Milan confirm 230 million euros spent in transfer splurge

MILAN - 1 September 2017 – AC Milan have confirmed that they splurged over 230 million euros ($273.29 million) in the transfer window which closed on Thursday in their bid to re-establish themselves as a major force in European football.

The club's chief executive Marco Fassone added that the club's wage bill would be between 110 million and 120 million euros for the financial year.

Former Italy prime minister Silvio Berlusconi sold the club to a Chinese-led consortium in a 740 million-euro deal in April.

After a series of mediocre mid-table finishes, the new owners are now hoping to rebuild the seven-times European champions and turn them into one of the continent's top teams.

"It's been a very important transfer window which has gone beyond all our expectations, if we are being honest," Fassone said in a club interview broadcast on social media.

"Things changed as we went along. Initially, the idea was to spend less, but we have spent over 230 million euros which is a lot of money. We will put it all on this all onto this year's balance sheet, we want to be clear about that."

Fassone said the club had "limited" the commission paid to agents to a total of around 12 million euros. He said that sales of players meant the club was within its budget.

"We have respected our budget, in fact we have done better than that and we have tried to be transparent and open about all the numbers...so I'm very satisfied with how we have dealt with this," he added.

Signings have included Portuguese striker Andre Silva, Turkish midfielder and free-kick specialist Hakan Calhanoglu, Swiss leftback Ricardo Rodriguez, Argentine midfielder Lucas Biglia, Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci and Croatia forward Nikola Kalinic.