AC Milan are operating without a head coach, sporting director, technical director, or CEO — and they're about to find out whether their top targets are even available. Two meetings in two days will go a long way toward answering that question.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Ralf Rangnick sits down with the Austrian FA on Monday to discuss his future. A day later, Oliver Glasner meets with Milan's remaining representatives on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the picture should be considerably clearer.
The Rangnick question
Rangnick is the priority for the sporting director role, not the bench — and the Austrian FA aren't making this easy. They want him on a new contract. He knows Milan are circling. That Monday meeting isn't a formality; it's a negotiation with real stakes on both sides.
His reputation was built reshaping clubs that had no right to compete — back-to-back promotions at Hoffenheim, then years at Red Bull overseeing a football philosophy that produced Klopp, Tuchel, Nagelsmann, and yes, Glasner himself. If Rangnick does arrive at Milan, Glasner as head coach isn't a random hire. It's a known partnership.
Glasner arrives with fresh momentum
Crystal Palace just won the 2025-26 UEFA Conference League, beating Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig. That's Glasner's third trophy with the club. He doesn't walk into Tuesday's meeting as a speculative candidate — he walks in as someone who just delivered European silverware.
Milan's collapse at the end of this season — Allegri, Tare, Moncada, and Furlani all gone the day after the Serie A season finished — left RedBird holding an empty building. Whoever they install needs to rebuild trust, structure, and a clear footballing identity from the ground up.
That kind of reset takes time. The meetings this week won't fix everything. But getting Rangnick in the sporting role and Glasner on the bench would at least give Milan a coherent starting point — a defined philosophy, and two men who've already worked within the same system. The alternative is another patchwork hire that delays the rebuild by another season.
Glasner meets Milan on Tuesday. The Austrian FA meet Rangnick on Monday. Two days, two conversations, one club trying to figure out what it actually wants to be.
