AC Milan missed out on the Champions League in 2025-26… what now? | OneFootball

Italy’s absence from another World Cup and their shortcomings in this year’s Champions League have led to a decreased interest in Serie A.

So perhaps it may have gone unnoticed that next season will be the first since the days of the European Cup that both AC Milan and Juventus are absent from Europe’s premier competition, in what was a spectacular final day in the domestic calendar.

Third and fourth

With two Champions League spots up for grabs, four sides went into the last match-day hoping to either hold on to their spot or to better the result of their competitors.

AC Milan and Roma belonged to the former group, while Como and Juventus formed part of the latter.

Record champions Juve have endured a very challenging season, under the stewardship of a third different manager since the start of 2025.

Their loss at home to Fiorentina made qualifying for Europe’s premier competition a near-impossible task; an 84th-minute equaliser by Scotland’s Che Adams put the final nail in the coffin.

Cesc Fabregas’ Como, on the other hand, sealed European qualification for the first time in their history on matchday 36; getting into the top four was the icing on the cake. While Roma were desperate to return to the Champions League for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

But for seven-time winners Milan, making the top four was as, if not more, important. At the start of December, they were top of the league.

Manager Massimiliano Allegri brushed aside comments relating to a title race during press conferences, insisting that the sole aim for the season was to get into the top 4.

Fate had it that Allegri would be facing off against the first team he managed in Serie A, Cagliari. Needing a win to fulfill their main target, Milan went ahead in the second minute.

Two set-piece goals later, and they had surrendered their Champions League spot to Como, who had just comfortably relegated Jamie Vardy’s Cremonese.

The new season will now be the first in which the Champions League does not feature one of Milan or Juve since the days of the European Cup. Run of luck or run of ruin?

Luck or ruin?

Up until the international break, it had appeared as if Allegri had managed to steer the ship in the right direction.

They had gone on a 24-game unbeaten run and had beaten rivals Inter home and away for the first time in 15 years.

With eight games left to play, they were trailing the top by six points and were nine points ahead of fifth place. They won two of those remaining games and drew once, scoring only six goals in the process.

They finished the season on 53 goals, 12 less than Como and 36 less than champions Inter. Allegri seemed unable to ever find a fitting striker partnership in his rigid 3-5-2 formation.

The Rossoneri have spent just under 100 million euros on forwards since the summer of 2024, yet Max Allegri was unable to ever find a fitting strike-partnership throughout the season.

As touched back in March, Nicklas Fulkrug and Christopher Nkunku had a limited impact during the season while Santi Gimenez, who had spent over four months injured, was tried up front for the final three games.

Against Cagliari, he was taken off at half-time with Milan desperately needing to re-take the lead. Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic constantly found themselves being tested up front with varying degrees of success.

Despite a good start to the season, they only ended up scoring four goals between them from January onwards.

At times, it seemed as if Allegri’s system relied on the individual brilliance of certain players.

Individual brilliance

Goalkeeper Mike Maignan was a big part of the unbeaten run, as in January he was reported as having prevented more than 9 expected goals, the highest at the time in Europe’s top five leagues.

The Frenchman along with centre-back Strahinja Pavlovic were the integral parts of Max Allegri’s defensive structure.

The pair have played the most minutes of any players in the squad, closely followed by 40-year-old Luka Modric, who curiously enough played more minutes this season in the league than in any of his 13 league campaigns with Real Madrid.

The Croatian’s absence from Milan’s starting XI in the final four games due to injury may partly explain the three defeats they endured in the month of May.

In those games, Milan looked fragile and rudderless, lacking conviction in front of goal and unable to impose themselves on their opponents.

In their final game against a side that had just avoided relegation the previous week, you would have been forgiven for thinking that Cagliari were the team desperate for the win.

It seemed as if Allegri’s pragmatic approach had faltered and his players were unprepared to rise up to the occasion.

The morning after the defeat a club statement was released calling the season ‘an unequivocal failure’ and announced a massive shake-up in the club’s hierarchy.

Shake-up

Allegri and sporting director Igli Tare, both hired last summer, were sacked along with CEO Giorgio Furlani and technical director Geofrey Moncada.

Earlier in May, there were protests calling for Furlani to leave the club. A message was even displayed by the fans in the game against Atalanta that spelt out G.F. OUT.

The fans’ anger does not just rest with Furlani but with the whole RedBird ownership group. The American investment firm, led by Gerry Cardinale, took over at the San Siro in 2022, just after Milan had secured their first league title in 11 years.

A year later, Paolo Maldini, seen as a key pillar to this recent success, was removed as a technical director, a decision that the Milanisti faithful still criticise three years later.

The club legend even gave an interview in December of that year, stating that the new owners had ‘no real respect for the club’s identity and history’.

A cloud of uncertainty now hovers around the 19-time scudetto champions’ future. Pulisic and Modric have contracts that are on the verge of expiration, unclear whether either of them will stay.

Leao gave an interview recently stating his wish to end his seven-year stay at the club. Cardinale has to make a host of key decisions regarding personnel, starting with the manager.

The Athletic revealed that Pochettino had met with representatives from AC Milan along with the fact that Iraola was shortlisted.

In more recent days, former Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner has been rumoured as the most likely candidate to take over.

This is partly attributed to rumours linking Ralf Rangnick as the replacement for Moncada.

Whatever happens over the summer, it seems likely that RedBird have a massive rebuilding project on their hands, one that might very well determine whether they have a long term future with Milan.