A report from Il Corriere dello Sport claims that Paolo Maldini asked Milan for a personal press officer to handle criticism of his transfer market moves. The Rossoneri legend was dismissed from his role as club director yesterday, with reports of a falling out with club owner Gerry Cardinale.
Il Corriere dello Sport report that one of Maldini’s requests to Milan was to hire someone to handle relations with the media, to which Cardinale’s response was more or less: “if he insists, he’ll pay for it!”
The newspaper writes:
“Only the distracted hadn’t caught, behind the scenes, another disagreement that took place around the fate of Stefano Pioli and his role. In the hours following the defeat against Spezia, when Milan’s run for the Champions League began to get complicated and Maldini himself felt under attack, reading day in and day out as well, that his transfer market moves were unanimously rejected by fans and observers, there was a very bitter confrontation between him and Stefano Pioli which let us imagine a possible firing of the coach at the end of the season in the event of a failure in the Champions League“.
“At one point Maldini asked the club to be able to hire a personal spokesperson to take care of relations with the media, a request rejected to the sender with a very dry reasoning here too (“if he really insists, if he pays for it!). This explains a series of non-football interviews during which he talked abut the background of his work at Milanello. In the absence of a personal press officer, a few friends (Bobo Vieri), former associates including Leonardo, came to his rescue.”
