AC Milan have spent a lot since RedBird Capital took over in 2022, but there is a strong argument a lot of it has been wasted.
MilanNews write how over the last four years the club have invested (and received) a huge amount when it comes to transfer market, more than virtually all of their domestic rivals, but they have not yet managed to build a truly coherent and solid team.
The numbers are impressive: €62m spent in 2022-23, €132m in 2023-24, €139m in 2024-25 and €170m in 2025-26 (after earning €179m from various sales), for a total of €503m, averaging more than €125m per season.
These are enormous figures, especially when compared to the results achieved and the constant feeling of an often incomplete squad, assembled more on a whim rather than with a clear strategy.
Listen to Max
That’s why today the key isn’t to spend more, but to spend wisely. If Milan made the decision to rely on Massimiliano Allegri last June, then they must have the courage to follow his instructions to the end.
It wouldn’t make sense to continue with the usual hybrid strategy, in which the coach asks for functional and experienced profiles and then the management end up buying players that are far from a tactical match.
That’s how you waste money and time, and that’s why rebuilds are needed seemingly every year. For this squad, four targeted additions are needed for the starting line-up, and they must be a fit for what Allegri wants which is pragmatism and experience.
The real question is this, what kind of team would Milan have today if those €503m had been invested properly? Probably a stronger, more balanced squad with far fewer adjustments to make each summer.
Two great examples came last summer. Allegri wanted a striker right until the end, and he was given a completely different profile in Christopher Nkunku, for the eye-watering sum of €37m plus bonuses. He asked for Rabiot and he was signed for €7m. The former has struggled, the latter has been a star.
The problem wasn’t the budget, but the lack of a clear direction. Now the club are at a crossroads: continue to pursue scattered ideas, or give Allegri the right players. In the mercato spending a lot isn’t enough: you have to know where to put your trust.
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Why? It’s all entertainment on demand and plastic show business for these Americans. We want hot dogs and kiss cam at half time. We want Kardashians to come at stadium and buy overpriced collab merc. Their loyal fanbase, the Gerry boys need flashy toys every summer. We don’t want no homegrown, domestic garbage and established already know what to expect players. Much more a boring coach although a winning one. We want hype and potential capital gains in players! Don’t forget there’s an imagine we need to take care of. We are, afterall back to back financial Scudetto winners. Or are we?
Ha ha. Brilliant.
LOL. Well said
I see you’re up to your old tricks. The minute you make a point of mentioning the race of the owners, you lose credibility. You cannot answer the question that exposes you – what are RedBird doing that Berlusconi, Moratti, the Agnelli’s and De Laurentis didn’t? Nothing. For the past 26 years, Italian clubs have been selling their best players for profit, that’s the only way they can avoid debts. From Zidane, Thuram, Cannavaro, Thiago Silva, Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Jorginho, Osimhen etc. Your capital gain argument has no merit and you would be one of the first to call foul if the owners got the club into debt. You’re not a fan of the club, you never were. You’re simply here to push your agenda.
Race? You don’t even know what race is. You lose credibility whenever you write something…Nationality is obviously not “race”. There are Americans of different races.Ted mentioned a race exactly 0 times clown. 😂😂
Irrelevant. You know full well what the point was.
American is a race now. Didn’t you say you’re a teacher in UK or something?🤣 Look who’s talking about race, someone who never misses a chance to call people here 3rd worlde sc*ms and French footballers, nothing but Africans. You say you’re from UK but your grammar, general knowledge and comprehension say you’re a 3rd worlder here🤣
Ouch hahahaha
Been saying this for years since before they sacked Maldini. It was very apparent when we lost in the champions league semi finals.
Only if arabs buy us we can go forward. With americans we at 0. They gave money after take from marketing and sales.
So they just go around with money.
Arabs will invest 1b and then we can talk seriously. Just look at England wich club is owner arab and which american and you will see
Do you not understand why Arabs will never buy us?
Arsenal, Liverpool, manchester united are from americans money. Wheres arab club will winning EPL this season?
Basically they make huge capital gains to keep Milan positive in balance sheet.
Thats why they buy “opportunities “,
They can waste 7 transfers and made 1, they are more than happy after they sell that one.
Tonali, Reijnders, Thiaw.
Since forever, you just can’t throw a wedding with dried figs and that’s exactly where Milan is right now. An American who thinks he’s a billionaire, with zero football culture and zero passion for the game. He bought Milan by taking on debt, then delayed paying it back by switching lenders. Let’s see who the next one will be. If something starts off limping, you can’t expect it to suddenly walk straight. Firing Maldini and replacing him with a board full of accountants — all with fancy MBAs from big‑name universities — didn’t exactly give Milan the foundations to succeed.
The coach says, “I need this player and that one,” but the accountant replies, “Too expensive, take these instead,” and boom disaster. Milan has lived through plenty of these dramas (Fonseca, Conceição, Füllkrug, etc.), including an Ibrahimović who looks like a lead duck in a lake, grabbing onto anyone just to avoid sinking, too bad he drags everyone down with him.
The solution? The one that’s impossible today: changing ownership, maybe someday. But for now, at least send the accountants and the lead ducks home.
Balancing the books are just as important as investing in the team. It is surprising that these finance and investment gurus (Cardinale/Furlani) have completely missed the one thing that matters most when making an investment- ROI…and if they get this mercato wrong then the message will be loud and clear – Redbird dont give give jack about sporting results (main aim is getting top4 for UCL income) and is busy using Milan as a toy for his own twisted pleasures whilst waiting for the right time to sell at a profit. He literally bought some more time with the appointment of an SD and Allegri…and what will be next…sell the crown jewels and buy a bunch of misfits?
-After winning the Scudetto and losing Kessie and Romagnoli, Maldini and Massara get €62m to spend in 2022-23: 4th (5th) in Serie A and CL semi-final
-Under the new management:
€132m in 2023-24: 2nd in Serie A and CL group phase exit
€139m in 2024-25: 8th in Serie A and CL group phase exit
€170m in 2025-26: Hopefully a top 4 finish
It all starts from the top and this management has been allowed to fail over and over.
Revenues weren’t as good in 22/23 as it was in the 3 years after that. The company only started to make profits at the END of this year.
If Maldini had just waited 1 more year before rebelling against Cardinale, he’d be calling the shots with these 100M+ markets.
It’s all about timing.
I will never ask people to spend money they don’t have on transfers.
But I do think it’s reasonable to ask them to spend whatever they do have in a more sensible way that doesn’t destroy the whole substance of the team.
It’s really f’ing simple.
Forget about the Champions League which involves a huge amount of luck (fewer games = more luck).
The league is your bread and better (luck plays less of a part of 38 games) and ensures you get to roll the Champions League dice every year.
Let’s say Milan finish 3rd this season. That’s 3rd. That means they’re the 3rd best team in Serie A. That means they only have to finish above two other teams to be 1st.
Looking at it even more precisely based on this season’s results they need to beat the likes of Pisa, Cremonese and Parma to finish 1st.
So the squad doesn’t need another overhaul. It needs targeted improvements.
One signing. That is it. Spend whatever you have on one signing.
Let’s say it’s 100m. That’s a 100m budget for a striker.
Imagine the impact a 100m striker would make?
Forget about DEPTH. Players can handle 60 games a season.
This is football not rugby and they don’t need a rugby sized squad.
Keep it tight. Sign the best striker there is for 100m.
The next season do the same.
What is the one position the club needs to improve to raise their level.
Sign that one player.
This is what Barca, Juve and others did as they returned to greatness.
Juve during their record Scudetto run focused on signing the likes of Pjanic and Higuain and bulked out their squad with the likes of Cáceres and Padoin,.
It enabled them to build sustainability and improve year-on-year.
Better still they also weakened their immediate competitors by poaching their key players.
Why doesn’t Milan put all of its money into poaching Martínez from Inter?
Go big or go home.
Did you forget how Juve’s Ronaldo experiment worked out?
Barca’s success was underpinned by players from their youth team.
Juve have the biggest budget in Serie A because of their stadium.
After 9 consecutive Scudetti?
Milan have youth players (who win youth tournaments) but those youth players don’t get a chances because
Milan decides it really, really, desperately needs to sign Estupiñán instead of relying on Bartesaghi.
It’s not about budgets. The budget is whatever it is.
It’s about strategy. It’s about putting whatever money the club has to better use.
You do that by focusing on quality over quantity.
For €62m Milan could’ve got Haaland in 2022-23
For €132m Milan could’ve got Declan Rice in 2023-24
For €139m Milan could’ve got Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
in 2024-25 and had change.
Why did Milan spend €170m in 2025-26 after selling €179m worth of players?
All that just make €9m?
Why didn’t they sell someone for €9m and keep the rest.
The truth is that apart from about 25 signings in the last 20 years, Milan would be better off not signing ANYONE
The vast majority of the signings (plus 90%) didn’t add anything to the team, pushed out other players (especially youth players who could’ve provided the backbone) and caused utter confusion and chaos resulting in just 2 x Scudetti in 20 years.
“Forget about DEPTH. Players can handle 60 games a season. ”
Not Leao, Gimenez, RLC, Pulisic, Gabbia, Tomori etc.
And that’s a specific issue that needs to be addressed with individual players and at the club.
Forget about winning anything if players keep getting injured.
You can’t sign your way out of an injury crisis.
As it happens this season Milan HAVE reduced injuries and HAVE managed to compete with a smaller squad, and large reason for that is probably because of the smaller squad.
Smaller squads keep players fresh.
I perfectly do understand your point and infact, if we aren’t singing quality players who guarantee instant upgrades then there’s no need to sign any player at all.
A 75m striker like Osimhen is a must if we are truly serious for upgrade.
Proven players who are less a gamble must be our priorities.
I put up a list the other day and some say it’s a stretch, but a stretch right now is absolutely what we need.
Having said that, we absolutely need depth. Tottenham are batting relegation after a depleted first team due to injury and no quality depth to hold out.
They don’t need to listen to Allegri. He’s hardly known for identifying up and coming talents. The reality is Serie A teams have limited budgets and wage salaries.
So work with that reality.
What do you think they’re doing?!?!? Gimenez ticked all the boxes, he was young, he was scoring in the UCL, he’s been a bust. Napoli went with Hojlund. Neither signing had the desired effect.
Read the article….
They’re p#ssing money up a wall.
Signings are a lottery which is why you need targeted transfers.
You stick with what you have because you know what you have works.
You then roll the dice and hope you can improve on what you have.
But you don’t do that by changing half the squad because that means you are introducing multiple variables at once.
And the chances of any one of those variables actually working out is actually pretty slim (most transfers don’t work out as in the player fails to perform to the same or higher standard at their new club).
When a new player struggles (which is normal) you then don’t panic and try and find a replacement for the replacement for the replacement of the replacement.
That is how you end up with Giménez, Füllkrug and Nkunku.
Who knows – had Milan only signed one of those players maybe they’d have hit form.
Every second that was lost in training and on the pitch with Füllkrug could’ve been spent with Nkunku and so on.
It’s like giving an elite horse trainer multiple elite horses to train, or an elite mechanic multiple Formula 1 cars to work on.
You’re not going to get the most of out of the elite horse or the Formula 1 car.
This is supposed to be elite football.
Not throwing sh#t at walls and hoping something sticks.
And of course while the farce was going on with Giménez, Füllkrug and Nkunku the club was also moving around Colombo and Camardi who also both struggled.
So that’s 5 x strikers. At least.
The club went through 6 x RBs last season alone:
1. Calabria (the captain who had done a solid job for years),
2. Florenzi (vastly experienced),
3. Kalulu (central (literally) to a Scudetto win who was forced out to an immediate rival);
4. Terracciano (a talented youth player);
5. Emerson Royal (the apparent upgrade on 1-4);
6. Walker (one of the most decorated players in the game who apparently couldn’t cope in a worse league).
This is happening across the pitch in nearly every single position.
How is it saving money?
Emerson wasn’t/isn’t better than any of them though. Honest truth.
Admit it man, the owners a joke.
‘The problem wasn’t the budget.’
Wow, just imagine if Maldini was given this kind of freedom.
Problem = Furlani and Tare. Maybe even Moncada.
If money is spent badly, it is the people that spend it. Should be obvious.