Paolo Scaroni spoke to the press for the first time after the exits of Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara.
It has been a hectic week for Milan: on Sunday they beat Hellas Verona on Matchday 38 and said goodbye to Zlatan Ibrahimović who retired from football, on Tuesday showed Paolo Maldini the door and on Wednesday Frederic Massara joined him and left the club.
Many Milan fans all over the world are confused and agree over the actions of Gerry Cardinale, the American owner of Milan, who decided to sack the biggest icon in the history of the club in Maldini. Club President Paolo Scaroni spoke to Arianna Ravelli of il Corriere della Sera to explain the side of RedBird and the ownership.
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 are following a somewhat innovative model, at least for Italy, in managing the club, which leads us to consider all our activities as collegial: we work as a team.”
Committees set up in each sector…
“It is an organizational 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.”
And couldn’t Maldini really fit into this model?
“In this organization, we had the impression that Paolo felt uncomfortable and when one feels uncomfortable, it’s better to separate. Let me give you an example that concerns myself.”
Please…
“I’ve devoted myself to the stadium issue, so much so that there were those who called me ‘Stadioni’ instead of Scaroni. It’s true, but I did it mostly in the Elliott years. When RedBird, who have experts who have built stadiums all over the world, arrived, it was natural for me to join the team and lose that independent role. It’s a bit like what had to happen in the technical area.”
A new method, to achieve what? This year Milan reached the Champions League semifinals and doing better won’t be easy…
“RedBird and all of us want Milan to continue this growth. I don’t forget that I started as President at a dramatic moment. You will recall that I always said that we had two mountains to climb: financial recovery and sporting results. We are not at the top now, but we have come a long way. In fact, I would say that we are among those in Italy who have come the furthest. We want to continue climbing, always keeping in mind that higher revenues bring more investments in the sporting area, and more sporting success brings more revenues – a virtuous circle to set in motion.”
Fans wonder how much effort will be put into the mercato: the famous budget…
“First of all, I want to remind everyone that in 4 years, we have invested more than others [€200m]. Some may say not always wisely, but our shareholders have allowed us to build a strong team and we will continue on this path together. I believe we will have to make some sales and conclude some important signings: we are ambitious.”
A mercato managed by whom?
“It will be in the hands of a team that integrates different skills, with CEO Giorgio Furlani, who also has the sporting 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 work well for American sports but not for football…
“RedBird believes in scientifically analyzing player characteristics, which is something that has been done in the Premier League for years. They have managed to adapt models born for other sports to football. We have to combine individual expertise, personal insight in discovering talent and being able to fit them into our environment with these quantitative findings. We want to bring together 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, winning games matters, I never liked losing and even less so did Gerry Cardinale.”
But if the identification of goals is the result of a collegial path, at the time of negotiations Maldini put the weight of his figure on the field…
“True, very true, and I am very grateful to him. I have to say that today, and without sounding ungrateful, we have less need of him: the Milan that came out of Yonghong Li’s management struggled to attract talent. Today’s Milan, which won the Scudetto and made it to the Champions League semifinals, I think is more attractive.”
No new entrants are planned, then…
“Not at the moment.”
Not even Ibra?
“I have the impression that he wants to give himself a sabbatical year. He remains a friend, a person to whom we owe a lot, because in the most difficult moments he allowed us to turn things around. If ideas come to him, we’ll be the first to listen to them.”
Some players have posted messages of closeness to Maldini: do you think the team is concerned?
“The fact 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 them. Then they will remain attached 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 fire him…
“I don’t want to express myself on the idea of the sacking, 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 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.”