Milan President Paolo Scaroni explains his doubts over the latest San Siro restructuring plan and insists Champions League qualification was always the ‘objective’ for this season.
The trip to Monza kicks off at the U-Power Stadium at 19.45 GMT.
There is plenty at stake here, because the Rossoneri know that a victory would allow them to leap into second place, seeing as Juventus were held to a 2-2 draw by Verona on Saturday.
Squad rotation is also necessary after Thursday’s 3-0 Europa League win over Rennes, as the second leg of that play-off is next week, but few expected Stefano Pioli to make six changes from that starting XI.
“We are very happy with the new signings that we made, the whole team is doing very well at the moment,” Scaroni told DAZN.
There were reports from news agency ANSA today that Milan called Inter to suggest they work together on building a new stadium in San Donato Milanese, but that the Nerazzurri were not interested. Is there truth in that rumour?
“The news is that we bought the necessary land to build the stadium in San Donato. After that, there is always going to be contact between the owners of the clubs, but there is nothing new we need to report.”
A confirmed story is that WeBuild proposed they could restructure the existing Stadio Meazza in such a way that Inter and Milan could still play there throughout the work.
“The other change is the suggestion that San Siro could have some ‘light’ restructuring. I have been dealing with the stadium issue for years, it is not that Milan and Inter are not happy to remain at San Siro, but it is an old stadium,” continued Scaroni
“I always asked myself, how can it be possible to restructure an arena with games every two or three days, and 70,000 people coming and going. Real Madrid, even Atalanta, they had to decamp to different arenas during the works. Unfortunately, we do not have any other stadiums close by with similar capacity to San Siro.
“WeBuild had a quick look, but the letter they wrote does not reassure me all that much, as it is full of ifs and buts and potentials. We are only prepared to consider staying at San Siro if we have formal reassurance that we can continue to play there during the rebuilding work.
“Personally, I always thought it was practically impossible, but I am not an engineer. If a reliable engineer with a good reputation can assure me that if he has to close the stadium then he can give me the revenue from it, then I am open to that idea.
“We are continuing our focus on the San Donato project, everything else is an exception. We just invested €40m in purchasing the land at San Donato, so that shows our commitment to this idea.
“As I said, I don’t think the WeBuild letter is an answer to my questions. It is a suggestion that we give them more time to consider it.”
The Rossoneri could leapfrog Juventus into second place with a win in Monza, but Scaroni assures Pioli is not performing below expectations.
“When I look at Milan as a business, our objective for this season was to qualify for the Champions League. I think we are on the right track, so that objective is going to be achieved.
“We will set new targets for the 2024-25 campaign, always keeping a close eye on keeping an economic balance. If we do not have economic balance, then the sporting side will be hobbled.
“I think this was Milan’s first profit-making year in decades, we will end 2023-24 with an excellent financial result and that will allow us to then go onto the market with resources.”
If they do go into second place, could Milan still aim for the Scudetto?
“It would be an extra objective compared to what we have in our strategy. Anything is possible in football, we will certainly challenge to the end for the best possible result.”
#Scaroni a DAZN: "Non ci sono novità su #SanDonato se non che abbiamo acquistato i terreni. Obiettivo? Raggiungere la prossima #Champions"#milanpress https://t.co/BHJRqyodWH
— MilanPress.it (@MilanPress_it) February 18, 2024