Milan's Wage Bill and the rest of Serie A

Milan have cut their yearly wage bill by €60m, but they are still the biggest payers in the Italian top flight.

The Gazzetta dello Sport have published their annual review of Serie A salaries and it shows that many clubs have taken action in view of the Financial Fair Play rules.

After a summer of waving goodbye to a host of veteran players, as well as Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Diavolo now pay out €120m a season.

City rivals Inter have also been busy cutting costs and they have saved €40m after sacrificing big earners such as Julio Cesar, Lucio, Douglas Maicon and Diego Forlan.

Juventus’ costs have actually increased slightly, while Roma’s attempts to improve their books were affected by the new contract of Daniele De Rossi who is on €6m a campaign.

Genoa have saved €7m, Siena €4m and Palermo €2.6m.

Club wage bill and highest earner: Milan €120m (Pato €4m), Juventus €115m (Buffon €6m), Inter €100m (Sneijder €6m), Roma €95m (De Rossi €6m), Lazio €66.2m (Klose €2.1m), Napoli €53.2m (Cavani €4.5m), Fiorentina €38.8m (Jovetic €2.5m), Sampdoria €29.8m (Palombo €1.5m), Genoa €28.9m (Borriello €1.4m), Bologna €28.4m (Gilardino €1.2m), Atalanta €23.7m (Denis €1m), Palermo €23.4m (Miccoli €1.2m), Torino €22m (Bianchi €1.3m), Udinese €21.2m (Di Natale €1.3m), Parma €21.2m (Amauri €1m), Siena €18.9m (D’Agostino €0.8m), Catania €18m (Andujar €0.6m), Cagliari €15.9m (Conti €0.75m), Chievo €15.9m (Pellissier €0.8m), Pescara €10.8m (Celik €0.4m).

Meanwhile, the top 10 earners in Serie A are: Buffon (Juventus), De Rossi (Roma) and Sneijder (Inter) €6m, Totti (Roma) €5m, Cavani (Napoli) and Milito (Inter) €4.5m, Cambiasso (Inter), Mexes (Milan), Pato (Milan) and Robinho (Milan) €4m.

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The numbers below are after tax and information was not available for the contracts of youngsters such as De Sciglio and Niang. Whilst we shall ideally look to trim the squad of further deadwood to reduce these figures, the current wage structure is well balanced across the squad, though I imagine that Nocerino may negotiate a better contract at some point. Unsurprisingly, free transfers such as Mexes and Montolivo are amongst the highest earners in the squad given the wage competition that surrounds quickly settling a Bosman deal.

De Jong does not deserve all that....Pato should earn less too because of his injuries

Bonera 3 million?

I can live with this wage bill. Last years was ridiculous compared to this ones.

Bonera, Mexes Pato never playing

Borriello earning more than Di Natale even though younger

Galliani refuted these claims he said milan are at a 100 not 120 when it comes to the wages.

Pretty lol worthy considering we aren't even Scudetto contenders yet we have the Most valuable team in Serie A

get rid of mexes. now.

I really am disappointed with all the Mexes hate as for most of his games for us last year he was solid as a rock as I'm sure most fans are remembering his few mistakes near the end of the season where he was beaten for pace. This is attributed to Allegri playing the occasional high line where its clear Mexes thrives in a deep line.

Fact is 4 Mil isn't a stretch for someone who is our best CB along with how he was given to us by a Bosman.

People also don't seem to realize lowering Robinho and Pato's wage will result in a severe loss of morale to the players who already are low on confidence.

De Jong's wages are justified as he is after all one of the top DMs in the world.

What I don't agree with at all is Danielle FREAKING BONERA being paid 3 million considering he is the worst CB in Europe.

Mexes was appalling at Euro too. We can buy better options for 1 years worth of his wages. Yanga-Mbiwa, who has now rightfully taken Mexes' place as a starter in the French NT, would've cost only 4.75mil in transfer fees (if Nicollin had let it happen). We will get him eventually, but I'm just trying to demonstrate how ridiculous 4 mil is for the annual wages of a mediocre player.

I have no issue with the wages of Pato, Robinho or De Jong.

Bonera's wages are sheer stupidity.

The silent problem is that we are paying slightly too much in wages for many squad players just because we are Milan, that is really why we still have the highest wage bill. These guys are all raking in more than they deserve...

Milan players compared to Toto Di Natale
4.0 Mexes
2.0 Bonera
1.5 Flamini
1.5 Muntari
1.2 Traore
1.2 Di Natale
1.0 Amelia (I highly doubt Castellazi and Storari get paid 1 mil for bench-warming)

Ambrosini only escapes this list because he is Captain and a long-term servant of the club.
Abate will fall into the over-paid category if he does not regain his form soon.

Mexes was a free transfer and despite a few performances, he's still a solid central defender, particularly for the league, even if he's unsuited to the highest level of European competition. I personally want to see him earning less, however we should differentiate between not being worth a certain value and not being anywhere near it.

Whilst we do pay higher wages based simply upon the fact that we're Milan, without taking into account potential bonuses, the size of the squad is simply too large. Having undertaken the pledge to reduce the squad size to 25, including three goalkeepers, poor management, injuries and panic buys saw this figure once more inflate. The key issue here is the progress made with our wages and the need for further improvement. It must be done but unfortunately it will have to be done gradually. Where we go from here, managing potentially rising wages of other squad members with the release of others is vitally important to ensuring that we never again accumulate such a ridiculous wage bill as we had for the past few years.

I read carefully the yearly wages of Milan's players and I am disappointed by some of them.

Personally, i think that players like Mexes, Pato, Robinho and Bonera are overestimated when it comes about wages.

Pato is still a player with high potential that fits perfectly in Serie A.He is proven, but also he had many problems with injuries.He is a bit fragile and that's a detrimential aspect for such a team like AC Milan.Of course he is talented and has great tehnical abilities, which is very good for a striker like him.

But we are talking about Serie A, maybe the best league in the world.There, the bosses know how to pay their players, they know how to invest with brain and not spend too much money on not proven players, or at least not like other leagues like English Premier League or Spanish La Liga.

Robinho is overrated in my opinion.Like Pato, he is well naturally gifted with many tehnical abilities and great dribbling skills, but he is very uninspired in important moments and he can't be decisive in most of the games, especially when Milan needs a man to save the game.

AC Milan won Serie A in 2011 and that happened because they were the best as a team, their game wasn't based on individualities, even if they had Ibrahimovic (one of the greatest players taken individually) they had to work hard as a team to win a great achievement like Serie A.

If those players are good enough to play for AC Milan, one of the biggest clubs in football history, they must know what's good and what's bad for the team they are playing for.If Milan's staff know how to talk and negociate with the players, I am almost sure that their confidence won't drop even if their wages will be decreased (if they understand that this happens for the good of the club).

AC Milan's staff must balance the wage bill if they want to make another step in bringing the club in a good financial situation.

Serie A is characterized by words like: balance, professionalism and charisma.

Remember Lippi

we have made decent reduction, and also that since there are lot of fringe players and squad upto 30 players 100 million salary is not bad.

mexes situation was that back then we didnt implement cost cutting majors. we possibly negotiated with his agent demands so hence 4 million. if we were to negotiate with him now he would have earnt 3 million at most.

anyway getting rid of mexes atm is terrible idea. we have no one decent in the CB than him. that montepellier CB is rated good by people but there is no guarantee how well he performs if he ever were to join us.

personally , i wished milan had small number of 23 great players, plus youth players, than 30 players in which half of them are s...t.

Mexes is one of my favourite 'Center Backs' in the world.He is tall, strong, his self confidence is at a high level, hence he is a real fighter.His style is based on physical attributes more than intellectual ones.Even if he had some bad games, he also had good days and he was outstanding.

AC Milan don't need to get rid of him, they just need to inform him well about the club's actual situation and the changes needed for keeping the club's situation 'healthy'.All the players must understand what's happening with the club and in my opinion, the team is in a partial reconstruction.Some players arrived at the club this summer, other players departed.At the moment, the wages are too high, but if AC Milan's situation will be well managed I am sure that the team will find itself on the right path to success.

Anyway, AC Milan remains AC Milan and i am confident that Rossoneri will stay alive and fight for Serie A almost every year.

Mexes is not a great player he could be if he had a brain in that big head of his as all he possesses is his physicality.