AC Milan’s new owners RedBird Capital will give Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara a big summer budget to work with in order to strengthen the squad, a report claims.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the plan is for Maldini’s request of two or three quality signings to arrive this summer will be met because the target is not only to retain the Scudetto but also to go further in Europe, which unlocks more revenues.
Looking at the likes of Charles De Ketelaere, Renato Sanches, Sven Botman and Noa Lang, it is clear that there are some ambitious targets and that is why a figure of around €100m will be made available. This will certainly not be all from the owners in terms of actual investment, but rather they should put in €40m and the rest will be made up through other sources.
TV rights is one of the revenue streams that will be used, because qualifying for the Champions League brings a minimum of around €40m when adding up participation bonuses (€15.64m), historical ranking (just under €15m) and the market pools (about €10m). Results and stadium earnings will be added later, while winning Serie A brings in €17.6m.
Then, the activity (or rather lack thereof) of the last January market should not be underestimated because Milan had allocated a budget to bolster the defence but only Marko Lazetic arrived from Red Star for €4m. The money ‘saved’ by not buying a new centre-back can be reinvested in the summer.
Last but not least, some top earners appear unlikely to stay, such as Alessio Romagnoli (€6m net) and Franck Kessie (€2.2m net) and if Zlatan Ibrahimovic (€7m net) renews, it certainly will not be at a figure nearly that high.
