Yea, Pato would probably have been replaced by Tevez
While understanding Ibra's sale, I don't see how Silva's wages would be a big problem? We basically bought a bunch of fodder to replace him who combined are earning the same as what he did
And if we can't even afford to pay top players wages, why do we continue to live in the fantasy that we can remain a top club?
I hate and despise the Thiago sale just like anyone else. One reason I can come up with is that the bid was just to good to refuse + the fact that TS wanted a higher salary (fully understandable, since he's the best defender in the world atm). I think he was on like 4 mil, (just like Mexes

) and wanted 6-7, a new contract was even signed... he makes around 10 in Paris now. The combination of that forced the sale.
Another reason could probably be that they wanted to get rid of Ibra, and that PSG only would buy him if TS was included. This combined with the TS situation (high bid + higher salary demands) made it impossible for them to refuse given our economical situation. But I personally doubt this was the case.
---------
Milan will always be a top club, look at Liverpool, they're still regarded as one. What we're on the pitch, that's another question.
What Milan is doing now is paying for the mistake of keeping old players on big contracts for too long. This along with
(and because of) the fact that Berlusconi, for various reasons, haven't been able to spend money on the club for a long time.
The financial crisis obviously being the biggest reason for that. Berlu being the leader of a country struck by this crisis made it impossible for him to spend money. Imagine if the leader of your country preached about economical responsibility from the citizens, and that the country had to save money by cutting down on investments in the schools, hospitals, roads etc ... while at the same time buying players for his football team (and running big losses) for huge sums. He'd be kicked out of the country in no time.
If Abramovich spends huge sums of cash, no one can tell him not to. He's not being a hypocrite. Berlu and Milan doesn't have that luxury, call it the curse of being owned by a political leader (of a democracy

).
If we put aside the childish football fan side that we ALL share, there are perfectly understandable reasons to why Berlusconi have neglected Milan. One could say that he should have sold the club if he was going to prioritize other things. But it's his club and his terms. Personally, I want Milan to be owned by him, even though I don't like his political views.
Another factor is the FFP, people seem to forget this all the time. I think we're going into this new "financial era" in a good way. A different way as opposed to other big clubs, but in a good way. Teams like Real, Chelsea, City and PSG are stocking up on big stars and quality for a lot of cash NOW, since they know that they will not be able to do that in a couple of years. We on the other hand are creating a sound economy for being able to take advantage of the FFP later on.
You also have to remember that Italian football doesn't have the same conditions other countries like Spain and England has had (taxes on salaries for example!). It's not like Juve, Inter, Roma are acting like the big spenders in Europe. They're in the same situation. The Calciopoli hit hard on Italian football.
------
It feels like people on this forum forget about these reasons every time they go full ****** in the rumour commode. Now I'm not saying that there are no room for criticism, things could have been dealt with in a better way, but I don't think that our situation would have been
much different anyway. We'd probably still be sitting here with great players who would have wanted large pay checks, and we'd be forced to sell them abroad. The FFP is about 10 years late.