AC Milan are prepared to bide their time before appointing a new chief executive as they look to steal Ivan Gazidis away from Arsenal.
The Italian giants have made an approach for Gazidis that Arsenal are desperate to fend off, particularly after the Gunners chief executive led an ambitious restructuring of the Emirates hierarchy that culminated with Arsene Wenger’s departure and the appointment of Unai Emery.
However Gazidis could command an increase on his £1.7million salary were he to move to the San Siro, where he is highly regarding by Gordon Singer, whose father Paul founded Elliot Management, the new owners of Milan.
The Rossoneri have been similarly proactive in the overhaul of their own backroom since Elliott took the indebted club from Yonhong Li and, speaking at the unveiling of Milan legend Paolo Maldini as their director of strategic development, chairman Paolo Scaroni said he would wait for the right candidate to come along.
“We will talk about the CEO after I return from holidays. I will not be putting any deadlines on this choice,” Scaroni said.
“It is a very important choice. We need to consider all options.”
Though Scaroni said he would not be willing to cover the chief executive role in addition to his duties as chairman for much longer his comments offer a clear indication that Milan would be prepared to wait if it means getting Gazidis.
