I play a lot of fantasy football (NFL). Running my fake franchise in a variety of different modes gives me insight into how to run a soccer team.

When you’re managing a league beyond season-long, such as a dynasty or a contract league, you need to line up your contracts and your players peak windows so you create a window of success for your team.

If I have a team of rookies, that team is not going to be challenging for a title right away. If my team is full of top-performers in their thirties, that team won’t be continuing to press for a title.

Certain players offer guarantees, and others offer upside. Unfortunately, AC Milan doesn’t understand how to manage these two and how to dance to the beat.

Let’s look at the changes this window starting with the sales:

In exchange for the loss of last season’s 8th place squad, they have paid 36m for Jashari, 23m for Ricci, 20m for De Winter, 17m for Esupinan, 10m for Athekame, brought in Modric on a free transfer.

What is the window for this team? It’s year zero again, because it is every 1.5 years at AC Milan since 2007. The last time Milan had a serious window to advance, they lost in the CL semi-final, and then proceeded to fire Maldini and dismantle the squad for the crime of saying the owners should spend.

This is the unspoken part of supporting the club, which this blog has alluded to, but will be explicit now: Cardinale has no intention of fielding a title winning team. Winning is AN option, not the option. And it’s an option that Furlani and Cardinale place below the financial scudetto.

This brings me back to the window to win, it doesn’t exist. The issue is Cardinale bought a club with a rich history of winning, which he was unaware of in the first place. Oh, shocking they’ve won CL 7 times, I was unaware of that when I bought the team. I guess we can turn them into Italian Rennes, make a profit, cut through the bureaucracy and build a stadium and then sell the club for 1.5x what I paid. In the interim, we will not invest, we will divest. Profits will be privatized, deficits will be socialized.

So when IS the winning window? What’s the strategy here? Modric on a 1+1 implies the window is now. So then why are all the good players being sold? Why are the players being considered all prospects at best? Is the goal not to maximize the window you have a ballon d’or winner?

The goal is what it has always been, to make money for a predatory investment group.

It’s harder and harder to have faith in them after watching them step on rake after rake. Here’s to hoping.