When comparing Milan with Atletico Madrid, the debate always ends with the same line: "Atletico is in debt, we are healthy". As if financial health were a sporting merit.

It is not. It's a model choice. A club can be structurally sustainably indebted if revenues grow fast enough to cover debt service. Atletico Madrid has been demonstrating this for years.

Milan's problem is not the debt it has. It's the revenue ceiling it can't break through. Until that changes, accounting virtuousness remains a consolation.