AC Milan have a rollercoaster relationship when it comes to dealing with agents. Sometimes they can use links to their advantage, but other times are unable to gain that vital leverage and end of with an undesirable outcome.
The latest pairing of the words ‘commissions’ and ‘Milan’ involves Joshua Zirkzee. As we reported earlier today, the discussions have reached a make-or-break point and it is solely because of Kia Joorabchian and his Sport Invest UK agency.
After suggestions that the gap on commissions was being reduced, Zirkzee’s entourage – led by the British-Iranian businessman – have made it clear today that they will not budget on their €15m demands.
If Milan want to close the operation they will be able to do so quickly because as mentioned the figure of the clause is known as is the striker’s salary. However, the final green light is awaited from Giorgio Furlani and the ownership to approve the overall €55m expense.
The general feeling is that blowing up the deal now would be counter-productive after two months of work, however there is of course the more difficult issue of principle when it comes to commissions ahead of such an important window, plus 37.5% extra costs to account for.
The precedents
Fortunately or unfortunately in the eyes of directors around the world, agents and agencies hold a strong stake in the game and they are something that must be dealt with consistently.
Milan are no strangers to deals collapsing because of representatives wanting a bit too big a slice of the pie. The Gianluigi Donnarumma and Franck Kessie cases are the ones that stick out above all in recent memory.
Official figures never leak out, but La Gazzetta dello Sport spoke of requests of around €20m being demanded by Mino Raiola in order for Donnarumma to extend his contract with Milan in the summer of 2021.
The result was that Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara – the directors at the time – decided in no uncertain terms that they would not be bullied and instead they went on the front foot. They signed Mike Maignan from Lille and told Gigio he could find a new club.
Kessie meanwhile left for the 2021 Olympics and promised that his renewal would be done when he got back, but the situation deteriorated and it became apparent that he would follow the fate of others that had left on a free previously like Donnarumma, Hakan Calhanoglu and Alessio Romagnoli.
What was interesting about this case is that his agent George Atangana gave his side of the story regarding what happened, amid the reports that he wanted a big signing-on bonus and that the salary demands for his client were astronomical.
“Calhanoglu, Donnarumma and Romagnoli have left and for the same reason it is also difficult to close current renewals, at least from what it seems to me. I don’t understand why only Franck’s farewell was so tormented,” Atangana said.
“The promise? Of course, that was the intention. However, a one-way renewal cannot be closed. We also rejected offers from important clubs in January, precisely because there was a strong desire to reach an agreement with Milan.
“There is one thing that strikes me as strange, which is that after Kessié’s farewell, it seems that certain ceilings that previously seemed insurmountable can now be breached.”
There are other names too that are even more recent and perhaps went under the radar but again showed the stance of Milan’s management team and ownership group to never give in to exorbitant demands from agents.
Matija Popovic seemed all set to join Milan on a free transfer from Partizan Belgrade, and yet a few days later the operation had completely collapsed. Two months of negotiations went up in flames inside 24 hours, starting with Popovic landing in Italy.
He touched down in the country despite differences having arose with the entourage of the Serbian talent which became irreparable. The decision to travel to Milano without having agreed everything was seen as a power play, and then they asked for unreasonably high commissions.
Then there was the Mehdi Taremi saga towards the end of the last summer window. The Porto striker seemed all set to travel for a medical on the penultimate day of the mercato and then all of a sudden everything combusted.
MilanNews reported at the time that the Rossoneri management simply could not accept the conditions posed by the new entourage chosen by the player, who in ‘an unprofessional manner’ changed the terms of the agreement before the deal closed.
Rather fittingly, they put it that ‘everyone wanted to dip their spoon into the cookie jar’ with commissions and demands for a salary increase. Then his agent Pedro Pinho claimed that Milan actually never even spoke to him.
The practical impact
Every agent is different and every negotiation varies for a number of different reasons, so perhaps the best way to look at what Milan’s business looks like is to take a recent window as an example.
Radio Rossonera claimed to have come into possession of a document outlining the amount that Milan paid to agents for the signings made in the 2022-23 period, relating to the draft budget approved by the last Board of Directors meeting.
Charles De Ketelaere was the marquee signing of the 2022 post-Scudetto summer transfer window, and in addition to the €36.5m operation agreed with Club Brugge, the playmaker’s entourage earned €2.8m from Milan.
Divock Origi came in second with his agents having got €495k from his free transfer from Liverpool. For the second most expensive purchase of the summer – Malick Thiaw from Schalke 04 for €8.8m – the Rossoneri management agreed to pay €400k in commissions.
Junior Messias’ agents earned €125k, while Alessandro Florenzi – represented by Alessandro Lucci’s World Soccer Agency – got just over €433k from the full-back joining Milan permanently. Devis Vasquez’s entourage got just over €267k for a total figure of €4.82m.
The other major negotiation, one that happened outside of the mercato, was the renewal of Rafael Leao until 2028. After resolving the fine issue with Lille, the commission that his representatives got was precisely €1,818,182m.
Although it is in all respects part of the 2023-24 summer mercato, the purchase of Ruben Loftus-Cheek was registered on 29 June 2023, thus becoming part of the 2022-23 budget. His agents got €925k from the operation.
Calcio e Finanza reported the amounts paid by clubs in commissions for 2023-24 back in March. The club that spent the most was Inter, which almost doubled the figure from 2022, while Juventus placed second, halving the budget allocated to agents compared to the previous year.
Inter spent €34,807,561 on commissions paid out to agents, while Juventus are on €23,055,874. Fiorentina are the team in third having spent €15,391,259.
Looking further down the list, Roma spent the fourth-most with €15,311,250, then Milan are just behind them in fifth on €15,274,174. Atalanta, Napoli, Udinese and Bologna are the teams that follow.
It is certainly a positive thing that Milan were able to limit the spending on commissions owed to agents, especially given that they made 10 signings during the summer window which meant that the propensity was there for the figure to be a lot higher.
The balancing act
Milan have found themselves at a crossroads again, one which can be simplified a tad too much to the following: pay up, or miss out on another major target that could have moved the needle for the future.
There is no doubting that the change in ownership is what has run congruent to Milan’s more hardline stance when it comes to dealing with players’ representatives, with Elliott Management coming along first to limit unnecessary expenses and then RedBird Capital continuing that prudence.
The two American funds – which in most cases use the same management guidelines – have undertaken a sort of crusade against what are considered figures that are outside of the boundaries of fair market value.
Every club chooses the strategies they deem most suitable and that of Milan is very clear: they will not and can not go beyond a certain limit, which is easily found in the financial statements of recent years but competitiveness on the field has returned.
However, it is only ‘competitiveness’, while Inter and Juventus continue to rack up at least one trophy per season. Many argue their willingness to fund a better on-field product whatever the cost (their wage bill and commission fees are much higher) is a sign of a burning desire to finish top with the most points not the best accounts.
Thus, returning to the current topic of Zirkzee: Milan strongly want him, but Giorgio Furlani and his team will be asking themselves over dinner tonight exactly how much they want him. Algorithms can quantify virtually anything, except potential fan discontent if another operation slips away.
Add up the cost of RLC, Raindeer and Musah, plus consider you lost Tonali to acquire them. It cost you a title, maybe more, to not pay up.
They won on the balance sheet, when we could afford to loose 60 million more and fall within regulations without penalties. No team supporters give half an arse about them making a profit after finishing 5th and being humiliated incessantly. Not beaten by slim margins, by landslides on the field and on the market.
It would have cost the same, or less to keep Kessie, Tonali, Hakan and Bennacer, than to be where we are at now, with a one dimensional midfield we have to add to anyway. We’d also have more valuable assets to trade. So all together them team financially and from a sporting standpoint took losses. The kind that tarnishes your reputation internally with your players who do their best andcsee you holding back punches while you get it handed to you, and with the fans, with the people in the game. The prudence while rebuilding the team, justified, job well done, after that, sheer stupidity.
The investments made into this team after selling Tonali made sense. Tonali being sold was probably the smartest move, but losing Hakan, Kessie, Donnarumma on free transfers was ridiculous.
They made no sense…
We signed:
– 3 box to box midfielders (and are now looking for another midfielder);
– 2 strikers (and we’re looking for, erm, 2 strikers this summer);
– 3 RWs (as you do);
– a CB (who we ended up loaning and then recalling Gabbia who ended up being our best CB).
Oh and the signings were so successful the season was a disaster as evidenced by us sacking the manager (unless we sacked the manager after a successful season or, because, you know, change is good and all that).
But hey let’s never question the transfer market.
By my reckoning all of last season’s new toys will be getting a little stale for some fans so it’ll be interesting to see what the reactions are this season particularly if Musah continues to struggle with the concept of the 5 yard pass.
You are blubbering. The prior season we barely made 4th place. It’s funny you conveniently and completely missed that point.
You made no sense. We signed a few wingers. Okafor isn’t a striker. We were still relying on Giroud, who retired.
Whiny lengthy nothing response. As far as Pioli, his time at Milan was coming to a close after five years.
Maldinis Hair Ball with ever so insightful nonsense. We would be stuck with Tonali, who can’t even play anymore.
It’s funny you forgot our barely 4th place finish with Tonali. Our season was a lot better than the prior.
And we had clear upgraded at RW, and Pulisic had a fantastic first season
OHH come on man we played until semifinals of champions league and serie A.
2022/23 was the 2nd best season after 2011,2021(scudetto seqsons).
Even this year we were 2nd as Juventus drop more than 12or15 points then we came 2nd.
Performances wise it was worse season compared to last season. We were unable to win europa league also forget about playing in champions league.
You are speaking absolutely rubbish
Except Pulisic and RLC(a bit) , no other summer transfer were successful.
We spent 120m for the last summer and we concede more goals than previous season.
Performance wise we had more points this season than the prior in the league. We nearly missed 4th place in 2022/23.
The only speaking rubbish here is you. Is this your other name, Maldinis Heir?
2022/23, we finished 4th with 70 points
2023/24, we finished 2nd with 75 points.
How on earth was 2022/23 better than 2023/24? My goodness you’re dumb.
Agreed – plus this season was sent whirling down the toilet by the worst injury crisis in European football. Without that we would’ve been able to play the same defence for more than one week in a row and probably pushed Inter a lot harder than we did.
Seek help….
To add balance, you also conveniently missed out that we went to the UCL semis. The exposure and money brought us the players we have now btw. Question is with after all the 120m+ purchases….is it worth being only 5 points better than last year? We bought 5 points more, scoring more, conceding more, out of all competitions before January for 120m 🥴
Nope – the “new toys” are just fine (for most of us anyway). If you had your way we’d probably still have Messias and Salad on the wing and Giroud up front. Or is there any a time a club is allowed to try and improve?
Struggling to take anything you say seriously any more.
Stick to your red pills.
Krunic, Saelemaekers & Messias are PROVEN CHAMPIONS, right? No need to upgrade them because they have won the scudetto which automatically makes them legends. Just like Bonera is one of the best defenders ever played this game, right? Or Ibrahim Ba is one of the best attacking players as he too wont silverware with Milan. 😀 😀 😀
Oh no I’ve been canceled by Maldini’s Heir for having the wrong political views 😂 I could say the same about you man but don’t because politics really doesn’t have anything to do with football does it.
Not cancelled.
Not taken seriously.
But your misuse of the word ‘cancelled’ once again shows a lack of independent thought. Stick to the red pill.
Yes you have independent thought because you believe everything mainstream media says. Got it. And I can’t take someone who backs an incontinent warmongering pedo seriously either, so it works both ways doesn’t it.
Isn’t SempreMilan mainstream media?
If you fancy yourself as questioning of authority why don’t you m question the Milan authorities???
2 Mezzalas, signed to play in a system we ended up not playing because Pioli is a one trick pony.
1 box2box. Musah was a poor signing, but all clubs make some of these.
1 false nine/cover on the left. Happens to be a great player
1 cover striker for free who looks to be moving on – when you add that to Giroud that leaves room for (counts fingers)…two strikers this summer
1 Player who can play across the front line but happened to end up playing RW
2 RWs, one of whom was free and is a kid, the other was one of our most exciting players by the end of the season.
A CB who was pennies and also a kid, and might end up a starter one day. Surely it would be very ‘un-Maldinis Hier’ to judge a youngster on a couple of haphazard performances.
Gabbia should never have left – you got one right.
Thank you papa_frezz – glad you took the time to deconstruct this, I couldn’t be bothered.
You’re assuming every new signings have no impact on any other players.
Have you ever worked in a job when someone was brought in to do your job?
It hasn’t happened to me but I’ve worked in proper businesses….
But seriously new signings (like everything) has pros and cons.
Every new signing denies another existing player space, and disrupts the squad. So they need to be really targeted.
Pulisic was a great signing who had a significant impact. The rest less so. Arguably our midfield was our weakest area which is bizarre given we signed three.
But I’ve no idea why people take so much time defending last summer’s transfers (whilst mostly criticising Pioli).
It wasn’t your decision so you don’t need to defend it. You can apply some critical analysis. It’s bizarre how so many people feel ‘passionate’ enough about a transfer campaign to blindly defend it.
It self-evidently wasn’t successful if the manager was sacked. Managers don’t get sacked for successful seasons (or maybe they do – I’ve given up trying to find any consistency).
@Maldinis Heir – I’m not defending anything. I’m simply adding the nuance that you intentionally left out of your list of signings
What nuance?
We had a massive gaping hole in our midfield last season which you could see from space (feel free to add some nuance to that metaphor).
I’ve honestly given up trying to even bother looking for consistency but it’s mostly people who think last summer’s transfer market was a blinding success who think last actual footballing season was an absolute disaster.
But those people seem to enjoy the transfer market than the actual football. So the next few months is there time to shine!
You never and I can’t stress this enough, NEVER, bow down to snakes that aren’t in the club..
Every one of those players could’ve stayed, gotten their money and all would be well if it wasn’t for the scûm, known as agents asking for a ridiculous handoff.
Why is it Milan management at fault for not paying ridiculous commissions? Why aren’t the players at fault for not keeping their agent in line or even changing them?
Because Milan management is to blame for everything! EVERYTHING! Even global warming.
Not just the management but the owners too. They invented the global warning and activated it after inventing all the deadly diseases and war.
Thank you!
Fans should be siding with the club not greedy agents/mercenary players/the transfer market.
Bennacer changed his agent when he made difficulty for renewal.(i remember this but not 100%sure)
FIFA should put a min/max rule otherwise these agents ask whatever they want
This.
You save money and then spent 20 mil on an unproven and unskillful player like Musah and significant problem Milan had this season is because of their defense as you have cashed out one of your better CDM, Tonali and gambling on a player that villareal know a 20mil lottery after selling. Milan mangement is trying to show that they are smart, cunning but their utter stupidity is ruining the whole team.
Selling Tonali cost a title? Wow. More ridiculous than the Flat Earth theory. Some people need to wake up and realize Tonali wasn’t/isn’t the GOAT-midfielder whose touch turned everything into gold.
But sure, continue. It’s fun to read these fan fiction stories. 😀
Agree chrisp have talent becoming fan fiction writer wkwkwkwk. Tonali cannot even play for 1 years , how can he help the team get title ? By become cheer leader in milanello ? Oh i once read too one of them comment owner want to sell all player for profit, really ??? Thats will make whole club value dropped drastically and nobody want to buy ACM anymore. Just like comment first , think later. No brain person
“Oh i once read too one of them comment owner want to sell all player for profit, really ??? Thats will make whole club value dropped drastically and nobody want to buy ACM anymore.”
Excellent point.
Nice article. The only question is, agent’s commissions like all elements of an offer or contract is known from the beginning, so how is it possible that management finds out late in negotiations that commissions are excessive? Zirkzee’s situation for example, if the agent had been saying all along that commission = players salary, then it’s clear that you should stop the negotiating. Something is still not right.
Didnt you also know that negotiating is also part of the transfer?
Very good article. Just one transfer I don’t understand. How Milan paid 4 million for Vasquez when he was transfered for very low fee based by transfermarket ???
Agent fees should be taken on considerations and total cost should be point where board will decide should be gambled or not.
Buying De Ketelaere put Milan now in tough position. He is young but on big ammortisation. Milan don’t need money from players sales, but buying expensive for big fee can be very tricky. Later you can’t sell easily player if he flops.
I hope we will finally be able to create team this season for Serie a and Champions League competition. No matter what central forward we will have.
It’s like when you were a child and your parents took a principal stand. Although correct you ask yourselves, why me?
Pull the plug on it then.
15 million commission on a player with 12 goals last season and already costing 40 million is ridiculous. That’s a huge percentage of the total fee.
It’s outrageous even by today’s standard.
And if we fold to this what will happen in the future with this agent? I like Zirkzee, but don’t think he’s worth this trouble.
Agreed, tell Zirkzee to get his agent in line, or dump him. Go for Dovbyk or Guirassay instead if the agent wont half that crazy commission demand.
Dovbyk is my choice. I like Zirkzee, but this agent/conartist will cause all sorts of the problems down the line.
Galliani don’t want to deal with Kia either with the Tevez talks. And no one called him a cheap scumbag.
If I was Milan I’d blacklist all those agents who are well just pure greedy as€holes..
They are all the same for the most part. Mendes, Kia, Raiola was the worst. I don’t know if it works. You take a stand against them and they advise their clients to avoid Milan like the plague.
I just think there needs to be a commission cap. Like 10% at most.
I think players should pay their agents. And nothing more
Like they would care. If Milan won’t sign Zirkzee, which they shouldn’t under these terms, they’ll just offer their client to someone who’s willing to pay. Most probably an EPL club like United, Arsenal or Chelsea.
Next step, blacklist clubs who do business with agents you blacklisted
Pshhhhhhhhhh… hahaha
Artem Dovbyk offers more guarantees than Zirkzee. This idea that Zirkzee will make our wingers improve is beyond ridiculous to me.
We need a striker who can capitalize on the opportunities created by our wingers not the other way around. Lol.
I don’t get how Milan management and some fans think that Zirkzee would be a good fit for Milan more than a striker like Dovbyk.
We won the scudetto with Giroud who scored a lot of goals from headers and inside the penalty box.
I would rather Milan sign a cheaper striker like Dovbyk and sign 2 midfielders like Khephren Thuram and Fofana than waste 15m on commissions to a greedy agent.
Kessie agent sabotage his career for money and the same will happen to Zirkzee and other players if they don’t put their agents in line to get the deal done for the team they want to play for.
If Zirkzee doesn’t arrive then it will be all on him not Milan. He has the power to make this deal come true.
Giroud literally scored one header on the scudeto season and two penalties. That leaves 8 goals from inside the box. Is that a lot?
Did you know those stats? I didn’t. I went to check them up just now, to tell you you’re wrong. On all of it.
Okay, and In your system who plays as the striker? The ghost of Giroud?
What Zee did brilliantly at Bologna was draw the defenders out so the players around him scored more. That would work so well with our wingers who play direct. He would create more space in the box. I just appreciate the fact that he plays as a false nine almost, therefore not really being a focal point of attack. If he played at Milan, The goals would come from anywhere.
But I can also understand the call for a pure striker.
Well said
“I would rather Milan sign a cheaper striker like Dovbyk and sign 2 midfielders like Khephren Thuram and Fofana than waste 15m on commissions to a greedy agent. ”
Ditto. For sure.
If the stance of the club is to not pay what it deems is excessive commissions so be it and I’m all for it. It makes us stronger and gives us a better image. Relative to other big clubs our commissions paid out are low
That’s fine brother but you have to pay to play as they say and not paying gets us nowhere- or leads us to players like a Jovic who nobody wanted.
So taking a moral stance is pointless in sports. The system needs to change w a cap on agents. But not participating just leaves you eating the opponents dust.
55m for a 23 year old starting striker who will only improve is a bargin in todays game. Especially when you haven’t invested heavily in the position properly for many many years.
Like I said before, Guirassy is the only realistic target at 17M despite his age. The banker has to keep his profit margins!
I’m more concerned with the salary cap than commissions tbh. I can sort of think of commissions esp in the case of free agents or players on expiring contracts as a defacto transfer fee. But in a sense much smaller. That being said it has to be in a sensible range or else other players’ agents will demand a higher commission. So paying a high commission now will cost you more in the long run than just what you are paying now.
On salaries, if your team is growing, economics will lend itelf to increasing the wages of players. If we want to retain our players, we’ll need at some point to cough up the money for them. We lost Kessie and Hakan this way. Both them and Tonali/Benny and Krunic as backups are still our best midfield since banter era to now.
I agree that we really needed to fix the striker issue way before Giroud left. We didn’t do ourselves any favours by losing targets along the way either eg Thuram presumably for the same cheapness on the salary cap that we have in place.
I even get having caps and such in place but these directors shouldn’t be coming out and saying we’re competitive and want to win trophies and can’t attract or keep top talent because of stingyness and a debilitating salary cap
Whatever about losing mercenary, scum players, here’s my 1-11 of completely pointless signings where Milan could’ve just given me the transfer fee and we’d be better off as they’d save themselves salaries and the faffing around find new homes for strays…
Playing in a 4231
Devis Vásquez (the GK we signed in Jan 23 – why?)
Dídac Vilà (the mystery LB with 1 appearance for the club in 4 seasons)
Digão (Kaka’s brother – do you remember him?)
Bonucci (The reason I’m mentioning him here is because he himself not only didn’t perform but he’s a great example of Milan’s obsession with having 3 starters competing for 2 positions which ruins all of the players – I can only speculate but had we not signed Bonucci – Musacchio and Romagnoli could’ve formed a 40+ appearance CB partnership but his signing prevented Milan from ever establishing a first choice CB partnership on which any top side is built).
Conti (I’m not including him here for his injuries which can’t be helped but because we signed him despite (and almost to spite) Calabria in a classic block a youth player move)
Musah/Adli/Reijnders/RLC (we signed/found an entirely new midfield last season thus undoing the strongest part of the Milan squad and a key cornerstone to our recent revival).
Chukwueze (similar to Bonucci – you can’t sign two first choice players and expect both to succeed).
CDK (not because of his struggles (which happen) but we then gave him to our rivals (which is f’ing stupid – and yes Atalanta are our rivals based on the league table and the fact they won the EL a competition we were in).
Mastour (harsh but fair, and I’d take the 500k or whatever we paid for him)
EVERY SINGLE STRIKER WE’VE SIGNED IN THE PAST 10 SEASONS BAR Balotelli (the first time), Bacca, Ibrahimovic and Giroud).
There must be about over 100m wasted on the above signings alone.
You are such a bad liar. It’s shockingly bad. Also, we had a key striker leave. Giroud is gone. Then youre pulling up players from years ago. Why dont you recall Oliveira next?
Whiny. What a whiny delusional post. You wanted to keep Tonali. And now Tonali can’t even play.
One of the worst most horrendous diatribes I have read in a while. If it was up to you we would still be playing a drugged up El Sharaawy and injury prone De Sciglio.
Your failure to recognize key gaps in our team is your problem. If we went along with your ideas we would be in 10th place this season. Maybe even worse than Napoli.
Liar?
How can anything I have said be a ‘lie’ if nothing I have said purports to be a ‘fact’ and therefore it is quite clearly ‘opinion’.
But you really have no idea what the difference between ‘facts’ and ‘opinions’ are, which is why you elevated you’re own questionable ‘opinions’ to the level of ‘facts’.
And how exactly has my post (which is a mostly tongue in cheek, opinionated, trip down memory lane, to invent an entirely hypothetical 1-11, from which we might maybe glean some level of critical thought as we embark on yet another roller coaster transfer market) triggered such a response?
Again – I dare question the transfer market – and my word do people lose their sh#t.
You need help.
I need help?
Lol. Thats rich coming from a perpetual whiner stuck in the past.
You whine all of the time!
But your whining is directed at players and managers of the club you allegedly support.
My whining is directed at the system that sees so many managers and players fail.
And it’s intended to get people to learn from past mistakes.
Do you actually disagree with anything I’ve said?
Do you think Devis Vásquez, Dídac Vilà, or Digão were worthwhile signings?
Are you even capable of having a sense of humour?
A normal response to my post would be “oh yeah whatever happened to Dídac Vilà?
Or what about Juan Mauri – not to be mistaken for Josè Mauri – who was registered at the club for 3 seasons and never played?
These are normal responses.
But you’re so angry about something you can’t engage.
It’s bizarre.
Wow. Who cares about Didac Vila from years ago or Juan Mauri? Two fringe players. Who cares? These are not core players. Just more for you to whine about.
You whine literally about everything and are never right about anything. It’s kinda sad to watch lol. Another meltdown.
Who cares about wasting money on pointless signings?
Do you think money grows on trees?
Over a billion mostly wasted in 10 years.
Yet you lot money about some imaginary money we’d have made by selling players who left for free.
Again – why do I even bother looking for consistency – or a sense of humour.
Digao was brought in to keep Kaka happy. Just like with the Dollarumma brothers. They were never meant to play for the club.
Yeah I know.
It was a tongue in cheek reference.
Honestly I’ve no idea why anyone is taking my post seriously!
Not sure why my original comment didn’t go through but basically You can’t list the things you normally are against and then conveniently cough it up to being facetious when you get called out. You know very well the reasons for signing these players or… maybe u don’t….like Vasquez for instance. Like hindsight is 20-20….past Conti and current Conti for instance are two different moments in time.
We should have signed 2-3 players by now. I’m afraid that after the euros prices on players will probably go up and we will hit august left with garbage and panic deals and all these names up until now will go to other clubs that are willing to pay more.
The market doesn’t open until July 1st. What are you talking about?
Agreed.
The downside of sacking the manager…
Somebody tell Maldini’s Hairball that Tonali is banned from football… lol. Yeah didn’t make any sense.
We all know where this is headed…..
NO Zirkzee. And we lose another one.
Astonishing how so many naive ppl on this chat are praising Redbird for continuing to stand firm and not pay agent commissions lol. Ya look where that gets us – another season without a trophy. So many are content just to be “competitive” – then you should probably go and support Atalanta.
Oh ya and Man United want Fofana – so you all know where he will end up.
Still can’t believe ppl are praising the last mercato LOL. Ya 19 points off the wiinners and zero trophies and didn’t qualify for UCL knock out stages when we went to the semi finals the year previous. Ya it was excellent
Man United is broke, praytell. The previous season to this one we barely made it to 4th place. Cry. Me. A. River. We are lucky Juventus got hit with a point deduction.
Also the season prior we had a much easier UCL group. I’d rather get 2nd place in the league, then 5th and being bounced out at the semifinals.
Of course you would sparky….i mean @Pioli….i mean @Goku LOLOLOLO
Atalanta don’t spend the money we do anywhere bad won a trophy we were competing for.
So you state we cannot win without giving in to extortion. Then you have an example of winning while not giving extortion.
C’mon.
Well they have a project in place for years now. We’ve had it too and won Scudetto. But the new guns decided it’s time for fresh start, dismantled the project that brought us Scudetto and now we’re back to square one.
How is it extortion if it is within the rules? The fault is not that of the agent – it’s the system and UEFA that is terrible. Also the player should put pressure on the agent to lower their demands if he really wants to come to the club. I don’t agree with the system at all – all agents should have a cap on what % they can make – But I would hardly say it’s extortion.
I also think IF we believe this player is the striker we want and can see being with us for the next 5 years – then whether we pay 55M to the club or 40M to the club and 15M to the agent – doesn’t make a difference. Money is the same who cares who it goes to. BUT IF we don’t believe the player is worth over 50M then we walk like we have done many times before – usually to our detriment (Kessie, Donnaruma, etc…). Moral stances don’t work in sports. If we really want change lobby UEFA to institute a cap on agent commissions – because if we don’t pay it someone else will and then we are left to find someone else perhaps of lesser quality. Who knows.
Foolish ppl thought the haggling over and over and losing players was due to Maldini LOL. We can see it is Ownership who refuse to pay. Ok fine. But then don’t complain when we sign another Jovic type instead of Zirkzee lol. The player is there and wants to come amd we HAVE the $$$ – if you really want something in life sometimes you have to (over)a pay for it. If you don’t then move on.
As someone who hires and manages high dollar people, this is a simple calculus.
If Zirkzee wants to be at Milan he says, “make it happen”. If he does not then the interview is over and we move on to the next candidate.
If Mr Zirkzee chooses his agent over AC Milan in this circumstance then it will only be worse next time.
Look no further than Mbappe’s messy PSG exit for a reasonable example.
I hope he chooses Milan. The club is bigger than any player.
Forza Milan.
Exactly! If the player cannot even choose the team where he wants to play, it tells a lot about his character. Not the winner we need. He’s just a puppy for his agent. Pathetic.
People are always comparing players to normal employees here. Then ask yourself this: you have an agent and he wants you to join company X while you want company Y. You’ll get the same money. What do you do? Move abroad so your agent gets his way? Or do what YOU want? Simple.
I was fine with us walking away from a generational homegrown talent whose agent demanded 10M (or was it 20M?) for an extension.
I would be very fine if we walked out of this one too.
The current milan management seem to enjoy making fools of themselves and running milan’s reputation to ground.
If they are so hell bent on not paying commissions, why the hell have they been chasing for almost a month a player whose agent does not come cheap and everybody knows about it? These people seem to enjoy looking stupid, foolish and incompetent.
Won’t be surprised if after all this hype Zirkzee were to join arsenal or man utd.
That’s it then. We will make the call to move on from JZ if this article is anything to go by. But there is time to pursue some of the other targets on the market. This issue with the agents has the potential of blowing the field wide open…however pays gets the player and not necessarily looking at the career of the player. I mean Milan can offer immediate game time…Man U has Hojlund, Arsenal has a string of striker and that counts for nothing in making a call on which path to follow. Money talks these days…And just like FFP was put in place to regulate things we need to regulate agent commission. Just a pity players will forever dance to the tune of their agents.
Should be a simple thing. No need to compare our spending on commissions. No need to bring up our stance and what not. If Milan / the management think that Zirkzee is worth 55 mil (more / less his market value), then go fot it by all mean. If not, let’s stop dwelling and move on to another target. Furlani said several times that this TW will be a much more targeted window. Well, let’s see.
If viewing the commissions demanded by agents outside of the cost for a player. Anything over 200,000.00 seems ridiculous. It’s just semantics. If a player has a release cause under his market value, and with Sesko off the table, Zirkzee’s vslue goes up. In this market if there wasn’t a release clause would Zirkzee get a big money Prem team willing to pull the trigger at 55 million? It’s a kick to the bag but that’s world footy at the moment. So don’t look at it like just paying the release clause for JZ- what you need to pay is the market value. If the agent can get 55 million total from somewhere else- JZ isn’t a 40 million dollar player. He’s a 55 million dollar player- it doesn’t matter how that 55 breaks down- 40 here- 15 there- it doesn’t matter. My guess is- if they are able to get 55 total- the agent in the end only gets 2-5 million and the rest would get kicked back to JZ’ and his people. Nobody pays an agent 15 million just to rep them in a deal. That would make being a footy agent the single most lucrative job on the planet. Which is absurd. Dont look at the extra cost as “agent fees”, but just a slice of a 55 million dollar player. Plus, the rule of starting out in a negotiation is start high and haggle. “Agent fee” is just smoke and mirrors. There is no way JZ’s agent earns 15 million on 3 or 4 weeks of work when he’s gonna get 5 million for a full season as a player. The agent will only get percentage and what’s left will go to the player to do with as he pleases.
Exactly this. We don’t have to make things more complicated than it already is. Just look at the 55 mil as a whole. And I think 55 mil is still a fair amount (40 mil is under-valued for sure).
And for those of you who over and over again said it’s not worth the money for player who only scored 12 goals a season (while not even spending time to watch his matches), Zlatan also didn’t score that many goals on his early days.
Nah.
55M is too much for him, even 40M is quite a lot for a player who only played one good season so far. I suppose the management did go for him because the release clause is 40M, and now they’re supposed to pay 55M ?
Plus, if we open this gate of paying agents whatever they ask for, we’re gonna have a hard time closing it. We will find us in positions where 30M players are gonna cost us 40M or even 50M because of agents.
Also Zlatan didn’t cost 40M, we was purchased by Ajax for 8,7M and after 3 seasons, his value barely doubled. Zirkzee was purchased for 8,5M and we’re supposed to believe that 40M let alone 55M is ok ?
You’re right about Ibra but I think you’re kinda
Missing my point about the “Agents Fees.” The Agent himself isn’t looking to pocket 15million just for representing Zirkzee. The “Agent Fee” is whatever amount they can talk Moncada & Furlani into over the price of the release clause, of which the Agent himself will only pocket a percentage as his commission. The rest will be paid to Zirkzee and his crew. They just call it agent fees. There is no way on God’s green earth that an Agent will pocket 15 million which is almost 40% of the release clause. You don’t get a commission of almost 40% of the full total of a deal, just for facilitating the deal and representing a player. If the “fee” is indeed 15 million on top of the release clause. The agent himself might see a 1.5 million- 3million commission. Which is still a damn fine payout for a month of work. The rest of the “Fee” will go to JZ so he can buy himself a new Stabbin Cabin in Milano and a sick ass whip to get him to training and back.
Yes yes but while we take 5 months to reflect and 5 months to act on a decision our rivals are already 10 steps ahead. Inter already strengthened the team without the economical MIGHT of Milan. Juve on the other hand who are as well way below our spending limits managed to get a exciting new coach, the mvp goal
Keeper of Serie A, Calafiori done and 70mils player Douglas Luís for 20 mils and some players sent the other way. Speak how much you want for this management, maybe they have some good ideas but they are way too inexperienced, slow to act. Long summer ahead 👀
For a “financially stable” club, we sure are very indicive and slow.
Did you miss last season? When the window opened, the signings were done quickly. It’s under the previous management when things were done slowly e.g. CDK.
2022/23 was not better than 2023/24. Maldini’s Heir wants you to think otherwise. In 2022/23 we nearly missed out on CL football which would have been a financial disaster.
And we finally found where @Pioli was hiding all along!!!
Welcome back kid!🤣🤣🤣🤣
Same four letter username too 😂😂😂