini is milan,
To be fair its not like its been a one sided affair as those for his sacking has certainly written a load of nonsense themselves.
Either way ive never said that maldini is above the club and i already said last year that i were willing to see how redbird/cardinale acts this summer before my judgement arrives but that doesnt mean im not still rather angry about how his sacking was handled.
Gerry definitely went about it the wrong way when he let Paolo go. But he dismissed Paolo the Director. Not Paolo the player. Had it not been for the name, many of us would have called for his dismissal this summer, objectively speaking.
That i can actually somewhat respect as people are allowed to their own opinions but im of a different view as i actually do believe he has done a pretty great job and that his presence has been invaluable to the team and club. As i said though ill wait with my judgement for septamber 1rst but i think theres a pretty huge gap to bridge in regard of the confidence of cardinale/redbird and rightfully so ín my view as they need to make some sort of statement in regard of improving the team for next season and its not like i have any insane exppectations, Im curious though and hope they are successfull in their attempts in the market and we actually comes out stronger.
On that we can agree. There is a lot to be done and beginning of season is the first progress check for me to see how they handled the mercato.
@martin bernhard . This article bringing war and divide fans again. I agree lets wait till summer market close to see moncada & furlani work Every human even maldini,moncada,furlani can make mistake . But honestly just my personal opinion ACM still need one Director sport to support furlani , that have aura & charisma like maldini . I prefer pippo inzaghi or sheva as new DS ( both are my favourite striker )
sure and i do agree nobody is perfect.
Im not so confident that we will have another one added but i would love to see ibra in the coaching staff because he would offer a lot there by his mere presence. Van basten will always be mine and i cried when he had to retire nobody comes close to him in my book even though both pippo and sheva has my utmost respect and gratitude for what the achieved with us, The video from the pippo article from yesterday where several of our players retired always have me nearly choking up very emotional moments.
Grabs the popcorn 🍿🍿🍿lol 😂
Ok so before the comments blow up, I just want to point out you can support whoever u want to support and to whatever extent. The question is what does it mean to support the club? Each person have their own take. The club to someone can mean more the players than the management which imo are who make the memories and nostalgia. When I think of AC Milan of the past I’m not thinking of Braida and Cantamesa, but I am thinking of Gullit, Sheva, Kaka and Co. But others can support the directors and ownership as well eg Galliani. It’s entirely up to you.
For me Maldini was different. He was an AC Milan and internationally respected icon turned director so of course I’m going to support the most legendary icon the club has ever seen ( I also supported Seedorf as coach which wasn’t as underwhelming as ppl think, Pippo and whoever comes along). We can argue about the merits of his job done but his dismissal clearly clashes with his worth and value to Milan not withstanding his performance in the role which imo didn’t warrant it.
Alot of the takes here are circular references or rabbit hole discussion points and at some point depending on where u stop in the storyline that’s where ur likely going to land as fan, non fan, or anti-fan of him. For instance, those not favouring his work would point out the flaws of not selling dollar, Kessie and Snake and end there. Those admiring his work would say that without Kessie we would not win a Scudetto (and dollar for getting us into the UCL on the last day) and the snowball effect of those outcomes…lots of these things are hindsight or what ifs.
It’s also interesting here that we’re still pointing towards a divide that runs a certain narrative in the article. Eg. Maldini chose Origi but Moncada recommended Muani. I thought the decisions were MMM with one of those Ms being Moncada? How quickly that gets thrown out..How do we know this was the dichotomy of the choice made? Perhaps Moncada recommended Origi🤷♂️. Did Maldini also go for CDK and Moncada Thiaw? I’m less inclined to believe this and moreso the reverse. Anyways the point is that the same ppl who made the decisions last year are here this year bar two. So more eyes are going to be scrutinizing them and any misjudgments or effectiveness are going to be highlighted depending on where u sit. Like that other article had mentioned, it would have been better to have a new director altogether because right now it’s basically the elimination of the Maldini effect and that’s a big effect to overcome..
My two cents
Geoffrey Moncada spoke to ‘Podcast Prolongation’:
“Among the things I like at AC Milan is the fact that we work with Paolo Maldini, who played there, he loves this club so much. When we take on a player, Paolo Maldini talks to him a lot and to his family.”
“When a young player arrives at Milan he says ‘ah, it’s Paolo Maldini, it’s impressive.’ If Maldini’s work helps to understand where the young man is arriving and his new reality? Yes, absolutely.”
“We say to these young people: ‘Ok, so you have arrived at Milan, the work begins now. We believe in you, you don’t have to be shy, show that you have talent and impact. AC Milan is a huge club. Everything depends on your success’. We try to reassure the young guys.”
Moncada on his relationship with Maldini: “When Paolo tells me that this player is worthy of Milan, that we can structure him, help him grow, I listen to him because he knows how to become a top player. He won a lot with Milan. He has passion in his blood.”
“When we take on a player, Maldini pays particular attention to everything because he wants the player to be an added value. I talk a lot with him.”
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As I always said, it’s all about team work, not individual work. They brought good result because simply they’re able complement each other perfectly. And now, you want to amputate one leg and hope that we can still walk perfectly normal? Hoping that one sided leg can do the work of two legs? I’d rather get a new set of legs entirely. It’ll make more sense. But yeah, let’s see.
I hope Moncada can cope without Maldini. Cardinale put too much workload on Moncada, I hope it won’t decrease his scouting performance.
Cardinale put work on everyone. In some weird way I’m glad we didn’t get a new director. I’m pretty sure how next season is going to turn out and it’s not going to be pretty but I’ll.get bashed like I did for Slowbega 😂
Wow great post Ibrahim. There are other clips that show the true value of what Maldini brought to the club but I refrain from putting it here to avoid certain types of arguments (which tbh are quite weak). I believe that can’t be replace and that it was the reason for our resurgence. That coupled with him begging upper management to sign old Ibra as an exception to the youth policy. It’s like the new players see two big icons for Milan past and present so they cultivate a certain habit. You can’t put a price on that. Also.like u said, it’s was everyone’s work not solely Maldini or solely Moncada.
I recall many moons ago when every club wanted Taye Taiwo (sp?). I recall distinctly Maldini saying that he wasn’t good even though Taiwo was the hottest property in Europe at the time. I thought Maldini was hating tbh but he wasn’t in a role at Milan at the time. Galliani got him and the rest was history. Taiwo never reached to anything. Maldini can smell a trash or talent from a mile away when it comes to defence..i wished they could have reconfigure his role rather than fire him but here we are
– Cardinale 1st year as milan owner end with 0 budget for transfer (Redbird is cheap).
-CDK transfers done during eliott.
-The main reason for player leaving for free is high wage demand not inline with Eliott salary caps(except for kessie who see barca as his dream).
-We cannot sale the backbone player prior to their last year in contract due to no adequate replacement before we could consider selling them (low budget to improve midtable team).
-Pioli are forced to use young players-(when there is no other option) instead of devoloping them.
Buying and selling players is like gambling, some adapt quickly and some take a long time. The point is that Maldini was not satisfied with Pioli’s performance, so he wanted to replace him.
Did he? I thought the Maldini-Pioli split rumour had already been debunked when it was revealed that they and Massara had farewell lunch 2 days after sacking.
What are you talking about @zake. Maldini, Pioli,Massara are close friend, they even have lunch for farewell. It is maldini that choose pioli and give him contract renewal till 2025. The fake rumour maldini wants pirlo to replace pioli are trash . All of that maldini,massara,pioli want to stay together till 2025 till their contract expire together but things dont always go well with hope , thats life
“The fake rumour maldini wants pirlo to replace pioli are trash . ”
Was it #fakenews as well when Maldini criticized Pioli’s so-called tactics after Inter-match where Milan did nothing to to even try to win the match? I remember Maldini saying this is not Milan and he was embarrassed about the performance. So he didn’t see Pioli’s lack of ideas and how he’s not the one to take this club to the next level? Or was Maldini blind after all and didn’t realize that Pioli isn’t the one and just loved hanging out with him?
It definitely seems Maldini was part of the #Pioliout brigade and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s true that he wanted Pirlo. Could’ve been another factor into why he was sacked seeing as that’d have been the worst decision ever.
(Disclaimer: I don’t hate Pirlo.)
Yeah. Gotta admit I do love your disclaimers. 😀
Truth be told though, Pioli is at the ceiling of his potential here. To take the team further, we will need a better coach. I think Paolo had realized that.
This is a crucial year for Pioli. If he’s out of Top 4 before Christmas, he won’t finish the season. Furlani better be looking at coaches too while he’s at it.
2018-2020 were good years of Maldini’s work. In 2021 he started to struggle, and 2022 was total disaster. We are now very close to take Marcus Thuram on free deal and if Maldini would remain we would have ended with old prick Arnautovic on attack. I think it was good moment to break up this relationship, however, Maldini was treated without respect by sacking him this way.
“90% of the singings during his time at the club being a huge success”
Really. 90%? Last summer alone was the other way round as only one player was a hit and other huuuuuge misses. So did he have a 100% success ratio before last summer? Because that’s the only way the 90% would come up.
Let’s be honest. There were way more misses than just a mere 10%.
Dest, Vranckx, Lazetic, Origi, Adli, CDK. Some might add Messias and Florenzi to the list too. No one can label any of them as “huge success”. I probably forgot about a player or two too. Let’s do some math. There’s at least 6 players that were “far from huge success”. 90% means 9 out of 10 were successful signings and for each failure, there should be 9 “huge success” ones.
I counted 6 miserable failures. 6*9 = 54. Maldini has made 54 successful signings during his time? LOL.
I think you can add devis vasquez,bakayoko,ballotoure,meite too.
LOL. We’re getting closer to 100 successful signings then. 😀
“partly because he probably feels he owes some loyalty to Maldini.”
Zlatan? LOL. Zlatan does what Zlatan wants. I doubt he has such feelings preventing him to take the spot if he even remotely wants the job.
I think you can add devis vasquez,bakayoko,ballotoure,meite too. Also mirante & mario mandzukic too
Keeps getting better and better. I think it’s safe to say that the hit-ratio is closer to 50% (if even that) than 90% claimed.