AC Milan still has no head coach and no defined leadership structure. June 11th carries real weight: it has now been 18 days since May 25th, when Gerry Cardinale met with several journalists and let it be known that decisions on the manager, sporting director, technical director and CEO would come within 7 to 10 days. Those days came and went, and the wait goes on.
The 2026 World Cup Slows the Market Down
To make things more complicated, the international calendar steps in: the World Cup kicked off on June 11th, and the world’s media attention has now shifted entirely to the tournament. Agents, managers and executives across the globe are busy following their national teams, and transfer negotiations have effectively gone into standby mode. The real risk is that Milan falls even further behind in building the squad, with the bulk of the work squeezed between the end of the World Cup and August, when Serie A is already on the horizon.
Glasner in Pole Position, but Timelines Keep Stretching
Oliver Glasner is closing in on the AC Milan bench and remains the preferred choice over Ralf Rangnick. The club’s apparent intention is to bring both men to Milan, with the Austrian as head coach and the German in a technical leadership role. An international pairing for a Milan that is increasingly looking abroad in shaping its sporting project.
The key unknown, however, remains Gerry Cardinale, who does not seem to feel a particular sense of urgency in wrapping things up. Whatever the reasoning behind it, this stance has real side effects: players still at the club have no clarity on their futures, agents have no stable counterparts to negotiate with, and the calendar waits for no one.
The Foreign Manager Question
There is also a non-trivial technical point to consider: bringing in a foreign manager means giving him the time needed to adapt to Serie A — its rhythms, its tactical nuances, its physical demands. Add to that a squad in constant flux, with arrivals and departures likely dragging on until the final days of the transfer window, and the picture becomes genuinely challenging. Milan’s recent track record with foreign coaches is not particularly encouraging, and choosing to go down that road again demands at least a swift and precise plan.
The Hope: That the Right Choices Make Up for Lost Time
It is understandable that a section of the fanbase would rather wait for the right decisions than the quick ones. But in football, time is as valuable a resource as money. Heading into matchday one with an incomplete squad, a freshly appointed manager and an open transfer window is never the ideal foundation for building something solid. The hope is that, once the announcements are made, Milan moves quickly and decisively on every front.
