AC Milan‘s director, Paolo Maldini, spoke to the microphones of SportMediaset minutes before kick-off between the Rossoneri and Torino in the Coppa Italia fixture:
“Milan ambitious in all four competitions? Yes, the championship and the Champions League occupied the first part of the season and now we are focused on the Coppa Italia.”
On Charles De Ketelaere:
“He’s a 21-year-old, young player with a 5-year contract and on whom a long-term project has been made. You can’t think that a Coppa Italia match in January is a last resort. I think this is wrong, we have to be balanced. We have seen it many times, and I think the Tonali issue has taught many a lot. We have to wait for these young players who still need to find something different to what they have had before to get to Milan.”
On the market, Maldini said:
“We don’t deviate from this line because we have given ourselves a sustainable direction. We feel competitive, we are reigning champions, we still have four competitions to play and therefore we won’t make large investments and in the winter transfer market we will do practically nothing.”
On a possible signing of a goalkeeper:
“No, we have confidence in Tatarusanu who has played excellent games, we have Mirante and we have signed Vazquez. There is no other operation in sight.”
On Ismael Bennacer and if the renewal is close:
“Absolutely, I think we will in the next 24-36 hours”
On Rafael Leao:
“We are talking, there are video calls and we don’t necessarily have to meet in person. We will try to reach a solution. It seems that the two parties want it and now we want to try to be able to close. As we tried to do in the he last year and a half where many things have happened: our will is there and that of the player seems to exist. This year we have focused on the renewal of our player base, built with the first transfer campaign of 2019 and practically everyone has renewed. It must be said that all those who wanted to renew have renewed.”
