AC Milan held new talks with Oliver Glasner as recently as Monday, with a decision expected from the club soon.
Corriere dello Sport begin their report with a simple premise: Glasner wants to coach Milan and hopes to join as soon as possible. The Austrian coach has said yes and is willing to take the position that until two weeks ago was held by Massimiliano Allegri, but now the club must give final approval.
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The final decision rests with Gerry Cardinale, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Massimo Calvelli, the three key figures currently in discussions with coaches and management after the cancellation of the contract a fortnight ago.
The American owners held another meeting yesterday with Glasner’s representatives, receiving the coach’s full approval, who has reportedly set aside other offers. Feyenoord reached out in recent hours, sounding out the former Crystal Palace manager, but Glasner seems fully committed to Milan.
It would be his first experience at one of the biggest European clubs and he is ready to seize the opportunity. The meeting on Monday followed the six-hour summit held in Germany last week, where negotiations with Milan had already moved forward.
Glasner’s modus operandi
The American owners also like Glasner for having won two European trophies. The Austrian won both the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt and the Conference League recently with Palace.
His style of play is also captivating: relentless pressing, intensity, and, above all, rapid ball recovery. These three principles distinguish his style of football from the one seen in Milan under Allegri last season.
Cardinale and Ibrahimović want to make a clean break with the past, even in terms of their playing style. They will be a team focused on organised pressing, but they could struggle in a league like the Italian one, where teams often sit back and counter.
Furthermore, Milan’s tradition of foreign coaches isn’t exactly favourable. Over the last 30 years, every non-Italian coach has achieved poor results, and the recent examples of Paulo Fonseca and Sergio Conceiçao have underscored this.
Furthermore, the fans would be skeptical because the coach doesn’t have a strong management around him. At least, not yet: Milan also had phone calls with Ralf Rangnick, who has already left for the World Cup with his Austria national team.
The federation have offered him a two-year contract extension, but he’s still negotiating with the Rossoneri because there’s a chance he could become their next technical director. The Milan project intrigues him, but he’s asked for clear conditions to operate freely, without interference or obstacles.
He wants guarantees of being able to implement a multi-year plan plus support if it doesn’t work out in the first year. He’d also like to implement radical changes in the youth sector and scouting area, as happened during his time at Leipzig. If Cardinale agrees, the marriage will happen.
I think we will suffer in Serie A with Glasner (not title contenders), but we will be able to put a strong performance in European competitions. What I surely hope is the case – we will watch more entertaining games than Allegri’s.
I’m also a bit sceptical playing high intensity gegenpress football in Italy where teams usually sit low and defend. But it worked with Fabregas and Italiano so why not.
If Glasner is hired, he must be in package with Rangnick because when sh*t hits the fan, which certainly will, we need whole sector to breath as one. Not like with Fonzy and Serge where these spineless cowards fled the scene and left both coach and the team on their own.
Milan won with Pioli with a high-pressure, high-intensity team. Nowadays, this is the single way to win something.