AC Milan dismissed head coach Massimiliano Allegri and sporting director Giorgio Furlani on Monday after the club failed to qualify for the next Champions League by a single point.
The decision followed a final-day collapse: Milan lost 2-1 at home to Cagliari after leading 1-0 and finished fifth in Serie A. The club won only two of its last eight matches, and Allegri — who returned to the job last year to restore Milan to Europe’s top competition — leaves after managing 42 matches this season.
RedBird, the club’s owners, described the season as "un fracaso inequívoco," saying the closing stretch was inconsistent with earlier performances and that the last-night defeat turned the campaign into a clear failure. The statement signaled an immediate, wide-ranging reset of football operations, with RedBird keeping Zlatan Ibrahimovic on as a special adviser while promising a comprehensive reorganization.
That reorganization is already extending to the club’s most senior appointments. Milan said it will work with owner Gerry Cardinale and Ibrahimovic to select a new coach, a chief executive and a sporting director. The shortlist being evaluated includes Andoni Iraola, Matthias Jaissle and Mauricio Pochettino.
Iraola arrives on Milan’s radar after a successful three-year spell at Bournemouth that culminated in the club’s first-ever qualification for the Europa League. Spanish reports say he is weighing options that include Milan, Crystal Palace and Bayer Leverkusen; his name appeals as a coach with recent league success and European qualification experience.
Jaissle is also under consideration; he moved to Al Ahli in 2023 but remains a recognized young coach on the European market. Milan’s interest in Pochettino is more complicated. Pochettino acknowledged his agents may have met with the club and confirmed that discussions are part of normal representation work, but he stressed a concrete constraint: his contract with the United States national team runs until July, after the World Cup.
Pochettino said that while he and his representatives receive proposals and hold meetings, any offer that required an immediate start would collide with his national-team commitment. In short, Milan can pursue a high-profile coach who is not available to begin until after the World Cup, or it can appoint someone ready to take charge straightaway.
The friction matters because Milan’s collapse was sudden and the owners have framed the response as urgent. RedBird’s pledge of a full overhaul and the retention of Ibrahimovic as an advisor point to a hands-on, expedited search; but Pochettino’s availability creates a practical ceiling on how fast a marquee appointment could be implemented.
RedBird said further appointments will be announced later, and Milan’s immediate task is to resolve the availability gap between candidates. The single decisive question now is whether the club will choose a coach who can start at once and stabilize the operation this summer, or wait for an in-demand name who is contractually tied to international duties until after July and the World Cup.
