Deep in the bowels of the San Siro on Sunday night after AC Milan had seen victory in the Derby della Madonnina slip through their fingers in the third minute of injury time, Sergio Conceicao was asked why his team couldn’t perform with the same energy as it had for the previous 90 minutes.

The nature of the man posing the question was almost as significant as the question itself.

In over four decades of covering the Rossoneri, Carlo Pellegatti has never kept his allegiances a secret. The veteran broadcaster wears his Milanismo firmly on his sleeve, and his questions often reflect it.

“Because we can’t, Carlo,” came Conceicao reply. “We don’t have the players for it.”

It was as telling an answer as any the former Porto manager had delivered since replacing his compatriot Paulo Fonseca in charge of the Rossoneri just over a month ago.

On Sunday night Milan were without the injured Emerson Royal and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, but their only other absentee was Alessandro Florenzi, who hasn’t played a single minute of football this season because of an ACL injury he suffered in the summer.

Clearly, Conceicao was not complaining about an injury crisis, but putting the club’s recruitment firmly under the spotlight. Milan fans who questioned RedBird’s lack of ambition earlier this season, must have felt vindicated.

Since the American investment firm took over from Elliott Management in the weeks following the last Scudetto win in 2022, the Rossoneri hadn’t broken the €30m (£25m) barrier on signings. Samuel Chukwueze has been the club’s most expensive signing at €20m plus a further €8m in add-ons.

RedBird can rightly point out that their thrift approach to spending has allowed Milan to balance the books. The club posted marginal profits in the last two years, with 2023 being the first time the club had been in the black for 17 years.

But the problem with that approach is that it becomes difficult to justify when it doesn’t deliver results. The focus on making the club self-sustainable is admirable, but at what cost?

Around €48.5m, if Milan’s January transfer window is anything to go by, making them the second-biggest spenders in Serie A this month after Como.

Having signed Kyle Walker on loan from Manchester City last week, Milan welcomed Feyenoord striker Santiago Gimenez over the weekend for a €30m fee plus bonuses.

Remarkably, that is twice the amount Milan had spent on strikers over the past five years, with 11 different forwards costing a mere €16m. The bulk of that – €14m – went on triggering Alvaro Morata’s release clause in the summer.

Five goals in 18 appearances later, Spain’s captain was shipped out to Galatasaray on loan this month and he could have been joined by fellow summer signing Emerson Royal, had the Brazilian not been injured. Instead it was another of the Rossoneri‘s right-backs, Davide Calabria, to leave the club last week.

A product of Milan’s academy, the Italian had been with the club for 18 years and cried as he left the training ground for the final time before joining Bologna on loan less than a week after a bust-up with Conceicao following the win against Parma.

Milan’s CEO Giorgio Furlani wasn’t done either. In came Fiorentina winger Riccardo Sottil – who signed 90 seconds before transfer window shut – and Joao Felix from Chelsea, while midfielder Warren Bondo joined from Monza for €10m as a replacement for Marseille-bound Ismael Bennacer, who was withdrawn at half-time against Inter on Sunday night.

The Algerian international was joined in the departure lounge at one of Milan’s two busy airports by Noah Okafor, who signed for Napoli on loan until the end of the season.

The Partenopei had looked to sign one of Alejandro Garnacho, Karim Adeyemi or Allan Saint-Maximin as a replacement for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who swapped Naples for Paris earlier this month. In the end, they had to look elsewhere.

If Okafor felt like plan D for Napoli – and one can only imagine what Antonio Conte will make of his club’s failure to land a star name to replace the Georgian this month – then January was an admission that Milan’s plan A did not work as intended this summer.

Bar Youssouf Fofana, the Rossoneri’s summer arrivals have all failed to impress. Emerson Royal has looked all over the place defensively and Strahinja Pavlović has hardly done much better, while Tammy Abraham’s return of two goals in 18 Serie A appearances speaks for itself.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, RedBird’s chief football advisor, admitted a correction was necessary.

“You can see that we’re not satisfied, so we’ve tried to bring in some new players,” he said. “We’ve strengthened the squad, and we’ll see if that has closed the gap to the top teams. Personally, I think the team has improved.”

Time will tell, but Conceicao will certainly be hoping so. Sunday’s draw against Inter left Milan in eighth place, seven points adrift from the last Champions League spot. Qualifying for European football’s premier competition is of paramount importance for Il Diavolo, particularly from a financial standpoint. Moneyball can only take a club so far.