GdS: The five questions Milan must answer ahead of 2025-26

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·21 de março de 2025

GdS: The five questions Milan must answer ahead of 2025-26

As we enter the business end of the season. there are a number of crucial questions that the AC Milan ownership and management must answer.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport report, March is around the time when fans look with one eye to the end of the season, with the other on the future and trying to understand what will happen in the summer, in terms of transfers and other changes.

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In these weeks, Milan are already thinking about the sporting director, the coach and soon we will understand more about the fate of some players. The future of the club can almost be distilled down to five issues to resolve.

Sporting director

Giorgio Furlani is in Dubai and will stay there for a few days. Next week he will probably begin meetings with some of the candidates for the role: Fabio Paratici, Igli Tare, Markus Krosche of Eintracht, Thiago Scuro of Monaco.

The choice will come soon but Furlani, who was and remains the key man in the decisions, is in no hurry. He will decide calmly and the Easter period could be important.

There is a month to go: it is a good estimate of when we will be able to know something with more certainty. As of today, Paratici is the favorite, Igli Tare the other name in the front row.

New coach

Will Max Allegri return? It is too early to say, but all the right conditions are there. The Italian would very willingly return to Milan and Milan are aware that Allegri has some of the qualities needed to lift the team.

Allegri and Furlani had a telephone conversation a few days ago but it wasn’t a negotiation or even a concrete dialogue about tomorrow’s Milan. Let’s say that a bridge has been created.

Sergio Conceiçao, this is understood, has very little chance of staying and a lot will depend on the sporting director who is chosen. He, together with Furlani, will make the decision.

Leao’s future

Leao is the star of Milan, the player with the most talent but not the best in terms of performance (for that, it’s a coin toss: heads Christian Pulisic, tails Tijjani Reijnders). Leao has a clause of €175m that will not be paid by any club.

As of today, that clause is well above his market value. Rafa is happy at Milan and is in no hurry to leave, Milan has no particular need to sell him. The accounts in the last two years has closed with a profit and there are many other sellable players.

A hue offer, however, would change the situation and Saudi Arabia is the country from which he could come. As of today, it is easier to see Leao in Arabia rather than at PSG or Liverpool.

Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images

Maignan’s renewal

Maignan and Milan have found a verbal agreement over a renewal worth around €5m net per season, perhaps a little more. A long negotiation, less complicated than others because Maignan is tied to Milan and in recent months has acquired even more centrality.

He is the new captain and one of the guides in the dressing room. Yet, that renewal has never been made official and, game after game, Mike’s performance has dropped: his season is not up to his level and his reputation.

It remains to be seen whether an announcement will arrive between March and the summer or whether that handshake is destined to fall through.

Theo’s fate

Will Theo Hernandez leave? Probably. The last few months have shown that the relationship with Milan is over: the season has been terrible, with problems on and off the pitch.

Theo is no longer the devastating player of the past and on the pitch he has had attitudes that are unacceptable for a champion, such as the cooling break at the end of August, and the red card in the return leg against Feyenoord.

It is better to move on, for all involved. The price, clearly, will be lower than his value because Hernandez’s contract expires in just over a year – June 2026 – and Geoffrey Moncada has spoken clearly: “We cannot afford to lose other players on a free transfer.”