AC Milan signed too many players, admits Fassone

Milan, Dec 11: AC Milan's fervent activity in the transfer market ahead of the 2017-18 season may be responsible for destabilising the club in Serie A, says CEO Marco Fassone.

After finishing outside of the European places for a fourth successive campaign last season, the Rossoneri embarked a spending spree to bolster Vincenzo Montella's squad.

Milan spent in excess of €194million as 11 new faces arrived at San Siro, including Leonardo Bonucci, Andre Silva and Hakan Calhanoglu.

It has done little to improve their fortunes, though, with Montella having been sacked as Milan languish in seventh, 16 points behind leaders and city rivals Inter.

And Fassone admits they may have brought in too many players to try and make themselves Scudetto challengers again.

"The signings? I'd do them all again, but that doesn't mean we didn't make a couple of mistakes," he told Radio Uno.

"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 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, and in the end the answer [sporting director Massimiliano] Mirabelli and 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."

Source: OPTA