We've all played it. Well, I have. A lot. So I, like many others, know that spending your way to a title almost never works. But that is precisely what Li Yonghong, whose past business deals/Wikipedia page make for interesting reading, has decided to do. Since taking over the club in March, Milan have spent over €200m on a host of excellent, and not so excellent, new players. And with these new players has come the once-in-a-blue-moon experience of seeing 'Football Manager mode' in real-life football.
Now, whether or not Milan's somewhat secretive new owners can sustain this kind of big spending is another matter (remember Thaksin Shinawatra?). However, we're going to set aside for a minute the questions over the financial stability and just enjoy the blurring of the lines between computer game and reality.
This, of course, is not the first time we have seen this sort of thing; on our very own shores we've witnessed Chelsea and Manchester City go through multi-million-pound makeovers in the last 15 years and no one could argue that they've been unsuccessful.
Chelsea were taken over by Roman Abramovich in June 2003 and subsequently had a net spend of £150m. About average, you say? Not back then; to put that in context, the other 3 teams in the top four - Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool - had a net spend of £36m combined. Chelsea's huge splurge earned them second place, their highest finish since they won the title in 1955, although that wasn't enough to save manager Claudio Ranieri's job. Every cloud. Chelsea then went on to win the league the next two seasons and have been top-four mainstays since, something which they certainly weren't beforehand.
An even more stark ascent came courtesy of Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City. In their first summer window under their new owners, City spent £125m on the likes of Carlos Tevez and Kolo Touré from direct rivals. Again this was a huge outlay compared to other teams around them; the top four of United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs didn't even spend that much combined. City finished 5th that season, but also lost a manager along the way, Mark Hughes got the boot in December, paving the way for Roberto Mancini to win the title 18 months later.
It is clear for all to see that the huge spending at Manchester City and Chelsea has given them success that would certainly not have been possible without the money. However, the high player and manager turnovers at these clubs show that it's perhaps not an entirely sustainable model; Chelsea's insane loan system has seen them lose players like Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne to their closest rivals and City are arguably still striving to sit at Europe's top table, the Champions League still seemingly well out of reach.
So, will it work for Milan? For starters, the composition of the league is very different in Italy; nobody apart from Juventus even gets close to the kind of money that Milan have spent this summer. This should put Milan in a good position, but in a league where tactical stability is key, starting the first few matches of the new season with only four players from the previous campaign might not work in their favour. It's easy to write this article after they've been thrashed 4-1 by Lazio but the display clearly showed that this newly thrown together team has a long way to go, and fast. Leonardo Bonucci is arguably the best defender in the world, but was made to look entirely ordinary at the weekend. Putting him in a back four with Matteo Musacchio, Andrea Conti (unfortunately missing in the defeat against Lazio) and Ricardo Rodriguez and you should have an almost unbeatable defence. On Sunday, they were very beatable.
It's not just enough to spend a lot of money, you have to spend it on the right players; Mateja Kezman and Adrian Mutu were just two failures of the early-Abramovich era. Looking at this Milan squad, you have to question the credentials of Fabio Borini and Nikola Kalinic, both signed on loan with mandatory future fees, to play in a team that wants to challenge for the Serie A title. There is a sense around some of these signings, like with many of the signings made by clubs who have recently come into money, that there was just a desire to buy as many players a possible, regardless of the quality. This kind of transfer policy rarely works out well in the long run.
As far as predictions go, it's hard to imagine Milan finishing outside the top 4 with the strength that they now have, even with stiff competition from Inter, Roma, Napoli and Lazio. However, I think it'll be at least a couple of seasons before they can get within reach of perennial champions Juve.
Now, whether or not Milan's somewhat secretive new owners can sustain this kind of big spending is another matter (remember Thaksin Shinawatra?). However, we're going to set aside for a minute the questions over the financial stability and just enjoy the blurring of the lines between computer game and reality.
This, of course, is not the first time we have seen this sort of thing; on our very own shores we've witnessed Chelsea and Manchester City go through multi-million-pound makeovers in the last 15 years and no one could argue that they've been unsuccessful.
Chelsea were taken over by Roman Abramovich in June 2003 and subsequently had a net spend of £150m. About average, you say? Not back then; to put that in context, the other 3 teams in the top four - Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool - had a net spend of £36m combined. Chelsea's huge splurge earned them second place, their highest finish since they won the title in 1955, although that wasn't enough to save manager Claudio Ranieri's job. Every cloud. Chelsea then went on to win the league the next two seasons and have been top-four mainstays since, something which they certainly weren't beforehand.
An even more stark ascent came courtesy of Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City. In their first summer window under their new owners, City spent £125m on the likes of Carlos Tevez and Kolo Touré from direct rivals. Again this was a huge outlay compared to other teams around them; the top four of United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs didn't even spend that much combined. City finished 5th that season, but also lost a manager along the way, Mark Hughes got the boot in December, paving the way for Roberto Mancini to win the title 18 months later.
It is clear for all to see that the huge spending at Manchester City and Chelsea has given them success that would certainly not have been possible without the money. However, the high player and manager turnovers at these clubs show that it's perhaps not an entirely sustainable model; Chelsea's insane loan system has seen them lose players like Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne to their closest rivals and City are arguably still striving to sit at Europe's top table, the Champions League still seemingly well out of reach.
So, will it work for Milan? For starters, the composition of the league is very different in Italy; nobody apart from Juventus even gets close to the kind of money that Milan have spent this summer. This should put Milan in a good position, but in a league where tactical stability is key, starting the first few matches of the new season with only four players from the previous campaign might not work in their favour. It's easy to write this article after they've been thrashed 4-1 by Lazio but the display clearly showed that this newly thrown together team has a long way to go, and fast. Leonardo Bonucci is arguably the best defender in the world, but was made to look entirely ordinary at the weekend. Putting him in a back four with Matteo Musacchio, Andrea Conti (unfortunately missing in the defeat against Lazio) and Ricardo Rodriguez and you should have an almost unbeatable defence. On Sunday, they were very beatable.
It's not just enough to spend a lot of money, you have to spend it on the right players; Mateja Kezman and Adrian Mutu were just two failures of the early-Abramovich era. Looking at this Milan squad, you have to question the credentials of Fabio Borini and Nikola Kalinic, both signed on loan with mandatory future fees, to play in a team that wants to challenge for the Serie A title. There is a sense around some of these signings, like with many of the signings made by clubs who have recently come into money, that there was just a desire to buy as many players a possible, regardless of the quality. This kind of transfer policy rarely works out well in the long run.
As far as predictions go, it's hard to imagine Milan finishing outside the top 4 with the strength that they now have, even with stiff competition from Inter, Roma, Napoli and Lazio. However, I think it'll be at least a couple of seasons before they can get within reach of perennial champions Juve.
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