The big news in European football last night was to do with AC Milan. The Italian club sacked both Paoli Maldini and Ricky Massara, their two sporting directors, in an unexpected and ruthless chop from the top of the club.
It’s left them in chaos with the crucial phase of the transfer window already underway. Chelsea’s main dealings with Milan thus far had been over a sale – Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s move seemed to be quite far down the line and is now surely in question.
But there is the potential for it to create deals as well as destroy them. Sebastian Denis of Foot Mercato in France points out that it’s a “catastrophe” for Milan for this to happen now. He points out that three key players – Theo Hernandez, Mike Maignan and Rafael Leao – are all very unhappy.
Le départ de Paolo Maldini provoque déjà un tremblement de terre à Milan. Si leur départ était envisagé plus pour 2024, les voir partir dès maintenant au début du mercato est une catastrophe. Theo Hernandez, Mike Maignan et aussi Rafael Leao tous proches de Maldini ne sont pas… pic.twitter.com/yO5QS2fZjE
— Sébastien Denis (@sebnonda) June 6, 2023
From Chelsea’s point of view, star goalkeeper Maignan has always felt like an impossibility this summer, but these this explosive news may change all that. If he feels let down by the club where he is now, the timing is perfect for Chelsea to come in and try and to shake things up.
He will still be expensive, regardless of who is in charge for Milan, but now there may be pressure applied from the player’s end too, which always facilitates a transfer. At the very least, we expect his name to be strongly back in the headlines as we’re linked to keepers for the rest of the summer now.
