As rival clubs make moves to strengthen ahead of the decisive part of the 2021-22 season, there is a growing angst among AC Milan fans as the club are seemingly only going to sign a teenage striker.
MilanNews writes how the definitive agreement between Juventus and Fiorentina for the transfer of Dusan Vlahovic has sent social media into a frenzy with a lot of Milan fans making their voices heard, given that the best striker in the league currently is heading to a team that could yet become a very direct rival in the battle for a place in the Champions League.
Vlahovic would have served Milan well too there is no doubt about it, when given the advanced age of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Olivier Giroud and the failure of Pietro Pellegri, while Marko Lazetic is not yet ready to contribute the same output.
The refereeing catastrophe in Milan’s 2-1 defeat to Spezia and the failure to score against Juve has caused some anger among the Milan environments, with the general consensus that something is missing in order to be close to move to the next step which is to overhaul Inter and win the title.
There is frustration too because Juve and Inter’s problems with huge losses and debts have been well documented, while the former continue to rely on loans to generate funds and the latter are issuing bonds to try and get €415m of money in.
The question being asked is why direct competitors in worse financial situations currently can close negotiations worth several tens of millions when Milan on the other hand must rely on an 18-year-old from Belgrade.
However, while sporting results are obviously important to Milan’s owners Elliott Management because of the things that come from it, they must also go hand in hand with patience. Years of neglect from previous owners and directors plunged the Rossoneri into unsustainable losses, a Settlement Agreement with UEFA was needed to retain a place in European competitions moving forward and a suspension of one year was served.
Milan have a target to hit in terms of losses and they are still over €90m in the red. A new meeting will be held with UEFA to discuss the positive work done under CEO Ivan Gazidis and since Elliott took over, but until the situation is clearer Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara will not risk over three years of careful work on a signing worth €70m+.
READ MORE: Juventus pushing to sign Kessie after Vlahovic – contacts initiated with Milan
LA-LA-LA-LA!!! I’m not listening!!!
So what.
90% people here were never going to buy a ticket to ss and pirate broadcasts
Not like you have a say
They cannot spend big because they still haven’t learned how to sell. It is unbelievable that AC Milan give players like Donnarumma, Calhanoglu, Romagnoli and Kessie for free. The funny thing is that they like to talk to us about sustainability. What do they think we are?
Agreed. Proper contract management could have netted us 150-180m in sales….disgraceful. It’s kind of a joke really. Maybe we can’t spend 85m on one player right now – ok. But why not 15m on Faivre (RW)? And 7m for Zakaria (DM)?? These are not big sums at all for such players. How much will Boatman and Sanches cost in summer? 70-80m total? Why not instead go for Vlahovic instead and resign Romagnolli – together w Tomori Kajer Kalulu make a solid 4 man rotation. Sign Zakaria (7m) or Kamara (free) instead of Sanches and use that $$ on Vlahovic. But no I guess we are content having a 40 year old as our starting striker lol w a 35 ur old back up lol…What a joke.
Yep. Hard to disagree with these plans. What we need most is a decent RW. And keeping Romagnoli should be a “no-brainer” as he only asks 1M€/y more than Milan are willing to give. Where in the World are they going to find a better CB for the same money Romagnoli’s extension would cost? Nowhere. Nowhere!
Luiz Felipe on free, roma can leave
The signing bonuses for the player and his agent alone costs way more than Romagnoli’s whole contract.
In Lazio, exactly the guy that “urban king” wrote. They should have sold those other players sooner, however signing a new contract with them was impossible. And whoever thinks that Milan could pay 7M to Calhanoglu and then sell him is an idiot. No one would pay for him because he would ask for an even bigger wage and he isn’t worth it. Same for Donnarumma, Kessie and Romagnoli. They should have been sold 1 year before the contract expired, that is a mistake, but not overspending on them is 100% not a mistake.
Yes, but that wasn’t the fault of this Milan management. All those contracts happened when Milan was owned by Chinese who didn’t have a clue about football. That’s why it is hard to complain to this new management who is trying hard to rebuild the team at least after years of being in the darkness. As the article said, Milan fans are lacking of patience. Juventus is also getting Vlahovic because Dybala might be going out of the club for free. So it is not only Milan who has had those bad lucks. Look at Chelsea, Christensen and Rudiger are going out of the team for free. So I think that’s happening in modern football more often. Even PSG with Mbappe has a similar case.
Who wanted to buy Donnarumma?
Who could afford his wages? Even psg does not pay more than our offer
Gianluca, how do you want them to sell? Agents started asking singing fees and ridiculous wages for players to renew their contract. Did you want us to spend 20mil to Raiola to make Donnaruma sign a new contract? Kessie’s agent is doing the same thing. Milan started contract talks soon enough but the agents tell them not to sign so they can get a signing fee that’s higher than a commission on a transfer fee. Other clubs are going to have the same. You can’t sell these players to anybody, just make them go and get another club into financial troubles. Milan are on the right path, but the road is long. Juve and Inter are unsustainable and will sooner or later pay the price.
The fans need to chill…we have ffp to deal with…and we’re exceeding elliots expectations to date…theo leao and tomori were unkown kids a few seasons ago…relax
Inter and Juve will get their bill. Sooner or later. Plusvalenza fraud clubs
we were a fraud club under berlusconi
Maybe butt their wasn´t FFP then!
It’s bull**it. I’m not watching this. Some valid points in the thread. This transitional period has been over a decade now. I’ll come back when something’s achieved. I wish so bad this kid of 18 is the newest diamond in world football but it’s not for now. As far as I was aware we were going for the scudetto. It’s 1 step forward and 2 back. We can’t even field a full strength team.
No, it has been since 2 years ago, when someone with a brain took over. And the only reason why the club was in a position like this was because Berlusconi almost bankrupted the club, and he had to sell to some shady Chinese guy that has dissappeared of the planet since that.
“As far as I was aware we were going for the scudetto”
Why?
Scudetto contenders have more valuable squads thanks to better management in the past, some of them have new stadiums that generate extra income. None of them have to live with FFP sanctions. All in all, they’re better clubs at the moment.
The fact that we managed to have two good campaign starts in a row doesn’t make us scudetto contenders. If you can keep your dick up for 1 minute that doesn’t make you a great lover yet. Consistency (aka “squad depth”) wins leagues.
We don’t have that extra 50-100MEUR of value in our squads and we can’t just buy it with borrowed cash without running into trouble again.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but it’s sad to see you guys so unhappy. Like people in a downtown restaurant getting upset they can’t afford $100 wine like the next guy and have to settle for $75 bottles. Enjoy it. Sports is about competition, not rich uncles buying top spots. Enjoy it.
Another thing is that Morata will be sold to Barcelona from what is written, probably more than 50% of the money for Vlahović will come from there.
Lol Morata is on loan from Atletico
Inter Juve Napoli have more expensive squads
Milan is building something great now. If you stuck during banter years and want to leave now…sure its your choice, but its a dumbo choice
Ok glory hunter, you can stop supporting Milan and never come back.
Milan will only be filled with an bargain prospect, not champ prospects.
welcome to ARSENAL 2.0
But the whole Vlahović story came after I read that Morata will be leaving for Barcelona if Juve can buy a replacement. So, at least half of the money will come from there.
But Morata doesn’t belong to Juve. He is on loan from Atletico.
Correct
Nice to see an article grounded in realism and more acceptance than usual of this in the comments. Making an effort towards meeting FFP is critical and losing Romangnoli, Kessie and selling a player or two in summer will open up lots more possibilities than exist in a season where crowds have been restricted and no progress was made to latter rounds of either European competition.
Success doesn’t just need to be winning but overachieving and arguably this current team is doing that better than any other Milan team in the last decade.
I totally agree. Look at Atalanta. They do not win Scudetti but they have been fun to watch. I know they have much lower expectations (do they really these days?) but they have accomplished most of it through consistency, which we have not had in a very long time. If we can ride out 2 more years of over achievement and consistent Champions League money we will be back. However, the front line does need a refresh.
I don’t agree for comment on Romagnoli, he is asking for 3.5m salary. You can’t get a experienced defender like him for 3.5m. Atleast he is the only player who has reduced 40% of salary to continue in same club. A defender who is tall, Italian, experienced in Serie A,who knows in and out of Milan. You cannot buy his calibre for 3.5m. You need to spend atleast 30m to replace player like him with salary of at least 4m. If we want to cut off all high costs players. It’s better to close down Milan at least you can save the history and value Milan have.
It’s better to close down Milan? Lol Shut the f up kid.
ELLIOTS goal is always to gain benefit by sell milan in the future with a very high price and it only be achieve if this club have a small amount of loan or we can say “good financial conditon”. Thats it. ELLIOTS not an owner who love football or fans of this club, they just thinking about economics return. We cannot blame them because that is what ELLIOTS profile and do for living.
I agree with you. Elliots are rich because they know how to drain projects dry with minimum expenses. Not because they create something valuable.
Regardless who the owner is you can’t just inject cash into your club, unless your name is Nasser bin Ghanim Al-Khelaifi, in which case you can funnel cash from your personal sovereign wealth fund (!) into the club you own while paying yourself back via the TV deal the sports broadcaster you own pays inflated prices for the rights of the league your club is in, all the while sitting on UEFA’s Excom (HILARIOUS).