\He has presided over the most glorious era in AC Milan’s history and one of the most glittering spells any football club has ever known. But the positive response from the fan base to the news Silvio Berlusconi could be about to sell a controlling stake in the Rossoneri is evidence that the former Italian prime minister simply cannot leave soon enough.
That Paolo Maldini is set to front up the new era is a poetic, tantalising by-product of this potential change at the San Siro
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Five Champions Leagues, eight Serie A titles, a Club World Cup and countless other pieces of silverware may have filled the Via Turati trophy cabinet since Berlusconi took charge of the suffering giants in 1986, but the last four years have been one long disappointment.
Amidst the talk of Champions League DNA, turning corners and building new eras, the on-pitch product has been sadly lacking. Worse, it has been embarrassing. Berlusconi has been left looking like a clueless, stubborn old man rather than the architect of a once-proud dynasty, with his support of Adriano Galliani’s wayward transfer policy questionable at best.
Silvio's interventions have often been to the club’s detriment, most notably when blocking the €35 million sale of Alexandre Pato to Paris Saint-Germain on account of the Brazilian’s relationship with his daughter Barbara. The €15m deal which saw Pato leave for Corinthians 12 months later only compounded that nepotistic error.
Milan could have done with the extra money too. The Financial Fair Play era has ushered in the need to spend within one's means but, even in the Diavolo’s last Scudetto-winning season of 2010-11, success was built on the extravagant purchases of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho.
There have been other errors besides decreeing that Andrea Pirlo was surplus to requirements and alienating Ibrahimovic by selling Thiago Silva to Paris Saint-Germain. Galliani also managed to get Carlos Tevez out for dinner in 2012 but couldn’t clinch a deal and was left looking on as the Argentine signed for Juventus instead.
In the meantime, the CEO has been busy snapping up every Genoa cast-off he can get his hands on and fashioning a squad with little quality and zero depth where once Milan boasted a vast surplus of talent. And when results haven’t gone his way, he’s taken to manipulating technology to make a case for blaming officials rather than himself.
But finally it appears that the straw-clutching has stopped and the introspection has begun. No longer able to blame everybody but themselves, Berlusconi and Galliani look ready to face up to the fact they are no longer what Milan need. It just so happens that one of the men they have constantly snubbed in recent times is likely to replace Galliani as the figurehead of the new Rossoneri if Bee Taechaubol’s purchase goes through.
Paolo Maldini did not have the greatest send-off when he brought down the curtain on his playing career in 2009, with ultras infamously blasting him for questioning their motives. Yet there are few more cherished by one club, nor more synonymous with success than the great former left-back.
It is not as though moves haven’t been made to bring Maldini back into the organisation over the last six years either. Leonardo wanted him as a director of sport, passing on his experience at training sessions, but Galliani told the pair that no such role was necessary in modern football. Massimiliano Allegri later suggested Maldini could join his staff to act as an advisor and a conduit between the coach and players, but the former full-back was again made to feel unwelcome.
By the time Barbara Berlusconi looked to create a power shift in 2013, with the club legend as part of her vision, it was obvious that the move was a non-starter.
“I can destroy this myth that I am ‘one of the family’ at Milan,” blasted Maldini to La Repubblica in 2012 when asked about Galliani’s opposition to his return. “They don’t particularly want me there. I feel bitter, not just for me but also for everything we created together that has fallen apart. It’s the same sensation many of my ex-teammates have.”
That deconstruction of the once-great Milan has led the club to its current position. Where once there was Maldini, Shevchenko, Pirlo and Kaka, there is now Paletta, Antonelli, Muntari and Pazzini. Everything that Berlusconi and Galliani have allowed to happen since Maldini’s retirement represents everything that is wrong with the current set-up.
One can only hope that Taechaubol’s proposed takeover comes to fruition and the Thai financier does indeed bring the 46-year-old in as part of his brand new vision. While Maldini’s credentials as a sporting director are as yet unproven, there is perhaps no person on earth with a club’s well-being at heart more than him. And after such a sustained period of mistreatment, that is exactly what is required.
A Milan with Maldini at its heart is an altogether more stirring, evocative proposition than the tired, tepid fare that has been served up in recent times. And thanks to Plan Bee, it is a very real possibility in the near future
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