r/ACMilan • u/AutoModerator • 1d ago

Monday Discussion Thread

Great place for team discussion/whatever Serie A related topics you would like to bring up. Examples: Transfers, rumors, players from other teams, things you miss about the old days etc. Whatever you want as long as it isn't too off-topic.

Also a good spot to ask about the stadium, the city of Milano, bars, fan clubs in your city etc.

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u/Darthprovader1 Olivier Giroud 1d ago

If we don't retain our players we are headed straight to the banter era.

Our strategy seems to find talent and as soon as they start developing or settling in we sell them and rebuild again. Instead of building up upon that talent, specially on our midfield. We have a completely different midfield now. We could have had Reijnders still and alegate those funds to build a midfield with him on it. Modric is an insane player but at most he has 1 more soeson with us after this one. And who knows if next season we won't decide to sell players like Fofana, Sallad Pulisic or even Leao?

Heck even by going further back. We could have kept Tonali, still have Reijnders and keep building upon the team. We have the funds, we just dont use them. How many financial scuddetos will we win before we get relegated?

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u/ComradePoula Simon Kjaer 1d ago

Have you maybe considered the possibility that the guys you want to build on all asked to leave? We know for a fact that Tonali did and Reijnders is pretty much confirmed to have done the same thing.

And if anything, what got us into the banter era in the first place wasn't selling Ibra and Thiago Silva, although that definitely played a part. It was actually not rebuilding the squad in the years prior. The 11/12 squad had 14 players over the age of 30 with half of them being around 35 or older. So you ended up with half the team retiring around the same time with no direct replacements in the same level or better.

Also, I'm tired of the entire financial scudetto nonsense. If your entire argument is that the biggest spending club in Italy should spend even more money on fancier players, then you should probably look back at what got us into that mess to begin with. Redbird could go bankrupt tomorrow and nothing would happen to the club, which is crazy to say considering where we were just 7 years ago.

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u/Sankaritarina Romagnoli 1d ago

Also, I'm tired of the entire financial scudetto nonsense. If your entire argument is that the biggest spending club in Italy should spend even more money on fancier players, then you should probably look back at what got us into that mess to begin with.

You are arguing about different kinds of spending. As you pointed out, we are the highest spenders in Italy but only when it comes to transfer money. However, we are nowhere near the highest spenders in Serie A when it comes to wages which is often a better indicator of the club's ability and willingness to build a winning team.

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u/ComradePoula Simon Kjaer 1d ago

Why exactly would you want to spend even more money on wages? For every transfer that works out, you have guys like Origi, Florenzi or even Bennacer on massive wages that make it impossible to get rid of them.

The main reason a team like Chelsea hasn't gone bankrupt yet is that they don't spend that much on wages. Even a club like PSG have moved into performance-based contracts and have been cutting their wage bill in the last few years, which is why they ended up selling Dollarumma. Hell, Vlahovic, who's a really good striker, has been holding Juve hostage for two years because of his wages.

Our wage bill isn't a problem no matter how you look at it. And until we have our own stadium, it doesn't make sense to give away massive wages and get into debt because some people can't move on from the sugar daddy era.

You either spend no money on transfers and put everything into signing free agents, and we've seen how well that can work with Inter's old squad. Or you spend reasonably on wages and put your money into transfers. And the second option makes far more sense for a club in our position.

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u/Sankaritarina Romagnoli 1d ago

Why exactly would you want to spend even more money on wages? For every transfer that works out, you have guys like Origi, Florenzi or even Bennacer on massive wages that make it impossible to get rid of them.

I mean by that logic why even spend money at all, there's always a risk of something going wrong. The whole idea behind wanting to spend more is believing that the management (at least now with the addition of Tare and Allegri's input) is capable of finding players who can take us to the next level.

The main reason a team like Chelsea hasn't gone bankrupt yet is that they don't spend that much on wages. Even a club like PSG have moved into performance-based contracts and have been cutting their wage bill in the last few years, which is why they ended up selling Dollarumma. Hell, Vlahovic, who's a really good striker, has been holding Juve hostage for two years because of his wages.

PSG still have some of the highest wages in world football. Every single elite team does.

Our wage bill isn't a problem no matter how you look at it. And until we have our own stadium, it doesn't make sense to give away massive wages and get into debt because some people can't move on from the sugar daddy era.

Given that we have been consistently outperformed by our cousins that spend less on transfers and more on wages, I think this is a ridiculous statement to make. Nobody is advocating that we start offering Real Madrid level contracts so there is no need to fearmonger about our wage bill going out of control.

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u/ComradePoula Simon Kjaer 1d ago

there's always a risk of something going wrong.

And the risk is far lower if the players you sign are on lower wages. It's that simple. A player that costs €40m but makes €3m in wages isn't as big of a risk as someone that costs €15m but is on €6m in wages. Why do you think someone like De Ketelaere wasn't a problem for us while we have desperately been trying to get rid of Origi for years now?

PSG still have some of the highest wages in world football.

And it's much lower now than it was years ago. Does that look like it's going up to you?

Given that we have been consistently outperformed by our cousins that spend less of transfers and more on wages, I think this is a ridiculous statement to make.

And what has that exactly led to now? It's a viable strategy in the short term, but once you reach the end point of that project, you're pretty much fucked. The same way we were in 2012. Inter are quite lucky that their team overperformed massively compared to our teams in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and you can't always bank on overperformance if you're trying to build the future of a club.

If you start handing out bigger contracts, it will either get out of control at some point or leave you with a lot of underperforming players on massive wages. That's what always happened and that's what will always happen.

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u/Sankaritarina Romagnoli 1d ago

And the risk is far lower if the players you sign are on lower wages. It's that simple. A player that costs €40m but makes €3m in wages isn't as big of a risk as someone that costs €15m but is on €6m in wages. Why do you think someone like De Ketelaere wasn't a problem for us while we have desperately been trying to get rid of Origi for years now?

Of course it was a problem but that's football, some risks turn out good while others do not. My goal as a fan isn't making sure that my club makes the lowest risk possible on the market.

And it's much lower now than it was years ago. Does that look like it's going up to you?

I am fairly sure that the accounts for the last season aren't out yet so these are likely guesses but yeah this is to be expected. PSG had 3 of the highest (over)paid footballers in Europe and they all left so of course they aren't going to hand out Neymar/Messi contract to Doue or Kvara. Again though, they will still be one of the highest spenders in the world once the reports are released.

And what has that exactly led to now? It's a viable strategy in the short term, but once you reach the end point of that project, you're pretty much fucked. The same way we were in 2012. Inter are quite lucky that their team overperformed massively compared to our teams in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and you can't always bank on overperformance if you're trying to build the future of a club.

Two CL finals and consistently beating their biggest rivals, I'd say it worked out pretty well for them. Also I've been hearing about Inter being short sighted for about half a decade now. Idk when our way of doing this is supposed to translate into results.

If you start handing out bigger contracts, it will either get out of control at some point or leave you with a lot of underperforming players on massive wages. That's what always happened and that's what will always happen.

So you have to manage your wages and understand how to properly build a wage hierarchy. Every other top team on the planet is faced with similar problems, it's a matter of having the management that can pull it off. It's incredibly difficult but managing a club of our stature isn't supposed to be easy.