«Maldini is great but Milan plays as a team. There are some transfers on the market, but we are ambitious»- Corriere.it

There is a population of disoriented fans after Paolo Maldini’s farewell to Milan (to which Ricky Massara was added yesterday). To romantics, to those who fear a downsizing, to those who are worried about the new course, the president Paolo Scaroni explains the reasons for a divorce born of different mentalities and, above all, the sense of a new working method. With a clear idea: «We are ambitious, we want to grow».

President, where do we start?

«From the fact that all of us, and I in particular, have always had excellent relations with Paolo Maldini, who is a gentleman, a person attached to Milan and who has done well for Milan. However, we follow a somewhat innovative model, at least for Italy, of club management, which leads us to consider all our activities as collegiate: we work as a team».

The committees set up in each sector.
«It is an organizational model that is very dear to our shareholder who, let us remember, is a sports specialist who boasts success in his activities, so when he suggests something to us we pay great attention, because we think it brings innovations».

And couldn’t Maldini really fit into this model?
«In this organization we had the impression that Paolo felt uncomfortable, and when one is uncomfortable it is better to separate. I’ll give you an example that concerns myself.’

Please.
«I devoted myself a lot to the stadium theme, so much so that there were those who called me “Stadioni” and not Scaroni. True, but I mostly did it during the Elliott years. When RedBird arrived, which has experts who have built stadiums all over the world, it came natural for me to join the team and lose that autonomous role. It’s a bit like what should have happened for the technical area».

A new method, to get where? This year Milan won a Champions League semi-final, it won’t be easy to do better.
«RedBird and we all want Milan to continue this growth. I don’t forget that I started being president at a dramatic moment. You will remember that I always said that we had two mountains to climb, the recovery of the accounts and the sporting results. Now we’re not at the top, but we’ve come a long way, indeed I would say that in Italy we are among those who have done the most. We want to continue to climb, always keeping in mind that more revenues lead to more investments for the sports area and more sporting successes lead to more revenues: a virtuous circle to be set in motion”.

The fans are wondering how much commitment there will be on the market: the famous budget.
«In the meantime, let me remind you that in four years we have invested more than the others (200 million), some will say not always well, but our shareholders have allowed us to form a strong team and we will continue together on this path. I think we will have to make some sales, and conclude some important acquisitions: we are ambitious».

Market managed by whom?
«It will be in the hands of a team that integrates different skills, with CEO Giorgio Furlani who also has the sports area to coordinate, together with professionals such as Geoffrey Moncada and coach Pioli: we expect him to have his say in these choices. In addition to the international experts of RedBird ».

The Data Experts: You know the objection, that they’re good for American sports, not soccer.
«RedBird believes in analyzing the characteristics of the players in a scientific way, of course, something that has been done in the Premier League for years: they have managed to adapt models born for other sports to football. We must combine individual skills, personal intuition in discovering talents and knowing how to insert them into our environment with these quantitative feedbacks. We want to combine the best of our past with the best of the future that RedBird brings us. I hold on to the past, but why should we give up skills and innovations? Then the results will speak, it’s important to win matches, I’ve never liked losing and even less so Gerry Cardinale».

But if the identification of the objectives is the result of a collegial process, in the moment of the negotiations Maldini brought into play the weight of his figure.
“True, very true and I am very grateful to him. I have to say that today, and it doesn’t sound ungrateful, we need it less: Milan having come out of the management of Yonghong Li was struggling to attract talent, today’s Milan, which won the Scudetto and reached the semifinals of the Champions League, I think it is more attractive”.

No new entries are expected, therefore.
“Not at the moment”.

Not even Ibra?
«I have the impression that they want to take a sabbatical period. Then he remains a friend, a person to whom we owe a lot, because in the most difficult moments he allowed us to make a breakthrough. If he comes up with ideas, we’ll be the first to listen to them.”

Some players have posted messages of closeness to Maldini: do you think the team is worried?
“That they show grief seems natural to me. On the other hand they are professionals used to change, they will understand that this is done with the idea of ​​doing better. We will explain it to you. Then they will remain linked to Maldini, as is right».

We were talking about Pioli: his figure comes out strengthened, yet there was a moment, after Spezia, in which Maldini wanted to exonerate him (and among the names he had also thought of Pirlo).
“I don’t want to express myself on the idea of ​​the exemption, but yes absolutely, Pioli is central to the project”.

Stadium chapter: has the San Donato area become the most attractive?
“I’ll make a summary. We liked the La Maura racecourse area a lot, and the mayor liked it, but it’s very difficult to use. The restriction that could come into effect in 2025 is pending on the demolition of the Meazza: without certainties, this project is dormant, nor does the mayor allow two stadiums next to each other. The Sesto area has the problem of reclamation, at the moment we are developing hypotheses on the San Donato area to keep it ready in case the San Siro goes down».