AC Milan had a quiet January and one of the stories that emerged from it was that the directors had asked for extra budget that was not forthcoming.
Today’s edition of Corriere dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) recall how some blame the ownership for the lack of extra funds made available for for a January mercato in which they expected reinforcements for a squad in obvious difficulty.
Rewinding to the months after the Scudetto win, Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara dragged out negotiations over a new deal and as part of their renewals they demanded autonomy in market decisions.
Having obtained the budget and having exhausted it in the summer market – given Milan had the highest net spend of any Serie A side – the rest of the market was a search for players who could plug holes and none have since become starters.
The way to increase the budget in view of January was to increase revenues through player trading. Four starts in Donnarumma, Çalhanoglu, Kessie and Romagnoli all left for free and if a transfer fee had been received for even two of those, it would have boosted the budget to potentially €100m or more.
That amount would have allowed ample room for manoeuvre and also to calmly absorb an expensive gamble like the one for Charles De Ketelaere. No revolutions or sensational changes are expected in the coming months but in June everything could change.
Slowly but surely, People are waking up and realizing that we have someone incompetent running the sporting department of the club.
Yes they will probably start with sales of Leao. And when they sell Leao, the MVP of the club – they can easily sell everybody.
Milan will become Atalanta II – profitable club but without any trophy.
What you day would make any sense if Milan sold players and didn’t invest the money, or Milan not winning anything.
They didn’t sell any important players and BTW won the scudetto.
So no we are not Atalanta
His point was that is the direction we are going and I tend to agree. Watch what happens if we miss CL…it will start. Elliot want us to be Atalanta. Profit first and if we happen to win a trophy now and again that’s fine and if we don’t that’s fine too – just as long as we turn a profit which only about 1% of clubs do. And if you think we will just sell players like Leao and Theo and invest every penny back into the club or in established players – I think we are in for a rude awakening
That’s hypothetical.
What’s actually factual is that Elliott/RedBird haven’t sold anyone and they still provided money for transfers every summer window and more than any other club in serie A.
The owners are absolutely the reason Donnarumma, Kessie, Romagnoli, Hakan are not Milan players anymore, because they wouldn’t give them the salaries they wanted,
But those 4 players leaving on free and Milan not getting a dime, so we can reinvest in the squad is all due Maldini and Massara incompetence.
As s sporting director Maldini job is to either resign a player or sell him. Under his watch 4 players, not 1, but 4, left for free.
Even Roma managed to sell Zaniolo, because they did their job on time and showed him who is the boss
still a step up from being a cash hole and no trophy (like the last decade)
Indeed! And do people really expect Milan could all of a sudden start winning trophies every year? Especially without their own stadium to finance the purchases of better players?
Excluding the cheating bastards of Torino, what team has made profit AND won trophies year by year? In Italy. Go ahead, make a huuuge list of such teams.
So… Turning the ship around to start making money instead of losing huuuuge amounts of it AND winning some trophies every now and then sounds perfectly reasonable. It’s not that easy to build decade-lasting dynasties where the team marches from trophy to trophy. At least in a clean why. Just ask Juventus or ManCity.
RedBird is not good to be Milan owner simply because;
1- Not investing properly now is weakening the team by time. which means bad result as we seeing lately
2- Now winning trophies, out of top4 and for sure out of UCL will lead to stars leaving
– Stars leaving, meaning not marketing, no revenues
Its a simple math and if they not doing it right, it means they should get a fk out
atleast Zhang spent when he could before covid.Red Bird can spend but won’t
The article literally says that Milan had the highest net spend over the summer, and that Maldini can’t sell to bring more funds in, on top of losing 4 players worth over 100 mil for free, and we still have people coming and talking about the owners
The owner just got here 6 months ago, and are here to stay at least for the immediate future. Stop whining about the owners. They are not spending like Chelsea, but they are still spending more than anyone else in serie A.
The issue is in the competence and the decision making of M&M
I’ve been saying this for the longest time and people are still praising Maldini and Massara because we won the scudetto last season.
In all honesty I would get rid of Maldini and Massara and replace them with competent people to manage our transfers.
Signing Messias permanently was a complete joke. Same for Florenzi who is old and injury prone.
Instead of Origi Maldini could easily got Callum Hudson Odoi who would be a better option at RW and ST than Origi who was already injured before he joined. And they knew Ibra was injured. So now Giroud had to play more games.
Maldini and Massara really don’t have a clue.
“Instead of Origi Maldini could easily got Callum Hudson Odoi who would be a better option at RW and ST than Origi who was already injured before he joined. And they knew Ibra was injured. So now Giroud had to play more games.
Maldini and Massara really don’t have a clue.”
Why didn’t you get the job then when you’re CLEARLY faaar better at their job?
the management decide that keeping them until their contract expired is a better decisions for the team. it’s bad for income but it’s better for the squad. the risk and situation the management choose. it’s done. there’s nothing to talk about. it’s a what if right now. but yeah over the summer window, spending the budget empty is a bad move. especially when the new addition struggling within the squad and couldn’t showcase their worth and the team are going on a slump like now. we won’t talk about that if they contribute positively and the team are doing well fighting for trophies.
M & M aren’t the issue, Pioli is.
Once again… Is it Maldini fault that these players want outrageous salaries? Is it Maldini a fault that the owners refuse to spend that much on them? I always said at the very least give them what they ask and sell them instead of losing them for free. But if your spending months to renew a contract with someone and you go up by 500k every time what will that achieve? You run out of time and the player walks.
Donnarumma wasn’t given what he wanted, same with Kessie. Calhanoglu is a scum bag and romagnoli they thought wasn’t useful no more. I’m sure Maldini isn’t dumb enough to let players walk because they demanded a million more. Someone higher up is telling him no.
We still don’t know very much about redbirds ambition but they’ve left a sour taste in my mouth. I don’t trust them and it’s not only the spending. Has Gerry even come to a single game!? I want people to care and suffer and celebrate just like a fan, and this guy can’t even show face. Plus the deal was sketchy with this loan and then afterwards him having to go around for people to invest. I actually don’t think it’s crazy talk to think that Elliott want them to default on their loan so they can have easy money and take control again. I hope I’m wrong about them but all the signs haven’t made me optimistic.
“Is it Maldini fault that these players want outrageous salaries? Is it Maldini a fault that the owners refuse to spend that much on them?”
To some people here, yes. They think it’s OK to splash out money that doesn’t even exist. But that’s how it’s done in FM, so it must work in real life too, eh? 😀
And to some people here, it is still hard to understand that the issue isn’t that those players weren’t resigned to the outrageous salary they wanted, but the issue is that they weren’t sold and left for free, without Milan getting money for them so they could have used to strengthen the squad.
Milan spent the most recently because the other teams spent 3 to 4 times more over the last few seasons to build the core of players they have now. 40 mill net spend is fuck all in the grand scheme of things when we let go of 40 millions euors worth of wages in the last seasons. Napoli got lucky with transfers and that everyone else sucks, the major clubs are all rebuilding, selling their best players. Also, their top players didnt go deep, or didnt play in the world cup, so were well rested. Inter, Roma, and Juve, us included are strapped and simply can’t invest more in the market right now.
Why is acmilan not targeting the following free agents:
Evan Ndicka (for centreback)
Ramy Besbani (For left back)–better than Ballo toure.
Daichi Kamada (attacking midfielder)
Marcus thuram(Centre Forward/right winger)?
They would surely improve over team.
It baffles me
They have belief on the team so they don’t sign any player. They believe they can maximize and exploite young players skill to the limit or even beyond the limit of their capabilities. So it’s up to the players and coach tho’.
Napoli aside, the other big teams in Serie A are in a financial mess – Inter, Juve and Roma have massive debts. It’s not how much money a team spends, it’s how well they spend it. Napoli took Simeone on loan and signed Raspadori. Even when they lose Osimhen, they’re still okay in attack. We’re investing in the Primavera but the coach is a coward who doesn’t pick young players.
Mi nemamo koga prodat jer taj kadar nevalja ništa !!! To je činjenica vidljiva iz rezultata u 23 g. Ono što smo mogli prodat to je otišlo BESPLATNO !! Sve što je došlo ispod je prosjeka serije A !! Jednostavno ljudi koji rade na transferima moraju položit račune i otići iz kluba pod HITNO pa ko god to bio !!!