The well-known agent Jonathan Barnett has responded to a question regarding why Bournemouth can afford Nicolo Zaniolo but AC Milan can’t.
Barnett started as an agent in boxing and cricket but now his client list contains some of the world’s best football players such as Jack Grealish, Gareth Bale, Saul Niguez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jordan Pickford, so he knows a lot about the inner workings of transfer.
Milan meanwhile have been trying to get a deal done for Zaniolo of Roma but were unable to satisfy their asking price whereas Bournemouth – a team currently in line to be relegated from the Premier League – could agree a fee, though the winger was not convinced as Roma director Tiago Pinto revealed.
Barnett was present at the Football Forum in Rome and he spoke about a number of topics related to the current climate of buying and selling players, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
How is it possible that Milan can’t afford a player [Zaniolo] that Bournemouth can afford instead?
“It’s simple, it’s an economic question: there’s more money in the Premier League, Serie A has to rebuild again. We need to work on it, have more sponsors and get more money from televisions.
“Serie A is improving, but it needs more investment and to become stronger thanks to the players but I think that for world football it is very important that Serie A returns to being a top-level league.”
Is your impression that the Premier League is becoming the real Super League?
“No, it’s not like that. At the moment it’s the league that everyone wants to see, they’ve done a fantastic job in terms of investments and structures. It’s the most important league, but there’s no reason why Serie A can’t come back to the role it had.”
The reason is simple: EPL’s mammoth figures for broadcasting rights guarantee that even relegation teams earn more money than a club does by winning a league like Serie A.
“even relegation teams earn more money than a club does by winning a league like Serie A.” Nam
Milan earns €265m
Bournemouth roughly €140m
“even relegation teams earn more money than a club does by winning a league like Serie A.”
Correction: “even relegation teams earn more money from broadcasting rights than a club does by winning a league like Serie A.”
You’re welcome.
Because AFC Bournemouth they are recently bought by new owners that want to spend on the team not like others
#fakenews
I’m sorry but I can’t abide this level of disinformation!
Of course Serie a has a long way to go to compete with pl riches.
However, facts are facts.
According to the widely accepted delloite money league, AC Milan earned €265m in 2022 putting them in 16th place.
The results published are top 30 and Bournemouth are not there!!!!!
So please stop excusing our stingy owners and poor management for having no funds.
We are earning more than most teams in Europe who have much bigger transfer funds available.
No excuse!!!
Operational revenue doesn’t reflect expenses.
Your point is?
That gross revenue is a misleading figure and you don’t understand what you’re talking about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Your not making any kind of valid point!
The article is talking about how much more pl teams make than Milan.
This is untrue in relation to Bournemouth. So whether it is poor management of funds or stingy ownership the result is the same.
We earn much more than Bournemouth, so why can they out spend us?
All we ever hear about is issues with revenues, i have illustrated why this does not apply in this case, using hard data
Fyi Newcastle are 20th
It’s because you’re too dumb to understand the economics, apparently. Milan posted a net loss of €98million for 2020/21. Bournemouth posted net profits for the same period of €27million. That’s a difference of €125million. Operating revenue is not the final figure of financial health or spending power.
I believe you completely
What’s the excuse for the rest of the serie A clubs not spending money then? Do they all also have stingy poor owners?
Actually what’s the excuse that the rest of the top 5 leagues combine spend less than EPL?
Because they earn less than Milan
Our revenue might be 265m but our operational cost are well north of 300m. The club post losses.
Bournemouth has less of a revenue but also less operational costs. They post profits, that’s how they can offer 30 mil and Milan won’t.
And, most importantly Milan doesn’t offer 30 mil because they don’t think that Zaniolo is worth that much.
I am not asking why are they not spending less, but why are they not spending at all.
So far this January, epl clubs have spent 400 mil combined.
Bundesliga clubs have spent 30 mil.
Spanish clubs 20 mil
Italian and French clubs less than 10 mil.
Clubs are not spending money.
There are bunch of clubs throughout Spain Germany and France that way higher revenue than Milan and they aren’t spending either
Don’t bother, his IQ is too low to comprehend the difference between revenue and profit.
The epl spend is mostly Chelsea who were taken over at same time as us. Difference being their owners want to improve the team.
I’m tired of explaining how many ways new owners can invest in the squad legally (sponsorship, putting money in as part of the purchase).
If i was wrong, no rich owner like Newcastle etc could suddenly spend much more than they could previously.
Nam – honestly dude what are you on?
Of course revenue and profits are different but this article is speaking about revenue.
As i said above its either miss management of funds or stingy ownership our revenue has us 16th in Europe.
@SJF
Chelsea were taken over at the same time as us and they were sold for almost 4 bil, while Milan barely for 1 bil.
Why do you think that is?
And even if EPL spending is mostly Chelsea, why are the other clubs outside of Chelsea and EPL not spending?
And how much has the new Chelsea owner improved his team? They are 10th in the league behind Brighton, Fulhan, Brentford.
Explain to me why you don’t talk about Maldini and his inability to sell any players. That’s another way to get money to invest in the squad.
Anyone can sell players except Maldini.
If we want more money for transfers, that guy has to either learn how to sell players or the owners have to bring someone instead of Maldini to do that job.
You cannot just ask ownership for money and you don’t bring any money in.
Milan has 31 players in the squad. That’s way too many. Shouldn’t have more than 25.
If he is capable why doesn’t he go and sell 5 or 6 of them that Pioli doesn’t use anyway, and even if he only gets 5-10 mil for all of them combined, plus you get rid off their salaries of your books, that will allow you to spend on someone else.
You cannot just buy players, pay their salaries for the length of their contracts and then let them leave for free.
The epl spend is mostly Chelsea who were taken over at same time as us. Difference being their owners want to improve the team.
I’m tired of explaining how many ways new owners can invest in the squad legally (sponsorship, putting money in as part of the purchase).
If i was wrong, no rich owner like Newcastle etc could suddenly spend much more than they could previously.
Nam – honestly dude what are you on?
Of course revenue and profits are different but this article is speaking about revenue.
As i said above its either miss management of funds or stingy ownership our revenue has us 16th in Europe.
Go cry about it. Bournemouth posted €125million more in profits than Milan for 2020/21, they actually posted net profit instead of net loss. If you truly can’t see how that impacts spending ability then I really don’t know what else to tell you.
Man finally been waiting for a comment like this Nam..you hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately you’ll have the typical gimme gimme gimme fans here thinking we’re richer than we think we are. And they don’t have a clue about finances. We’re no way close to EPL clubs. Players most times come to us because of history.
LOL. Indeed. Some people here don’t have ANY clue about finances. If one fails to understand the difference between making profit and loss then there’s really no point in trying to educate these idiots.
Just accept u got ur point wrong sjf why argue