Marco Fassone admits “it’s possible” Milan signed too many players in the summer, and that fourth place will prove “difficult”.
The Rossoneri spent over €200m in the summer transfer window after the takeover by Yonghong Li, but they’ve started the season poorly and are already 11 points off a Champions League place, having played a game more than Roma.
“The concern about the table is clear,” Fassone admitted on Radio Uno.
Marco Fassone admits “it’s possible” Milan signed too many players in the summer, and that fourth place will prove “difficult”.
The Rossoneri spent over €200m in the summer transfer window after the takeover by Yonghong Li, but they’ve started the season poorly and are already 11 points off a Champions League place, having played a game more than Roma.
“The concern about the table is clear,” Fassone admitted on Radio Uno.
“The objective was to get into the top four, we thought 70 points would be enough for the Champions League but the ones at the top are stronger.
“The signings? I’d do them all again, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t make a couple of mistakes. There are some things we wouldn’t do today, but by that I don’t mean the players.
“There are some who are performing lower than their own quality, but it seems impossible that [Leonardo] Bonucci and [Lucas] Biglia won’t return to the levels of the past.
“Did we sign too many players? It’s possible. We did a lot of assessment over the summer, and in the end the answer [sporting director Massimiliano] Mirabelli and [former Coach Vincenzo] Montella gave me was to make a major change with six or seven players to be kept.
“There was an awareness that it would be difficult to create a real team in the first few months, we thought we’d get a lower return in the first part of the season and then rise back up.
“We’ve lost five or six points now that are difficult to recover in terms of fourth place.”
Milan made a change on the bench, appoint Gennaro Gattuso in place of Montella.
Yesterday the new Coach got his first win, beating Bologna, so are the Diavolo out of the woods yet?
“It’s too early to say, we’re expecting a difficult December due to the change of Coach. A change doesn’t produce clear improvements in the short term.
“When you take these kinds of decisions you do not know what will happen. We made this decision because we saw that we behind compared to our project. We hope we were right.
“There is a good feeling between Mirabelli and Gattuso and I am convinced that this relationship will be useful to Milan.
“We hope he [Gattuso] isn’t a gamble, because this wasn’t a bet for us. In the previous weeks we had talked with Mirabelli about it for a long time, he followed him closely in the weeks preceding Montella’s sacking.
“He’s not a novice Coach, nor is he the first player promoted to coach the first team.
“We hope it’s not a gamble and that Rino can succeed in this dream he is experiencing.
“The Coach always shows all his passion, both in euphoria and bitterness. He was very fired-up last night, and there’s a wonderful relationship between him and the team.
“This Milan may lack other things but certainly not girt and determination.
“There were games where we didn’t play well, we can’t hide that, but I don’t think our team is weak, there are strong individuals there.
“Yesterday Milan played at least an hour of excellent football. I think we’re moving in the direction where the team will give its best to also convince the fans.”