CorSera: Milan’s summer signings below expectations so far but nothing is expected in January

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan’s summer transfer window deserves some scrutiny as it has so far not delivered the desired contributions, a report claims.

This morning’s edition of Corriere della Sera (via PianetaMilan) writes that one issue is not open to debate amid Milan’s recent struggles, and that is that the ‘second lines’ have produced a yield far below expectations.

So far there has been little contribution from the summer market from Charles De Ketelaere – whose price tag cost two-thirds of the summer budget – to other additions like Sergino Dest, Aster Vranckx, Malick Thiaw and Yacine Adli.

Paolo Maldini has already declared that Milan’s winter window is closed in the name of sustainability of the accounts, even if Milan have the worst negative balance in Serie A with a deficit of €42.45m, while leaders Napoli have a surplus of €11m.

The new CEO Giorgio Furlani will be in Lecce with the team tomorrow and is likely to be able to present a strategy to the management and to head coach Stefano Pioli after meeting with Gerry Cardinale in New York over the last few days.

In the meantime, Pioli’s mission is to get injured players back (Simon Kjær and Divock Origi trained with the squad yesterday) as well as rediscovering the hunger that helped the squad with the Scudetto last season.

Tags AC Milan

16 Comments

    1. So if something worked last season is supposed to work this season just because it worked last season.
      This is a totally new season. Last season is over. We don’t have the same team. Other teams have improved.
      Juve needs to do us a favor?
      You should be more worried about Juventus. They are mathematically ahead of us in the standings even though they have played all season long without Pogba and Chiesa and most of the season without Di Maria and Vlahovic. They are going to get those players back like new signings. None of the players we are missing are anywhere near the level of those 4
      But we don’t need new signings because it worked last season.

  1. Think about that.
    Napoli spent the same amount of money as Milan this summer. They improved their team and still made a profit at the end of the mercato.
    Maldini spent money, made our team worse, and put Milan in more debt.
    The difference:
    One sporting director can sell players to finance his purchases, and the other can’t.
    But, Hey, it’s the owners’ fault, because they are cheap, it has nothing to do with the sporting director not being able to generate any money for the club.
    Self sustainability means being able to make money to spend money, not waiting on someone else to give it to you.

    1. So since you are better than Maldini at his job, share us your wisdom on how and who you would have sold to finance buying better players?

      Just curious to see who do you actually think are sellable if we don’t count the players that everyone insists that should be kept “what ever it takes” (ie. Benny, Theo, Leao etc.).

      Krunic? LOL. Zlatan? Giroud? Saelemaekers? Messias? Florenzi? Tonali? Tomori?
      Some minor teams MIGHT have had interest in Saelemaekers and Krunic but it would have been impossible to sell as the players wouldn’t get anywhere near the salary they now get. And what is the market value of these “sellable” players anyway? Less than 10M€ each. So on who would you invest that kind of money? Haaland?

      1. Since you think you are better than Leao at playing football, should Milan sell Leao and sign you?
        Stop with your hypocrisy.
        You constantly criticize most of our players, but when someone criticizes Paolo, the object of your idolatry, then you wanna act all righteous.
        Even in this comment, you took a shot at the quality of our players and that they can’t even be sold because no one wants them, but guess who signed those players that no one else wants. Yeah, that would be your idol.

        “Milan has the worst negative balance in Serie A with a deficit of €42.45m” – Very important sentence to anyone who keeps blaming the owners for not providing money and defends Paolo.
        Milan was also in deficit the previous summer, and the one before that one.
        Not to mention the 4 players that he lost for free

        1. “Since you think you are better than Leao at playing football, should Milan sell Leao and sign you?”

          To disappoint you, no. I’m too old. How about that? 🙂

          Quite surprising that instead of answering the question, you start blabbering about idolatry and other bs. Why don’t you man up and stand by your “claims” by telling us how you’d act as you declare you’re smarter than Maldini then?

          1. That went right over your head.
            Just like you can criticize Leao, but you don’t think that you can play better than him, same way I can criticize Paolo and think that there are a lot better sporting directors out there that can do the job better than Paolo.

          2. The only thing that went over my head is that I asked a simple question which you refuse to answer to. But that’s OK. Didn’t really think you could conjure Milan money for decent purchases anyway. 🙂

          3. You still missing the point.
            But since you insist on knowing what could have been done to make money, how about selling Rebic? Freiburg wanted him.
            How about selling Pobega, Torino wanted him, and still do.
            How about selling Gabbia, a lot of midtable teams could use him.
            Kjaer, Fiorentina wanted him.
            Don’t care what he did for Milan, he can’t stay healthy.

            How about not wasting money on buying out Messias and that useless Florenzi who has had more surgeries than actual contributions.
            If there is a will and a know how, there is always a way.

  2. We can probably reach top 4 of the league with the current team, anything on top of that is gravy.

    Please keep in mind our previous and our current owners are Americans, they only care about their bottom line.

    And in the words of our club President Scaroni:

    “​Is it better to qualify in the Champions League than to win the Scudetto? I would not like to look venal, but football has become like this. From a revenue point of view, this is how it is, in the Champions League you earn more.”

    “as football has evolved, the Scudetto has become less important. For Milan it would be better to be – and do well – in the Champions League”

    So… If your owners, and your president, and your management, doesn’t care about winning titles… Why do you?

    1. “So… If your owners, and your president, and your management, doesn’t care about winning titles… Why do you?”

      I don’t get paid for supporting Milan. It’s their JOB. It’s my PASSION. If you don’t realize the difference, I don’t know what to say.

      1. So you refuse to accept reality because you are passionate. In other words you’re a fool.

        There is no discussion with those that live on the world of butterflies and unicorns and refuse the reality. You and I have nothing more to discuss, ever.

        1. Accept reality? WTF are you smoking?

          So you’re saying that Scaroni isn’t working for Milan and his job isn’t keeping the club alive?

          And being passionate about Milan makes me a fool? OK then. That sound reasonable – especially at a website devoted to Milan stuff and Milan fans. So… Why are you here then?

          “You and I have nothing more to discuss, ever.”
          Oh, on the contrary. You just made me more curious about hearing your thoughts about EVERYTHING. 😀

          1. So you’re not just a fool but illiterate too.

            I never said ownership or management are not working in (what they believe) is Milan’s best interest, which is Milan’s bottom line aka their bottom line, aka they lining their pockets. What I’m saying it, they do not care about trophies, and that winning them isn’t in their plans, because it is not cost effective.

            I mean sure if everyone sucks so bad that we win by pure chance, like we did last season, than great, but they are not going to invest into a team of champions just to win Scudetto or UCL, because it is not cost effective. It is as simple as that.

            Fans need to moderate their expectations, in fact they need to moderate them so much that they are left with zero expectations, because owners and management are not in this to win anything, they have before, are now, and always will be aiming for top 4 spots of the league and getting to the knockout stage of UCL. That is it, that is what it will always be, because that is how they make money.

            You can tell yourself any lie you want so you can sleep better at night, but that is the reality of Milan, and that is not gonna change just because you really, really, really want it to change.

  3. And while at it… People who criticize Milan’s owners for being greedy. So please educate the rest of us… Which successful teams have owners that don’t care about the finances and prefer winning titles.

    The Chinese Milan owner apparently didn’t care about finances and wanted titles. How did that go? Got us almost bankrupt and FFP-sanctions. This is what you’d prefer?

  4. If they do not want to solve this Problem of Acmilan Setbacks.
    They will Cry From Reality when Nothing can not be Fixed.

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