Milan President Paolo Scaroni reveals Paolo Maldini felt ‘ill at ease’ in the new club structure and that they no longer needed him, but won’t deny the legend was also hoping to bring in Andrea Pirlo as coach.
The sudden sacking of technical director Maldini, followed swiftly by a mutual termination of the contract with director of sport Ricky Massara, has been a bombshell in the Milanello training camp.
Players and fans were stunned, with many turning on RedBird chief and main shareholder Gerry Cardinale.
“We all had an excellent rapport with Paolo Maldini, who is a gentleman, someone attached to Milan and who did well for Milan,” Scaroni told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“However, we are following a more innovative model, at least for Italy, in how to run a club. That leads us to consider all our activities as collegial, we work in a team.
“It is an organisational model that our main shareholder cares a great deal about. Let us not forget, he is a specialist in sport who had success in his activities, so when he suggests something, we pay close attention, as he brings innovation.
“We got the feeling that Paolo felt ill at ease in this organisation, so when someone is ill at ease, it is best to go our separate ways.”
The players were very attached to Maldini and many name-checked him as one of the reasons they entertained the negotiations with Milan in the first place.
“It’s only natural they are sad, but on the other hand they are professionals and accustomed to change, they will understand this was made with the idea of improving. We will explain that to them,” explained Scaroni.
“It is very true that Maldini had a certain impact in negotiations and to this day I are very grateful to him, but I must also say that nowadays – and I hope it doesn’t seem ungrateful – we don’t need him as much.
“At the time, Milan were just coming out of the Yonghong Li era and struggled to attract talents. Milan today won the Scudetto and reached the Champions League semi-finals, so I think the club in general is more attractive.”
There have been reports that Maldini was going sour on Stefano Pioli and wanted to bring in his former teammate Pirlo as the new coach.
“I don’t want to comment on the idea of a sacking, but I can say that yes, Pioli is absolutely central to the project.”
There is also the matter of building a new stadium to boost revenue, with plans that seem to surge and die down every few weeks, so Scaroni summed up the situation.
“We really liked the idea of using the hippodrome at La Maura, as did the local Mayor, but it is very difficult to put that into practice. There is a pending ban on knocking down the Stadio Meazza, which could come into action in 2025, so without any certainty on the matter, we cannot proceed.
“The area of Sesto San Giovanni has the problem of drainage, so at the moment we are developing a hypothesis around the San Donato area to keep it ready in case San Siro has to be dropped.”
Best you and everyone move onto other important pieces of news, and let Maldini be.