When Silvio Berlusconi took over Milan in 1986 the media tycoon had a vision for the fallen giants. He wanted Milan at the zenith of World football. With his faithful servant Adriano Galliani and extremely talented Ariedo Braida Milan set about achieving a room full of trophies under the tenure. The secret to success? Silvio’s personal wealth. He bankrolled transfers even setting records for the world’s highest transfer fee at times. Incame future legends such Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rjikaard, Andriy Shevchenko, Alessandro Nesta, Pippo Inzaghi and Manuel Rui Costa.
However once Silvio Berlusconi’s term ended and he couldn’t compete with the Oil money of PSG and Manchester City, the flow of cash into Milan’s coffers stopped. Milan were forced into making free transfers and signing players on frugal transfer fees. Things reached a peak where Milan were continuously out of Europe and the Curva Sud were forced into raising its now famous banner “Insert Coin and save Milan”. It all came to an end when the Chinese under mysterious owner Yonghong Li took over from Berlusconi and spend 250 Million Euros bringing in 11 players that seem to have signaled an end to the downfall but the fall was even steep. Choosing to trust a rookie director of sport and CEO the Chinese’ money was not well spent and Milan once again failed to reach Champions League.
With Chinese defaulting on their payments, it was now the turn of Elliot to come into the market and show their intentions. They chose to trust an old ally of Milan in Leonardo and an experienced hand. Elliot too took the path forged by Berlusconi and spend close to 200 Million Euros bringing in Higuain, Piatek, Paqueta, Caldara and Laxalt. But even that was not enough to save Milan as Milan missed out on Champions League Qualification.
The turn of the year 2019 had seen the arrival of a controversial figure of Ivan Gazidis. Gazidis, CEO at Arsenal from 2010 to 2019 had quite suffered the wrath of Arsenal fans of his departure. Given Milan’s financial condition (540 Million losses in the last 6 years) Gazidis was hired to revive the economics of the clubs with balance to sporting affairs.
In the last 3 transfers windows Milan’s net spend has not crossed 20 Million. However the lack of spending has not affected their sporting performances with Milan sitting 1st with a 1 point lead over Inter and 7 point gap over Juventus. So how has the recruitment policy changed over the years? What aspects has changed the policy? Let us take a look at the different factors and positive changes.
FFP
This isn’t a positive or a negative change but more of a change that is not within the hands of the management. UEFA brought in the Financial Fair Play to regulate the spending of clubs. As per the rules, the clubs are only allowed to spend a fraction of the money they earn in revenue as transfer fees.
The FFP has gained a lot of criticism for its impartiality and its loophole but clubs are still bound to its laws hence exploitation of its loopholes. Milan with poor finances since a long time is in the red when it comes to FFP balance and therefore needs to be careful with spending to avoid attracting unnecessary penalties such as ban from European Competitions.
This has forced Milan to change their transfer policy to invest heavily in scouting and youth policies to adhere to the Financial Fair play rules.
TACTICAL IDENTIKIT AND VISION
Once the period of glory under Ancelotti had reached its end and Ancelotti left Milan to try his luck elsewhere, Milan struggled to stamp a tactical identity on their own team and then we saw Milan play a dour and unproductive style of football quite contrasting to their famous teams of the past.
With Pioli it all changed as he brought a clear plan to the management on how he wants to play his style of football. Intense pressing, high line quick counters and roaming no. 10. This gave the scouting department a clear vision and plan. Milan focused more on signing players that fit the system rather than individual brilliance like the Saelemaekers signing from Belgium. Saelemaekers individually does not scale much towards talented individuals but he fits the system and brings output when playing in the XI.
MODERN APPROACH TO SCOUTING
With the smaller teams unable to compete with the financial muscle power of the big clubs it was up to the smaller clubs to find a way around spending large amounts of money to bring in players relatively unknown with good scouting prowess and extensive knowledge. A good example would be of Leicester trying to replace Esteban Cambiasso after he left the club in 2015 and Leicester needed a DM but did not have a huge budget to fill the role. Leicester used their analytics team and got in a relatively unknown N’Golo kante for 9M from SM Caen. 1 PL title later, Leicester sold Kante for 32M making a 25M profit on the player.
Milan after the fiasco of Berlusconi and the Chinese could not afford to invest huge due to FFP. In came a relatively unknown Moncada who worked under Luis Campos at Monaco and was the scout who scouted future star Kylian Mbappe from AS Bondy.
With a data driven approach overseen by the expert eyes of Massra and the club legend Paolo Maldini, Milan unlike other clubs in Italy (maybe Atalanta) started making signings that saw players who were unknown or not fanciful join the club but make huge impact. Kjaer and Saelemaekers can be singled out regarding this aspect as they both cost a combined 10M but has been prime to Milan’s tactics. This season the arrival of Hauge gave further credence to Milan’s wonderful scouting team
WHAT MILAN SEEK IN THEIR PLAYERS
Milan and their sporting managers came to the realization of how Milan are out of the times in terms of play. Milan were still relying on individual brilliance and luck rather than building a system and buying players to fit the system.
Modern footballers with so much investment into sports medicine and injury prevention methods are extremely fit and fast. You could see how Liverpool power their way through opposition defence with Salah, mane and Firmino or how Bayern do not allow opposition to relax with the ball by constantly pressing them.
With Pioli aspiring to play a version of Bayern’s pressing game, Maldini and Co. knew that Milan needed players who were quick and had the miles in their legs. Out went Suso, Ricardo Rodriguez, Piatek, Biglia, Musacchio and in came Saelemaekers, Theo, Ibra and Kjaer with Rebic or Leao occupying the flank. This change ensured Milan press their opponents forcing them into an error like how Rebic pressed the Benevento player and forced him into clattering into Rebic for a penalty. Or how Theo sprang a very quick counter-attack through Sassuolo’s flank with Sassuolo defenders not able to match the sheer pace of Theo and theo finally squaring it for Saelemaekers. A prototype for the style of Milan has been formed and targets of Milan whether Kabak, Simakan, Kone, Thuram or Haaland, they all must be congruent to Pioli’s style of play rather than be individually brilliant
CONCLUSIONS
Upgrading Milan’s technical side as well as cultural aspect from big money spenders to a money-ball style of recruitment took a lot of lean years in the trophy cabinet. Ultimately the overhaul is complete, Milan are top of the table and players are slowly being attracted to the project without being offered over the top wages. Finally it may be time for Milan to reach the heights it did albeit with a different approach
The Milan Blog 