GdS: Spending does not equal winning – Milan’s €110m spree fails to fix issues

In partnership with

SempreMilan

·28 de marzo de 2025

GdS: Spending does not equal winning – Milan’s €110m spree fails to fix issues

AC Milan spent big in the last couple of transfer windows, but paradoxically they have seen their results get worse under the two coaches.

La Gazzetta dello Sport write how Milan spent €110m in transfers to go from second to ninth place in the standings. Milan spared no expense in the last two windows, but the results did not reward such investment.

OneFootball Videos

Some choices were wrong, as was seen above all on the pitch. An example? Emerson Royal arrived in the summer for €13.5m and, before the bad injury suffered in the first minutes of the Champions League match against Girona in January, he was already heading for departure.

The former Tottenham full-back was supposed to be the new starter on the right side of the defence, but Milan took advantage of the Kyle Walker opportunity in the winter also because the Brazilian’s performance was not entirely convincing.

Then there is the centre-forward issue. In July, it was thought that Olivier Giroud’s heir had been found in Alvaro Morata – for whom, in addition to the €13m clause to release him from Atletico Madrid, the club signed on a significant salary – only to then change plans at the end of the mercato.

The Spaniard was sent away (on loan to Galatasaray) and a huge expense was made for Santiago Gimenez, who thus became the most expensive purchase of the RedBird era: €28.5m ended up in the coffers of Feyenoord who, ironically, knocked Milan out in the Champions League play-offs.

Summer spree and corrective moves

In the summer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic had spoken of signings to complete a squad that only needed to be refined. In addition to the aforementioned Emerson Royal and Morata, Pavlovic, Fofana and Abraham also landed in Milan.

The Serbian defender has alternated moments of exhilaration with periods of down, coming in and out of the starting line-up a bit like all the other central defenders in the squad. Fofana, after a positive first part of the season, seemed to be in decline especially from a physical point of view.

While Abraham, on loan from Roma, still cost the (temporary) sacrifice of Saelemaekers, who in the capital has imposed himself more than the Englishman has done in the shadow of the Duomo.

The fact that the previous window had not been satisfactory and had not in fact completed the much-heralded work of completing the squad was confirmed by the January transfer window.

We have already spoken about Walker and Gimenez, but Milan added, on the very last day, the loans of Joao Felix and Sottil, in addition to the permanent purchase of Warren Bondo.

The Portuguese forward – the man of quality who should have illuminated Sergio Conceiçao’s game – shone on the evening of his debut, only to then gradually fade away until he ended up on the bench.

“If an agreement is reached with Chelsea in the summer, Joao Felix will play for Galatasaray next season,” his agent Jorge Mendes announced in recent days. His adventure at Milan is already coming to an end. While Sottil has played sparingly and Bondo has only found space in the last few games.

The budget

The results, as mentioned, have not rewarded the efforts. While the team push for a top four spot that would be a minor miracle, from an economic point of view it should be highlighted that the expenditure for wages has increased since last season.

Of course, the January window – as expensive as it was – was thought out, between purchases and sales, keeping the cost of amortisations and wages almost unchanged. Milan now are a club that operate within their means.

But it is useless to deny that the enthusiasm and illusion derived from the signings of the first days of February was swept away in a flash – just two weeks later – due to the disappointment of the Champions League.

The elimination in the play-off with Feyenoord – also with the way it came about – was a blow that then led almost by inertia to the three consecutive defeats against Torino, Bologna and Lazio, then bringing out all the problems.

From Gimenez who struggles and doesn’t score to Joao Felix who is a fish out of water, to Fofana who is tired or Pavlovic who is back on the bench. And so on and so forth. The basic question remains: were the purchases made incorrectly or is there something else wrong?