Signs of an inexperienced management [Bonus Article]

In the last few months or so, perhaps even the last year, we have showered the AC Milan management with praise for their work on several fronts. Above all, the ability to sign high-quality players at low prices has been the main source of this praise, with players such as Christian Pulisic coming to mind. On the other hand, this management isn’t without its fault and recently, the inexperience has been a bit exposed.

As much as we like to get swept away with Milan’s scouting-focused, data-driven and financially-minded way of signing players, there is only so much excitement you can get from this. At the end of the day, we need to see a job well done on all fronts and for the management, that doesn’t just entail signing players. From appointing a manager to selling players, everything falls within the management’s jurisdiction.

With such a young group of directors, rising through the ranks rather quickly, it’s only natural that we have seen signs of inexperience. While you often see mistakes from other club management in Serie A as well, inexperience is a different beast and something that the Rossoneri must work on. Above all, there are three things that the management has failed to perfect.

Lack of (good) sales causing issues

Those of you who have followed Milan for quite some time will know that monetising player departures has been a huge Achilles heel ever since Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva left for PSG. It doesn’t just concern the current management, to be fair, but one could argue that Milan’s squad is more talented than it has been for a very long time. As such, it’s only right to assume that player sales (in value) should increase.

The net spend, i.e. income from player sales minus cost of player signings, certainly attests to this as Milan’s tally comes in at -€210.2m for the last five years. There might still be some sales this summer so this number is fluid, but frankly speaking, this would barely make a dent. Atalanta and Inter, meanwhile, are at +€81.5m and +€70m respectively for the same period.

Beppe Marotta has been absolutely on fire since he joined the Nerazzurri, as much as we hate to admit it. He’s one of the most experienced directors in Italy and it shows, especially when monetising player sales and, above all, finding the right replacement for these without jeopardising the overall project. Milan can count themselves lucky that the revenue has increased so much as not even Juventus, who are in big financial trouble, can match their net spend with -€170.8m for the aforementioned period.