AC Milan against Roma tonight is the clash of two American ownerships: one that considers a Champions League spot as a bare minimum, while the other are dreaming of it.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes this morning, participating in the most popular and richest continental tournament is the objective of both, because Gerry Cardinale and Dan Friedkin it is a source of pride.
Why? Because their American compatriots are less passionate about Serie A but remain faithful to the spectacle of the Champions League. Being a part of the biggest European competition and regularly playing against the elite sides has above all an economic value.
This is decisive in the development of their respective projects, as is a new stadium. Both are at the forefront in the mission to build new stadiums too, having hit some red tape along the way.
Cardinale in the meantime will sit in the stands of the old but fascinating San Siro. He didn’t arrive to put press on Pioli: he judged the first part of the season to be unsatisfactory but the final judgment will depend on the team’s presence in the top four.
The Rossoneri are third at the moment with a nice gap to fifth and they can strengthen its position tonight. To secure the Champions League, Cardinale will authorise other investments in the January window too.
The expense for FIllippo Terracciano from Verona (€4.5m plus bonuses) will be repaid when Fenerbahce buy Rade Krunic for the same amount. The size of the summer budget, to be reinvested in new players, will depend on qualification for the UCL.
In the summer, Milan spent €113.5m (plus €19m in bonuses) on eight signings, with two more being free additions, receiving €76.5m largely of the sale of Sandro Tonali to Newcastle United.
These are operations that followed the management reorganisation that saw Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara sacked, with the CEO Giorgio Furlani and technical director Geoffrey Moncada at the helm.
In December, Cardinale made the return of Zlatan Ibrahimovic official as a senior advisor. All together, in June, they will decide who the next Rossoneri coach will be. Cardinale will obviously have the last word.
The objective is to make the team increasingly competitive with attention to the accounts: the €6m profit in the consolidated balance sheet as of 30 June 2023 takes on an almost historic significance.
The last time Milan had closed in profit was in 2006: +€2.5m, thanks to Andriy Shevchenko’s €42m sale to Chelsea which generated a huge capital gain.
37M NET yearly transfer budget…..and we expect to win titles and UCL??? LOL. Can’t wait to see that.
But help is on the way! Gerry approved a whopping 3M winter transfer budget – so maybe we can haggle and get Walter Brisa to come out of retirement and give us a helping hand. Heard he’s expensive at 3.2M – BUT I’m sure Georgie boy can negotiate that price down.😂
Moncada is a moneyball man.
Top teams do not use moneyball because they hire people and have extensive networks smaller teams cannot afford.
Plus, moneyball has the other purpose of creating revenue. Buy low, sell high. The better your algorithms, theoretically the more you can profit.
Top teams don’t do this because they are not selling teams.
When Milan put moneyball ahead of actual scouting and skill recognition (previously Maldini & face to face scouts) it basically indicated to the entire world that Milan has become a feeder club. They’ll always sell for $$$.
We’re moving farther away from CL teams and top teams like Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern, etc.. because of moneyball.
https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0279-1603dc9598c6-88aa08710ae2-1000/transitional_3-year_settlement_agreements_-_august_2022.pdf
Again and again, nobody here is aware of this. Feels like im talking to ghosts about this. One last time, maybe this one will listen
Please read up on UEFAs Settlement Agreement.
Furthermore, teams who have been in financial turmoil for almost a decade dont just magically recover within a few years.
So even w/o UEFAs limitations Milan cant even compete against midtable EPL sides or the likes of Atleti and BVB
Malaga used to have one of the richest owners in the world, see what happened to them now.