Can things turn around? Yes, I think they can. Another big difference between Italian and other European clubs is that most Italian clubs do not own the stadiums they play in, which is another way cash flow gets limited. Juventus and Torino share the Stadio Olimpico in Turin, which Turin owns. The San Siro is owned by Milan. Roma and Lazio share the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, which is owned by the Italian Olympic committee. Furthermore, no Italian Serie A club plays in a stadium built after 1990. There’s some revenue there that the clubs aren’t tapping in to.

But the good news for some clubs is that this is changing. Juventus has a new stadium coming this summer. Roma has eyes on a 55,000 seat stadium. Inter wants to leave the San Siro and build its own stadium which would free AC Milan to buy the San Siro. I think these clubs building their own stadiums can do nothing but help, personally.

But I’d say that right now might be the nadir of Serie A’s downtime — they gotta get the next generation of Italians geared up and just buying some of the big talents from South America isn’t cutting it. They need to focus on their infrastructure, their youth set-up, everything.