Serie A insight 

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This weekend sees the return of domestic football across Europe’s top five leagues and in Italy fans of Serie A will be in store for a fantastic battle among two of the top-flight’s biggest clubs. On Saturday evening Juventus make the trip to the San Siro to face an AC Milan side that will be desperate to put a dent in their ambitions of challenging for this season’s league title. And, to little surprise, the “Old Lady” of the league will be keen on doing the exact same thing to their historic rivals in front of their own fans. 

Milan have won three of their last four home games, which should offer some confidence going into the game. However, the “Rossoneri” do seem to struggle when they’re tasked with getting the better of Juventus. Over the course of the last 10 years, Milan have only beaten their black and white rivals on three occasions at the San Siro. And with just five victories from their first 11 league games of the season, Paulo Fonseca’s side will be hoping to put inconsistency behind them to start climbing the league table. In stark contrast, Juventus remain unbeaten in Serie A this season and sit just two points off top spot. But no less than five teams sit above Thiago Motta’s side in the rankings, which underlines how much work still needs to be done before they can confidently say they’ve got a handle on this season’s title race. 

Italy’s big spenders go head to head 

Indeed, while Motta may be happy with the prospect of top spot in Serie A being within grasp, the wider context of Juventus’ spending in the transfer window does suggest that the club should already be sitting top of the Italian top-flight, with some distance between them and the rest of the league. Over the course of the last five seasons no Italian side has spent more in terms of net spend (transfer expenditure minus transfer income) in the transfer window, with Juventus boasting a balance of €231 million spent on new signings. Interestingly enough, the club in second place are none other than Saturday’s opponents, with Milan’s own tally standing at €219m. While Juventus’ expenditures on transfer fees far exceed their Milan rivals (€687.5m to €387m), their income from player sales is also far higher than their Italian counterparts (€456m to €167.8m), which more or less balances things out. However, what this means is that Saturday’s showdown will be between the first and third most expensively assembled teams in Italy. And, curiously, both of them are still struggling to reach the top four of the Serie A after 12 matchdays. 

The graphic above showcases the “cost per point won” in Serie A this season, highlighting how much each club has spent in transfer fees to build their squads relative to their points tally in the league so far. Juventus leads the chart, with an average cost of €24m per point, followed by Milan at €19m and Roma at €16m. The gap between Juventus and other clubs is particularly significant, reflecting their high transfer expenditure relative to their points total. Despite their hefty spending, this cost-per-point metric underlines the club’s inefficiency in the transfer market in recent years, as Juventus have needed more financial outlay to achieve the same or fewer points compared to their rivals. Milan, the second-most expensive, fares slightly better but still trails behind in terms of cost-effectiveness. Clubs like Napoli (€15m) and Inter (€13m) appear more efficient, achieving competitive results with comparatively lower expenditure. And that’s before we even consider the lower half of the table, which features Monza (€11m), Atalanta (€9m), Bologna, Parma, and Torino (all €8m), highlighting clubs that are achieving more cost-effective results.

Depending on Saturday’s result, Milan or Juventus fans may be relatively content with where their club sits on the league table at this point in the season. And when we consider that both clubs opted for new head coaches in the summer, there’s certainly a degree of patience that will be needed to allow both Fonseca and Motta to enact their plans for their respective clubs. But there will be a huge amount of pressure at both clubs to quickly climb the league table and make their intentions for this season’s league title clear. Juventus and Milan have spent more money than just about any club in Italy over the last five years and that should bring with it success on the pitch and silverware.