MN: €121m spent badly – Milan must change philosophy as well as management

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·9 May 2025

MN: €121m spent badly – Milan must change philosophy as well as management

AC Milan’s disastrous league season is inarguable, with a very realistic possibility that they finish in the mid-table region of ninth place.

MilanNews write that if you add that to a failed Champions League campaign from January onwards, it is clear that this time it will really be necessary to examine the mistakes made, regardless of whether the Coppa Italia is lifted next month.

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Money spent, but spent badly

One of the biggest faults that the management is the spending in the transfer window. The problem is not the amount of money spent – budget has been available – but rather how it has been invested by the directors.

In the must recent summer Milan paid out €13m for Alvaro Morata, €15m for Emerson Royal, €18m for Strahinja Pavlovic, €20m for Youssouf Fofana, €5m for Alex Jimenez and €1.5m for the loan of Tammy Abraham.

The winter window came around, and the mistakes were admitted. Morata left, Emerson was on the sidelines (due to injury) but was also in advanced talks to be sold, and a new batch of players arrived to back the new coach (another error they aimed to fix, after hiring Paulo Fonseca).

The spending was as follows: €32m for Santiago Gimenez, €10m for Warren Bondo, €5.5m for the loan of Joao Felix and €1m for the loan of Riccardo Sottil . Doing a quick calculation the total expense is €121m.

The result on the field? Out of the Champions League at the hands of Feyenoord, with no chance of qualifying for the next edition, and perhaps the Coppa Italia to add to the Supercoppa Italiana.

Philosophy and management

This must not be a satisfactory result for a club like Milan. They spent €121m in a season and did not get a Champions League spot, let alone never being in the running for the Scudetto. This is a serious fact and it must make the leadership reconsider their philosophy.

Milan have gone from winning the Scudetto, from the semi-final of the Champions League, from second place last year, to this disaster. Either they must change the way of doing things or they need to change the management, to have different people with different ideas.

The hiring of a strong and competent sporting director feels crucial: it is not possible that a club aiming for the top can do without them. This is the first move and it should have already been closed a month ago because time is money, and too much of both has been spent.