Stefano Pioli’s position has come under heavy scrutiny following the 2-2 draw against Salernitana and AC Milan are evaluating their options. As highlighted by a journalist, the manager could have left the club already in the summer.
Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara evaluated the position of Pioli before their departure at the start of June. Milan narrowingly secured a top-four finish and lost big in the derbies, including the Champions League semi-final, and this left the directors very disappointed.
As reported by the journalist Alessandro Jacobone, Maldini and Massara seriously evaluated the sacking of Pioli and were ready to replace him in the summer. Luis Enrique was contacted by Massara in March, but the request of €8m per year was simply too high for Milan.
Therefore, they turned to Monza’s Raffaele Palladino instead and this is a solution that Maldini pushed for. Of course, the two directors never got far in the process as they were forced to leave the club as soon as the season ended.
Already in September on our Substack, we wrote about Maldini’s willingness to sack Pioli and take Milan to the next level. Make sure to subscribe if you haven’t already, the newsletter is free and you can try 7 days for free to access the bonus content.
But he wanted Pirlo. People here, the sofa experts, said he wanted Pirlo. I don’t buy it. This outlet is pro Maldini.
Lets see the next name invented by the media.
Very difficult what to believe especially with the media’s current reputation of fantasy and fabrication…… One area people can not argue with is that Maldini knows football. The current bunch of goons we have at the helm know nothing.
What a load of rubbish. Pallidino plays a 352 formation with Monza and he is not an upgrade to Pioli. I would rather keep Pioli than get Pallidino. Smh
As for Luis Enrique, he’s not an upgrade to Pioli either and his salary is beyond ridiculous.
None of these choices would have been better. Sorry to all the Maldini fanboys out there but this is even worse than Pirlo.
It didn’t make sense to replace Pioli after getting to the semifinals of the CL. Yes we finished 4th only because Juventus had points deducted but changing Pioli this season would have been a mistake. The squad depth he had was horrible.
We needed to sign 10 or players and doing that with a new coach would have been a disaster.
Had it not been for Pioli’s incompetent fitness staff we would have had most of our starters available and most likely be in 2nd place and advanced to the knockout rounds.
Can u tell us what makes a Maldini fanboy? Is it defending the job he did or defending the job he did while having a poster on the wall?
Anyways to your point, we don’t know if any of this is true. Media fabricates alot of stuff..like he wanted power or had misunderstandings with Furlani for instance. Maybe we’ll have to wait for the next Maldini interview 6 months from now to know but u must admit he’s been correct instinctively for the past two years. We didn’t seem to need Botman after we had stellar defending in the lead up to the Scudetto, right? and it seems here we didn’t need a new coach after making UCL semis too, right?
Maldini was 5 steps ahead and management usually handcuffed him. It’s amazing what he was able to accomplish with so many restrictions.
And the media are 100 steps sideway.
Wow, the Amazing Maldini! SO he gets all the credit. Pioli gets none. The ownership that took this struggling club with massive debt and turned it into a profitable club while winning and delivering the first Scudetto in 10 years gets no credit. All credit goes to Maldini. And of course none of the blame for the all the flops he brought in right?
Yes amazing how he beat all the competition to get Origi. The point is every coach or director is going to have hits and misses. Maldini obviously got some things right but he got a hell of a lot wrong. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been fired.
Maldini is nothing, he can do nothing without genius Moncada & our super smart president to get mighty Origi, Maldini is so stupid asking big budget on washup player like Messi or unproven Mbappe/Halaand,
thank to our generous president we get CL winner Origi for free
I always said, take his name out of it and he was an average director. It’s his name that pulls on the strings of many. Makes you look objectivity.
His presence in the locker room is sorely missed though.
Love the revisionist history on here. Oh if Maldini had his way we would have Botman, Thuram, Tonali Frattesi, Pulisic, RLC, who else? Throw Messi in there as well…
They tried to get Botman, they failed. They weren’t going to compete with Newcastle. They would not have gotten Thuram or Frattesi either. When Inter and Milan want the same player, Inter gets that player 9 times out of 10. While Maldini was there.
Do we also want to imagine what this team would look like right now if they didn’t sell Tonali and weren’t able to bring in the depth that they brought in midfield and attack. With Bennacer out and Tonali suspended for being a degenerate gambler. You want to imagine what our midfield would look like? Krunic and Pobega starting for the first half of the season… We would probably be bottom of the table right now.
Do we need to list all of the flops that Maldini brought in? Origi, Ballo-Toure, CDK, Bakayoko, Vranckx, Dest, Tata, etc…Or how he let our most valuable players leave for free.
And honestly, while I think Pioli should go now, he absolutely earned the right to manage the team this season. Up until last season he had overachieved with the squads that he had. Last years squad had no depth whatsoever. The fact that Maldini was scheming to get rid of Pioli is most likely what led to his sacking. But there were plenty of reasons to let him go.
You’re absolutely right! The flops were all Maldini’s doing while the stars were all probably Moncada’s.
“Do we need to list all of the flops that Maldini brought in? Origi, Ballo-Toure, CDK, Bakayoko, Vranckx, Dest, Tata, etc…Or how he let our most valuable players leave for free.” – wasn’t that because there’s no real budget for Maldini and Massara to buy proper players? Maldini confirm it on his interview and said something like “sometimes the budget is there, and sometimes vanished”.
“And honestly, while I think Pioli should go now, he absolutely earned the right to manage the team this season. Up until last season he had overachieved with the squads that he had. Last years squad had no depth whatsoever.” – all of Pioli’s achievement should also be credited to Zlatan.. like we all know Pioli’s s*cks when motivating his players.. and when Milan performance gone down it was Zlatan who brings back the mentality of the players.. even now Zlatan hired back because of the very reasons.
Well the budget would have been a lot more if he didn’t let our best players leave for free. Imagine the money they would have gotten for Donnarumma, Calhagnoglu and Kessie… That’s a ton of money that they let slip away with poor negotiation tactics. You don’t let valuable players go into the final year of contract without a new deal. If you want to keep them, you make a generous offer, and if they don’t accept then you sell them and get some money to replace them. It was bad business not to do that and Maldini made that mistake time and time again which was why they never replaced Hakan or Kessie. You have to be smarter when you don’t have unlimited funds.
It’s fun, but not true. Which player we lost to Inter or Newcastle under Maldini? None. He not fail to get Botman – there was problem with ownership and cash – because Elliot doesn’t want to put their cash because noone will give it them back and RB doesn’t want to put their cash before the deal was closed. When the deal was closed, Maldini got 45 mln + sell. And the plans of the BoD was changed – instead of defender and mid he got a quest to find player for 10. Moncada watched CDK (recommended) and Furlani accepted.
Origi, Ballo-Toure, CDK, Bakayoko, Vranckx, Dest, Tata
Tata cost was 1 mln. There was no other options for second/third goalkeepers. And no-one known that Mike will be a glass – because Mike was not in plans yet.
Bakayoko was a loan – Kessie replacement.
Dest – there was a last-minute loan because we had all our right def in the medical.
Vranckx – loan, now playing in Bundesliga – last 7 games – 6 in full time. In Milan he got half of time he played now in full season. One single game in full time.
Ballo-Toure – cheap bench player.
Origi – you got me. But you got Klopp and our board too. Because our board had to close deal – Maldini had no power to do it.
“he let our most valuable players leave for free”
Lol. Kessie got more cash from Barca. And his agent with Mino Raiola just manipulated everyone to think that he will renew his contract – just to have stronger positions in negotiations with Barca. Everyone know that Maldini couldn’t offer more cash – because owner doesn’t allow it.
Hakan – got more cash from Inter. And he had problems with other players in team.
For Dollar we got fantastic offer – 20 mln + Areola. Nothing more.
Kessie – there was one offer under 20 mln. And we accepted it, but player not. Even Barca had problems with selling him (12,5 mln)
Hakan – there was one offer, from bundesliga, under 20 mln.
So IRL (instead of FM) you will get about 20-40 mln. And probably without LM and without scudetto. Stop being stupid and doesn’t pick transfermarkt values as axiom.
“You have to be smarter when you don’t have unlimited funds.”
Like Inter? Lose best defender for free, ah wait. Just sell best player for cash, take free player with big sallary… Ah, wait, we cannot offer that salary yet.
Just thanks to Milan owners – they think that ‘muricans economical tactics will work in European football clubs (just look at James “King of capital gains” Pallotta tactics)
Um Remember Botman… Yes, Maldini tried and failed to get him and Newcastle did. And Hakan…we lost him to Inter. So not sure you know what you are talking about.
And as far as the offers for the other players, you are making my point for me. They didn’t get a lot of great offers for those players because they were already in the final year of their deal, so teams aren’t going to offer that much when they could just wait a few months and get for free. That’s why you don’t let valuable players go into the final year of their deal without signing a new one. Something clearly you and Maldini didn’t understand.
And if Maldini, like you thought Bakayoko was a replacement for Kessie, that’s reason enough for his sacking.
Pirlo, Palladino, Enrique, bla bla bla. What I see is that Maldini simply thought Pioli was not indispensable to the Milan’s project. Whereas the management though contrary. They even made Pioli had more power and more central role to the project.
Exactly. 💯💯💯. The POINT is not WHO he wanted to replace Pioli with – it’s the fact he recognized that Pioli was limited and needed to be REPLACED for us to take the next leap in quality. Sadly Maldini was RIGHT and we are all seeing that now.
Reminds me of when they made up a bunch of stuff when Paolo was quiet. Same nonsense. Its easy to say things after the fact, and when things aren’t going so well,. Much harder to do this before hand. If the team was doing well this aeticle never comes out. And it’s why I always give my predictions well ahead of time so ppl can’t say I’m making stuff up
It. Was. Never. Maldini. Vs. Pioli.
Thank you!
And even if he wanted to replace him didn’t mean he disliked him or had a grudge against him. Its a professional evaluation at the highest level, as is the case with all directors and managers
Pirlo lifts lid on Milan success, Juventus move and idea of him replacing Pioli.
Is it true you held talks over becoming Milan head coach?
“With Maldini just chatting between friends…”
Who someone wants and who someone talked to about replacing Pioli with are totally different things. Most of us want Pep Guardiola but that isn’t realistic.
And how is Paladino a better option than promoting Abate? At that point Paladino has only coached Monza for several months. Not to mention that Paladino runs 3 men defense.
Maldini wanted Luis Enrique.
He gave the current coach 4.2 mil a year new contract, and wants to fire him and hire a coach who will make 8 mil.
Outside of those couple years at Barca when he had Prime Messi. Suarez and Neymar, Luis Enrique has failed everywhere else as a coach plus currently doing a p!ss poor job at PSG, barely getting out of the group where Milan was in.
LOL. This has to be the most stupid sentence ever. “…barely getting out of the group where Milan was in.” The strongest group in this years CL by far. Stop being a clown.
Milan played with no defenders, didn’t score a single goal in 3 games, has Pioli as a coach and at the end had the same had the same amount of points as PSG, who has bigger payroll than the rest of the 3 teams combined, not to mention the best player in the world and were clear cut favorites before the group stage started.
Try thinking before commenting next time.
You’re asking too much of him. He’s the goofball who thinks he’s the all seeing eye of football and then comes out with Graham Potter would be a good alternative to DeZerbi 😂.
A lot of Maldini haters. Clearly some ppl talking here understand football from playing FIFA. There is a lot that goes into football that just what you see and heard. Maldini stood on business. He came with an offer that was more than fair and that was on the table, he didn’t allow himself to be taken advantage of by any agent or the club. Maldini didn’t have the ⅓ of the budget of what the new guys have now, and they still haven’t address the problem areas of the team such as a striker and LB issue and Maldini still got better results. Maldini knew you can build a team of 25 young players but you need experience. Hence this is why this team cracks under the slightest pressure. The fact is that Cardinale didn’t want Maldini and was expecting Maldini fail by limiting the budget and when he didn’t fail, came up with the ridiculous story of not being a team player. Don’t hate a man who stands on values.
Plus pioli has been poor years now thevteam lack of identity, good tactics and playing style. Pioli was heavily reliant on individual players bailing the team out.