Maldini, future at Milan at risk - Corriere.it

Maldini, future at Milan at risk - Corriere.it


The meeting between the Cardinal and Maldini: the different visions between the parties remain. With the utmost respect, it is possible that we are heading towards a divorce. If Maldini leaves, he also leaves Massara

The first conversation between Paul Maldini And Gerry Cardinale took place yesterday morning in a hotel in the center of Milan. And it is probable that everything has already been defined in that meeting, with the AC Milan owner about to return to the USA. These are very important hours, because, as has been clear for several weeks, they are on the agenda it wasn't normal market planning, but something deeper. Assets, corporate structures, organization. The meeting was enough to unleash an inevitable jumble of rumors, with the expectation of a press release which then never arrived.

However it goes, Milan and Maldini deserve a worthy finish. Stand it will be divorce, as it seems to have become more probable in the last few hours, it will be marked by mutual respect. Given the importance of the name on the pitch, an icon of Milan, mouths are more than sealed, respect between the parties is maximum, it would be wrong to describe a scenario of tensions between the parties, this is not the climate (which instead breathed a year ago), but it is no secret that in the past, and still today, different views were not lacking. A question of character, of course (even if personal relationships were cracked above all with the ex Ivan Gazidis, while now with Giorgio Furlani they are much more relaxed), but above all different visions of how to lead the technical area of ​​a club.

As mentioned, we found ourselves in a similar situation even a year ago, these days: Cardinale was completing the acquisition of the club from Elliott (under the banner of continuity, as seen in all top management roles, from the president Scaroni to Furlani himself), Maldini's contract was about to expire, the needs of the market were becoming more pressing. StI waited for the last day to decide to go ahead together and the director had won the famous autonomy, the management without constraints of the market budget provided by the owners which last year was the highest in Serie A.

50 million.
It didn't go very well: the original sin was the decision to invest 70% of the budget on a single player, De Ketelaere who turned out to be a flop (and who the club seems willing to let go, assuming they find the right solution). but, apart from Thiaw, none of the new signings proved to be an added value.

But the main problem is not the recrimination on individual wrong market choices. only that it makes sense to be together only if there is total sharing of strategies and objectives, carrying out a project to bring out frictions at the first difficulty would not make sense. Will it be possible to find it? In reality, it's not even a question of deciding who is wrong or who is right (there will be time to open the debate), but this is the time for decisions, to understand whether one adheres to a certain model or not, given that there is a market to set up and time to lose there is none. And since it is difficult for an owner who has invested 1.2 billion euros to put his ideas aside, at the moment writing that Maldini's future at Milan is at risk is not wrong.

Maldini has publicly asked for investments to make the leap in quality (We are not yet structured to compete on two fronts – the phrases after the elimination from the Champions League with Inter -, we told the press and our owners, they know it very well. Having returned to this level must be exploited, also economically by investing to remain among the top four and do well in Italy.Cardinal often repeats a concept that reveals a lot about his philosophy: In today's football it is no longer a question of money. Twenty years ago, showing up with capital was the competitive advantage; today everyone has money. So you have to be the smartest. We are not the type of investors to just show up and buy. We don't write checks, we write business plans. Another cult phrase from Cardinale we never start a sentence with I but always with us. If on the one hand sharing the choices is the key word, Maldini's thought can be summed up in the word autonomy.

In any case, Maldini is closely linked to Frederic Massara, so the fate of the former also carries with it that of the latter. And if there is an air of revolution, Milan will have to quickly give itself a new organization. Matter of hours.

June 5, 2023 (change June 5, 2023 | 21:38)



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