It may be a coping mechanism but the more I think about it, the more I think it is all for the good. Yeah, yeah, I know I change my opinion every 2 hours
Maldini was always a tough character to handle. There's a reason why it took Milan owners 10 years to bring him back to the club after he retired. He refused numerous times the role of talisman like Zanetti and merda. He always wanted to be the big boss despite having 0 (literally) experience. Logically it led to different problems with the properly and other people involved - Leonardo, Boban, Gazidis, Cardinale. Probably a lot of tension with Moncada as well. In the end he finally got what he always wanted and delivered an awful mercato which as it seems was not discussed with Pioli
at all. I've put 99% of the blame on the baldie, but these interviews lately show different pictures. Yes, Maldini didn't have a lot of money on his disposal, but him and Massara dropped a real stinker. Origi and Dest were obvious flops. A huge part of the commoders were against these moves. Messias for nearly 6 m is an awful deal. On top of that we (of all teams in the world) broke the Belgian league outgoing transfer record by a huge margin. And to make it even worse, the guy made one of the biggest flops in the history. In the end they spend a total of 55 m and the only player that actually had any impact was a kid from Germany who was probably scouted by... Moncada. Maldini and Massara had a difficult task - fact. They flopped hard - fact.
If his name wasn't Paolo Maldini, but Massimiliano Mirabelli we would've been celebrating right now. Losing Maldini is bad for image of the club, but to be honest, he never proved to be a genius director. He was adding value and credibility to the club, but it's not like he was delivering some exceptional acquisitions. He actually signed a lot of donkies. What's more he passed on numerous gems that were up for grabs for free/pocket money (Alvarez, Caicedo, Kone, Enzo, Muani (there are 2 versions what happened with Kolo). Yes, I know we can't grab them all, but all these were
needed at Milan. We're not talking about luxury signings. Anyone of the mentioned was walking straight into our line up or at least was getting a big role in the rotation. All of them left their clubs for a combined sum below the money we spent on CDK. Let that sink in.
Another important thing is that such changes are clearly well planned. If the Americans know one thing about sports it is how to make money. Does not necessarily mean that we will be a selling club. Players like the ones mentioned above would've elevated the team a lot and it would've led to more prize money, more points in Serie A, even more fans, and yes, a few sales eventually. It's inevitable, but it doesn't mean that we are going to be Dortmund. Actually Dortmund will likely wipe the floor with us, but that's another conversation.
Obviously they did not accept Maldini as the right person for the job. They would've sacked him last season, but accepted another year just because they were the new owners (who hadn't even finished the deal yet at that time). Once they settled, they did the logical thing from their POV. The fact that they renewed Maldini and Massara only for 2 years last summer speaks a lot.
Having said that, I really don't like that Maldini is gone, but I have zero control in the situation, so I am done stressing.
