Former Milan director Massimiliano Mirabelli feels vindicated in picking Gennaro Gattuso and reveals failed negotiations for Lazio stars Ciro Immobile and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.

The ex-director of sport is the man who pushed hard for Gattuso to be promoted from the Primavera youth team job in November 2017 when Vincenzo Montella was sacked.

“I am convinced this young Milan will go far over the next few years,” Mirabelli told RMC Sport radio.

Milan have reportedly requested assistance from China over Yonghong Li’s business affairs ahead of meeting UEFA on Friday.

According to ANSA, Milan have sent a letters rogatory, asking for the Chinese courts to help them piece together how Li funded his 2017 takeover.

Silvio Berlusconi agreed to sell the Rossoneri for €740m to the businessman, but it later emerged that he borrowed €303m from Elliott Management, which replaced him as the club’s owner after he defaulted on the loan.

Former Milan director Marco Fassone is reportedly suing the club for €30m in damages for unfair dismissal.

The ex-CEO has taken legal action against the Rossoneri and the matter is in the initial stages, but more details are beginning to emerge.

According to La Repubblica, Fassone’s lawyers are asking for €30m in various damages and missed earnings.

Fassone was the key figure in Yonghong Li’s failed administration, along with director of sport Massimiliano Mirabelli.

Marco Fassone’s lawyer says the decision to hire investigators to follow journalists was “agreed and endorsed” by the whole Milan board.

It emerged yesterday that the final days of Yonghong Li’s disastrous reign were characterised by paranoia, with offices swept for bugs and employee phones searched.

Milan reportedly had journalists followed by a private detective, went through their employees’ devices and swept offices for bugs during the Yonghong Li administration.

According to La Repubblica, the final months of the Chinese patron’s tenure were characterised by paranoia over leaked information.

The situation is emerging now because former CEO Marco Fassone is suing Milan for unfair dismissal.

Former Milan director Massimiliano Mirabelli reiterated he had a deal with Cristiano Ronaldo and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while Yonghong Li’s exit was “absurd.”

The ex-director of sport under the Yonghong Li era, which ended with default on a loan and passage of the club to US hedge fund Elliott Management, spoke to TeleLombardia about his experiences.

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin is asked how Yonghong Li could ever have been allowed to buy Milan - “we all knew there was a problem…”

The Chinese businessman bought the Rossoneri from Silvio Berlusconi in April 2017, but was forced out by Elliott Management just over a year later.

His time in charge saw reckless spending and ludicrous business plans, and Diavolo were initially thrown out of the Europa League for Financial Fair Play.

Former Milan CEO Marco Fassone claims Li Yonghong wanted to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, ‘but I convinced him to give up the dream’.

Fassone and Li were ousted over the summer after a year that saw Milan fail to qualify for the Champions League, despite the pair overseeing a €200m recruitment drive, and post losses of €126m, while the Chinese ultimately defaulted on a €303m loan.

However, the ex-Juventus, Inter and Napoli director has now revealed that Li tried to take Ronaldo to San Siro a year before he joined the Old Lady.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has released the motivations for granting Milan’s appeal against a Europa League ban, as well as the reasons for the initial ban.

The Rossoneri were barred from the competition by UEFA after Financial Fair Play breaches, having been denied both a voluntary agreement and a settlement agreement.

Much of that was due to doubts about owner Yonghong Li, but the CAS document lays out the scale of the mismanagement under the Chinese ownership.

Milan could face a period of severe austerity measures to balance the books with Financial Fair Play after the Yonghong Li debacle.

The club had originally been excluded from the Europa League due to FFP failures, but after Yonghong Li defaulted on loan repayments and they were essentially repossessed by US hedge fund Elliott Management, they won an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport to be let back in.

However, the situation is far from resolved and La Gazzetta dello Sport warn tough times are ahead for Rossoneri supporters.