In Italy if you notice,when it comes to sell a top players in their team,more often than not it is the big boss who made the decision rather than sporting director.In SMS case you see it's Lotito rather than Tare,in Chiesa case it's Comisso rather than Prade,In Belotti case it's Cairo rather than Vagnati,in Koulibaly case it's De Laurentiis rather than Guintoli.Off course the process of the transfer dealing will be done by his immediate subordinate which is SD but the decision will be always on the Big Boss..
So in our case yes it's Gazidis who has a final said not Paolo because like I said the SD job is purely on technical side of things,their priority is to build the strongest squad possible.Why do they want to sell their best players?It will look like they are doing a terrible job hence why when it comes to selling top players it's a Big Boss (Ceo,chairman,presidente or which ever name they want to call it) who always more actively get involved because it's clear that selling your best players has nothing to do with a sporting reason so they the Big Boss showing their responsibility rather than SD which in my opinion applies the same in our club.
Regarding Paolo name position, it's semantics.At the end of the day we know who is above who in decision making,sporting wise...
We're not run that old fashioned way tho. Not anymore. There's not that old patron anymore in here that once used to be Berlusconi and who once controlled and interfered in any part of the structure, for the better or the worse.
All those examples you named. Cairo, De Laurentiis, Dela Valle family before Commisso, Lotito... All of those are exactly like we were once used to be run.
Now Berlusconi isn't here anymore. We don't have one single man putting his personal wealth in the club with the intention to be involved in each and every department or decision making. It's a hedge fonds now who's most known to buy companies at their most dire moment, reshape and reorganise them in a modern way and to sell them to the highest vider once that company has been resanitised.
What you are doing is putting Gazidis on the same level like Berlusconi and Co., but what you have to understand is that Gazidis is not the owner of the club, not even the president - I think that part is obvious and no news to you
- but
an employee of the club. Hence why your comparisons don't work.
I remembered when talks about Silvio selling to a Chinese conglomerate emerged and medias and celeberties or known figures were like "I don't like that, I'd felt safer if there was one man, one figure to take over from Silvio". I think the scepticism in Italy really dates back to that.