Geoffrey Moncada spoke to 'Podcast Prolongation': "Among the things I like at AC Milan is the fact that we work with Paolo Maldini, who played there, he loves this club so much. When we take on a player, Paolo Maldini talks to him a lot and to his family."

Moncada: "When a young player arrives at Milan he says 'ah, it's Paolo Maldini, it's impressive.' If Maldini's work helps to understand where the young man is arriving and his new reality? Yes, absolutely."

Moncada: "We say to these young people: 'Ok, so you have arrived at Milan, the work begins now. We believe in you, you don't have to be shy, show that you have talent and impact. AC Milan is a huge club. Everything depends on your success'. We try to reassure the young guys."

Moncada on his relationship with Maldini: "When Paolo tells me that this player is worthy of Milan, that we can structure him, help him grow, I listen to him because he knows how to become a top player. He won a lot with Milan. He has passion in his blood."

Moncada: "When we take on a player, Maldini pays particular attention to everything because he wants the player to be an added value. I talk a lot with him."

Moncada on the importance of a good scouting department: "Milan, before, was already a top club, so maybe they didn't need to focus much on scouting. They brought the best players like Kakà and Shevchenko who already played in CL and he was already very good."

Moncada: "Elliott asked to develop the sports area with scouting: data, statistics. So we decided to create two things: the scouting area and the 'data' area. One works with the other every day. When a scout likes a player, we take a look at the numbers and everything else."

Moncada: "When the 'data' area tells us that we have a strong player with numbers, I ask the scouts to go watch him. I like this mix: work with the help of statistics. For Elliott it is important to have reports with statistics, videos, not just the observations of the scouts."

Moncada: "AC Milan didn't have this reputation for playing with young people, so we worked on this, we talked a lot with families of the players saying that if we take the youngster, it is because we believe in him and not to play him only once in a while."

Moncada: " Today, there are many clubs, agents, scouts who call me to say 'We want to come to Milan, what you do is very interesting.'"

Moncada: "I have friends in the Red Bull group or in Dortmund and other clubs who work a lot on scouting and who tell me "Bravo, we see the changes at Milan, you work very well.'"

Moncada: "Theo? He is a player we know from Atletico Madrid's U17 / U19. It was a job that lasted 4-5 years. And the opportunity to catch him came when he was a bit in trouble at Real Madrid who had just signed Ferland Mendy."

Moncada: "We had seen his games as a young man, his progress at Real Sociedad on loan, we had talked to his entourage. Theo is a train. He destroys all the left wing. In today's football, full-backs are like that and We want them like this."

Moncada: "A modern fullback today has to be a train, to run a lot, run like crazy."

Moncada on Theo: " We already followed Theo Hernandez at Atletico Madrid, then at Real Madrid, then he went on loan to Real Sociedad and I thought: 'no one may care about him.' The truth is: there wasn't much competition when we signed him."

Moncada: "Kjaer? Everyone was a bit skeptical in the environment, in the newspapers when we took him. We were in a difficult moment with the change of coach. We brought many youngsters but a player with experience was missing."

Moncada on signing Kjaer: "Elliott had told us that we spent a lot in the summer, so we had to find a low-cost operation and a player who was ready to play immediately. Someone who spoke the Italian language and was tactically strong."

Moncada: "We evaluated many centre-back profiles from different leagues but above all from the SerieA, because we said it would be easier to adapt and the name of Simon Kjaer has arrived."

Moncada on Kjaer's traits: "We analysed his games with Atalanta. His match against Dinamo Zagreb was very good. Then I took the list of Atalanta players and I said to myself: 'Who was not successful at Atalanta, but was he strong elsewhere?'and I made a list of a few names..."

Moncada: "With Simon Kjaer, we were sure we had a player with the right spirit, serious, a fighter, with the physique we wanted. Some say he's slow, but that's not true: he has perfect positioning, runs a lot and is tactically good."

Moncada: " We also did some work to see his physical problems, but it was nothing big. Then another positive factor is the cost of the operation. In the end, he cost €2.5M, as for his salary, I can't say but it's not expensive."

Moncada: "We told Simon, 'we need you as a leader.' He made himself available right away. He was always a good player. Reminds me of Ricardo Carvalho when we took him to Monaco. Simon has even more grit, he's not here to joke."

Moncada: "We have to say, now Kjaer is one of the best central defenders in Serie A, a very important player for the team. Ok, Ibrahimovic has changed many things, but Simon has also made his contribution, he is important in the project."

Moncada: "Jens Petter Hauge? The final decision to take him came with the match between Milan and Bodo / Glimt. I have to thank the 'data' area, who told me about this player between May and June."

Moncada: "We were in full lockdown. We couldn't travel. And I wanted to see this guy (Hauge) live. I wanted to see his ability to accelerate, his pace changes, and his explosiveness."

Moncada: "My scouts told me 'Geoffrey, look at Hauge'. At the end of the season, I asked my scouts to analyse his matches. Everyone spoke well of him. There wasn't any negative feedback."

Moncada: "We don't put pressure on Hauge. We make him progress. He came from Norway. We have players who are more ready than him like Rebic, Leao, Calhanogu. He has to work and is already part of the team, he plays games."

Moncada: "Immediately after we signed Jens Petter Hauge, at least 20 teams had called us to take him on loan from us."

Moncada: "Leao? If you remember, when we were doing badly with Giampaolo he had made some interesting performances. I remember his match against Fiorentina. He had arrived at a difficult moment and it was he who stood out among the players."

Moncada: "Then we changed our system, Ibra joined us, Leao got injured and he disappeared a bit. The coach showed him other things, he had to play on the wing with new training methods and everything else. Today he is a very important player for us."

Moncada: "You have seen Leao against Roma and Inter, he is able to deliver exceptional performances."

Moncada on the decision to sign Leao: "When we took him, we didn't just take him for what he did at Lille. We knew him even more for what he did before at Sporting Lisbon. He was incredible in the youth sector. In Youth League had played against Juve at a very high level."

Moncada: "We evidently saw what Leao did at Lille, but it is above all because of what he had shown to Sporting Lisbon that we signed him. I saw him play as an attacking midfielder at Sporting, it's incredible."

Moncada: "He can still improve physically. He can score even more, because he can score very easy goals or other top-class goals. He can score in the future even with his head, he has the physique to do that."