The reason for AC Milan’s quiet January transfer window has been revealed and it does not make happy reading for the accountants.
 

Calciomercato.com’s Daniele Longo writes that the Rossoneri’s financial records from 2015 to 2017 show a loss of €250M; a colossal amount compared to Uefa’s ruling that the permitted limit should be no more that €30M.
 

European football’s governing body is still not convinced about last year’s Chinese takeover of the club and for this reason, it maintains a watching brief on events in Via Aldo Rossi.
 

Milan bosses approached FIFA in early January trying to negotiate a voluntary agreement in regards to Financial Fair-Play; this proposal however, was rejected and in the meantime, the club’s refinancing agreement with Highbridge, has also collapsed due to the uncertainty surrounding last year’s takeover.
 

The Rossoneri have now picked Bank of America Merrill Lynch to find lenders interested in refinancing the club and debt at its holding held by the US hedge fund Elliott. Milan need to make a €180M repayment to Elliott by October, and this has all had a major impact on last month’s transfer window.
 

On one side there was the intention of not upsetting the balance of the team that has been created by new boss Gennaro Gattuso, but on the other, there was the desire to off-load players to collect some much needed revenue. 
 

For example, Portuguese frontman Andre Silva was top of the list of departures, but CEO Marco Fassone, aware that the player is locked into his current deal, intends go back and review the situation in the summer.
 

One major plus for Milan however, is the fact that both Gianluigi Donnarumma and Suso have remained at the club. With high-profile names like this still in the squad, the Rossoneri remains attractive to potential investors.