La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper has relayed some of the important statements that Paolo Maldini released in yesterday's event Festival dello Sport. Here are the words of the Rossoneri club technical area director:
"Rafa is grateful to us and I am interested in what he tells us. Rafa understands that the path in the next few years must be at Milan, he understands it and tells us. Then there will be a negotiation but we know that strong players must be paid for their value. If the team grows further, Leao will have everything to compete at the maximum level. Then of course, there is no non-transferable for all the teams in the world. If we can say that there is a good chance of finding an agreement with him and Sporting? Yes, with him yes. We have nothing to do with Sporting Lisbon. "
Paolo Maldini on signing Charles De Ketelaere:
"To tell the truth, we tried to sign Botman (first). In that case, we would have turned to a loan for the attacking midfield area. The idea was not to take average players, we have to take players with a great perspective and Charles is one of them. We have to wait for him but we have very few doubts about him. He is strong from many points of view, he is 1.92, he is strong with his legs, he is strong with his head, he has characteristics of the highest level."
On the transfer market:
"If there is a player for whom we have said no, still not public, to a foreigner? Well, there was a time we said 'don't even show up'. For Theo? You said so. Well, not just for him, for others too. If they then show up, we will see. We would like to keep the strongest, we do not need to give up, but the non-transferable (players) no longer exist."
Paolo Maldini on the arrival of RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale:
"Gerry has energy and he listens, I like that a lot. The idea conveyed is of continuity between Elliott and RedBird, who have taken a restored club and should now be able to move up towards bigger goals. If Cardinale made promises? I have no promises, but I can make one: we will never go beyond the economic limits. To compete, we will need to increase our revenues and our salary. Since we are talking about continuity between ownerships, the time has come, gradually, to respect the project that provides for an increase in the economic effort based on revenues. We will do nothing that is not within our financial means. The twentieth of the Premier League has a higher budget than ours. It is unbearable. We have history and more ideas..."
