Boban is someone who has never been shy about sharing his feelings when it comes to Milan, a club with whom he won four Serie A titles and one UEFA Champions League title during his decade-long stint with the Rossoneri.
During the first part of the episode, Boban had spoken about the decision to sack Paolo Maldini and why it was handled in a ‘shameful’ way, some of the signings that he was close to making but couldn’t get over the line, and his concerns about American ownership.
Now, the second part of the interview has been released on Longoni’s YouTube channel ‘Milan Hello’ and he continued to make his thoughts clear on the current management, but started with some considerations on Ismael Bennacer. MilanNews relayed his comments.
“Bennacer is a super underrated player, and you did it too because you didn’t understand him. What don’t you like about Bennacer
That’s fair enough, I’ve been out a lot too, others have been out a lot too.
But why did they massacre him in every way? Bennacer is an extraordinary player, underrated. What he has given to Milan is exceptional. I do not defend the choice we made on Bennacer.
“On the contrary, I also enjoy acknowledging my mistakes in the maturity that I hope I should have at 57 years old. On the contrary, my defeats are those that have helped me understand things. Bennacer is the player who steals the most balls in the world per minute played.
“He is the player who touches the ball almost more than the minutes played, he is always on the ball. I do not know how people do not see it.
Well yes, after an injury it takes a bit of time for him to come back. Others were given all the time they needed and he was given it right away… He didn’t know how to communicate, he’s a closed-off guy, a total soldier.
“How come I was so interested in him? In the meantime Giampaolo said we sign Bennacer. We went to see him better and I found a statement from Cristiano Ronaldo, he was talking about the players he likes in Italy. And he said about this number 10 from Empoli. He doesn’t even remember his name.
“If Ronaldo says it and he hasn’t complimented any other player in the world then I’m going to watch this game… Absurd, he massacred them all by himself, Juve never managed to catch him. There he was a number 10, he made a huge mess.
“He needed to be cleaned up, he needed to be stabilised, he didn’t even know how to turn around to change the game. We worked on it. Afterwards I see that he was in the Arsenal youth team and so I call Wenger.
He says to me: ‘Zvone, if you have to go to war with one person in the world then you go with Ismael’. So you know, one plus one, you like him for his potential and then you take him. Not to play right away, he needed to be worked on for a while.
“He only looked at the ball, he was a suitable and withdrawn No.10. He was born a 10, you could see it. But he is also an 8, he won the award as MVP of the African Cup of Nations as an 8, not as a 6.
“A person who should never be in football. He has nothing to do with football. But you know, certain people, because of the power they have had and the positions they have had, have never really asked themselves deeply.
“They have never created that spiritual structure to ask themselves: is it right for me to go there? Because obviously it goes towards interests. But Milan?… He has nothing to do with Milan. Even though he is still a great manager, he has had great successes.
I have not followed his life just as he has not followed mine. Once we had to go to Lega Calcio and he couldn’t. We were at the stadium, I was addressing him formally because I was keeping him quite distant.
“Maldini says to him: ‘Paolo, for Zvone this has been his bread and butter in recent years, he has been involved in the institutions, he knows the League, he knows how to do these things’.
“Then I also had these duties of representation in the contract, but I didn’t care because we had to sort out other things. And Scaroni says: ‘Ok, then send me your CV…’ (laughs).
“I told him to go to hell and threw him out of the office. I said to him: ‘What the f*** are you doing in football?’. He said to me: ‘Why should I know what you’ve done in life?’. Okay (laughs). You don’t have to, but then I don’t have to respect you either.
“But he said it in a natural way, not even realising it in my opinion. It’s not that I got angry afterwards, but at the time I reacted by taking him and throwing him out of the office. That’s what I think of Scaroni.”
“Giorgio Furlani is a Milan fan, a true Milan fan. But in his own way. He was built differently. He was a mathematician, a businessman for a fund and that is his way of seeing things, he is not able to distinguish well what Milan represents for us.
“But he has supported the club all his life, I have known him before and it is not up for discussion. Then he has his bosses to whom he answers religiously, forgetting about passion, sport, football, everything that is belonging, all the other values that are Milan for all the normal people who love Milan.
You don’t get it there, he is just a square manager and that’s it. He doesn’t know how to play football, what skills does Giorgio Furlani have to play football? And that’s normal. He should surround himself with people who understand football. Someone who understood so much sent him away.
“He should also have asked himself questions, understood what is good for Milan and that Maldini and Massara were good for Milan. It was technical protection, not to mention the representation of the symbolism that Paolo in he carries himself.
“I blame him more for that than the fact that he knows or doesn’t know… he doesn’t know. And he thinks that Moncada knows everything. That’s the fact. Because scouting is enough for him to understand everything.
“Coach? Of course, great coach or not, let’s see: this is the budget and that’s it, they’re the same. They don’t give importance to these things because they don’t know how to play football. They have no idea.
If they get a sporting director, he will be completely closed and stuck, practically reduced to a one-level technocracy with no ambitions. I don’t think he will have an important role that can change history.
“Instead, he should have a role of representing the club, being in the middle between the team, the coach and the club: protecting everyone and everything, that’s what the technical director does. He has to see when a player is in crisis, the coach doesn’t talk to him and has to go to the player.
“When the coach is in crisis or maybe a little upset, he has to ask him a few questions to clarify his ideas or put a little pressure on him. The role of sporting director is too important, but that’s not how they see it.
“For Giorgio [Furlani], Moncada is already an excellent scout as I said, he can choose the players and that’s enough. I don’t think they consider all the other SD work important, otherwise it would have already been there for months.
I’m sorry. I said it for the good of Ibrahimovic who I love so much. I am fond of him and I always will be especially for that moment when he came back and what he gave to Milan in that year and a half.
“I will not move from this, he is my footballing brother if you want. For everything he is doing now it is not like Ibrahimovic, not for what we thought he was. Even this latest delegitimisation… With his proclaimed strength, dignity and courage you leave immediately. Immediately
“Where has everything I thought he had disappeared to? I am so sorry, it is not good for him but it is not good for anyone because he is an extraordinary player and in any case he has given Milan so much.
“We can see it as growth, as disorientation in being left without certain clarities that football gives. That is normal, but I hope he reaches the right conclusions and detaches himself and truly grows as God commands.”
