He turned down Chelsea for Leao, pointing to his release clause. Marcotti (and others) have reported that we were negotiating for Pulisic before Maldini got fired, same with RLC. I don't think our targets have changed since Maldini was fired.
Maldini asked for money publicly. He was fired.
Walter Sabatini, Massara's mentor, said very clearly what he thought was the issue. It was about where to get the money for the market.
When people talk about player sales with Maldini, I love how suddenly Maldini was autonomous and he decided, alone, not to sell Kessie, Donna, etc. It wasn't Elliott or Gazidis or Moncada.
But when it is time to talk about who Maldini bought, when it is Leao, Tonali, Tomori, or even Theo, it was Moncada or Boban or Elliott or data, Maldini wasn't in charge then, only last year, when the symbol of the market, CDK, was the darling of Moncada.
For me, it seems pretty simple: Maldini asked for more money, he got fired. We sold players after he got fired. Player sales is now the new mantra, which is a byword for ruthlessness.
When Elliott were in charge, who are more ruthless than Redbird have ever been, they didn't sell players as they had different models of risk--and priced out the utility of a known asset in achieving their sporting goals that selling players like Kessie or Donna wasn't worth the potential costs in the integration of new players.
The situation Redbird inherited is far better than what Maldini took over. So I hope they do even better. Which means to win the CL, since that's what Leao and Tijjani are now talking about.
