The AC Milan management should feel regret about the players that they allowed to leave the club on a free transfer, which should serve as a lesson for the future.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) have written a piece this morning on Milan’s struggles selling players, beginning with the following line: ‘Imagine what market Milan could do with 180 million available.’
Of that virtual sum, about €50m are what Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara would have available regardless fr the summer to reinforce Stefano Pioli’s squad, but the rest is made up of the money that should have come from sales.
Taking a look at Transfermarkt’s estimates, the market value of Franck Kessie, Alessio Romagnoli, Hakan Calhanoglu and Gianluigi Donnarumma would today amount to around €130m in total, but instead Milan did not get a penny from their farewells.
It has happened with other players too such as Lucas Biglia and Giacomo Bonaventura, but Kessie and Romagnoli were a vital part of the Scudetto win and the management did not move in advance to either renew their deal or sell to avoid the risk of them going for free.
In economic terms, not much has changed because the club continue to struggle to raise money from sales, which is tough for a project where sustainability is a guiding star in every sector.
Milan will have to change gears and start selling better. The sale of Jens Petter Hauge to Eintracht Frankfurt last year yielded around €10m, which translated into a capital gain of almost €5m, but that sum was spent on Junior Messias of Crotone who has very little resale value.
The sale of Lucas Paquetà to Lyon for €20m was not enough to make a capital gain because he cost €38m, but €5m did arrive from a sell-on clause when he joined West Ham.
Milos Kerkez went for a low sum to AZ Alkmaar and now looks set to get sold on for a lot more, Samu Castillejo went to Valencia on a free after the Scudetto win.
Whichever way you look at it, the Rossoneri simply need to do better when it comes to offloading players like Divock Origi, Ante Rebic, Yacine Adli and anyone else not deemed a big part of the plans.
