Adriano Galliani maintains Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were sold for their wages. “It would’ve been impossible to sustain the costs.”
Adriano Galliani maintains Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were sold for their wages. “It would’ve been impossible to sustain the costs.”
The Milan Vice-President had revealed on Monday that Ibra was no longer speaking to him, as the Swede had wanted to remain at San Siro rather than join PSG.
“We must explain why we sold Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva,” Galliani told French newspaper L’Equipe.
“Milan took the decision, amid total agreement between the club and management staff, to balance the books.
“This saw us forced to give up on some very big salaries. It would’ve been impossible to sustain the costs of the wage bill without cutting those contracts that had become too damaging for us.
“From then on, we made the painful decision to sell the two or three players with the highest wages. It was a decision by the club that I shared.
“We reduced losses significantly, going from €80m last season to a maximum of €5m for this financial year.
“Last year our wage bill was €150m, this year it is around €100m. These are figures I am revealing for the first time.
“Balancing the books means we will not have to make any more sacrifices next summer, where we will not be selling our top players.
“The wage bill has dropped by around 40 per cent, meaning we are now a healthy club. If Milan could’ve continued paying €12m to Ibra and €6m to Thiago Silva, then we wouldn’t have sold them.
“Without these cuts, we would never have fitted within the parameters of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.”
Galliani also mentioned Leonardo, who went from Milan player to talent scout, director and Coach before running PSG.
“I am certainly not Leonardo’s Mum. I care for him like nobody else who has been at Milan. With us he had a unique journey, as nobody has followed his path of being player, director and Coach.”