Last summer the red stripes on AC Milan's famous shirts no longer concealed the bleeding. In the five years since winning their 18th Serie A title in 2011, they have burned through six managers.When they won their seventh European Cup in 2007, Milan were five ahead of Barcelona and only two behind Real Madrid, but in the past nine years Real have extended their lead by two more, Barca have closed to within two of Europe's second-most successful club, and in 2010 San Siro co-tenants Internazionale won their first for 45 years.Inter, whose 18th title was also their last,were bottom of their Europa League group before hosting Southampton last night.They, too, have toiled five years without a trophy and are now on their eighth fulltime or interim manager since 2010.It is not difficult to identify what has gone wrong. Both clubs relied on Italy's genius for prolonging veteran players' careers: Inter's had a squad of thirty-somethings when they won the Champions League in 2010.In Milan's title-winning squad a year later, Andrea Pirlo was 32, Christian Abbiati and Gennaro Gattuso 33, Massimo Ambrosini and Mark van Bommel 34, Alessandro Nesta and Clarence Seedorf 35, and Inzaghi 37.By the end of 2009, Massimo Moratti had funded a transfer trading deficit over the 14 years of his Inter ownership to the tune of à356-million (about R5.4-billion). But in 2011, Financial Fair Play began to bite and Inter faced sanctions from Uefa if they continued to live beyond their means.As tenants of San Siro, Inter's match-day proceeds were a quarter of Manchester United's.From Mario Balotelli's move to Manchester City onwards Inter became a selling club.In June, Suning Holding Group bought out Erick Thohir and Moratti. For the first time in seven years, Inter paid out more than they recouped.It is a similar story at Milan. The club is hamstrung by renting the same ground from the municipal council. When Silvio Berlusconi joined Moratti in supporting Financial Fair Play, it seems they had not foreseen that the inflation in television and matchday income generated by English and Spanish teams that would enable them to invest more without incurring penalties, nor that Juventus' decision to stop being tenants and build their own ground would rocket them out of the Milan clubs' financial league.Now both Milan clubs are owned by Chinese investors.In the past decade, heritage businesses have gone to the wall when ambition has outstripped resources and an institution attempts to sustain itself by devouring its own human assets.Until both Milan clubs are prudent enough to finance their own grounds, their only hope is to ditch their imperious thinking. - ©The Daily Telegraph..