At least pre-season is settled! [Newsletter]

Jun 10, 2026

📆 Pre-season schedule

It feels rather backwards to be talking about the pre-season schedule now, but even without hiring a sporting director or a head coach, Milan have penned in four friendlies so far. Two of them will take place in Europe, but two will be in the far east as the Rossoneri are continuing to strengthen their fanbase in the region. Whoever arrives to coach the team will have to get with it.

July 25: Celtic-Milan in Glasgow, Scotland
August 5: Milan-Inter in Perth, Australia
August 8: Chelsea-Milan in Jakarta, Indonesia
August 15: Man Utd-Milan in Wroclaw, Poland

Of course, it’s been a long time since the pre-season was solely used to get the players back into shape. These days, it’s more of a PR/marketing run than anything, which Milan’s current situation truly highlights. It’s not like the head coach has mapped out the perfect way for the Rossoneri to prepare for the 2026-27 season. Maybe that could be used as an excuse before, but not this time.

Anyway, the actual pre-season will start on July 12 at Milanello with the physical tests, and then with the Raduno the following day (training on the pitch). There would definitely be time to schedule another friendly before the Celtic one, obviously against a slightly less demanding opponent like a Serie C side. Before any of that, though, we need someone in charge.

😴 Is Friday the day?

Speaking of getting a head coach, Matteo Moretto has suggested that Friday could be an important day for Milan. Several candidates are still in the running, not just Oliver Glasner who has been named as the favourite, but the pursuit could be narrowed down in the coming days. Important indications could also arrive regarding Ralf Rangnick, who remains a question mark.

If nothing truly concrete emerges before the end of the week, then it will have been 21 days since Gerry Cardinale sacked the entire management. That’s just not acceptable for a club like Milan. The excuse “we want to make the right decision without haste” would normally be valid, but not when you have handled things like the Rossoneri have. It’s not being smart, it’s being unprepared.

That said, while there has been some fake news floating around regarding this, Milan don’t have to get a head coach and a sporting director in place by July 16 to register for the 2026-27 Serie A season. Paolo Scaroni can sign the necessary documents in the meantime, while the actual deadlines are August 7 for the head coach and September 15 for the sporting director, as confirmed by Felice Raimondo.

📋 Milan Bulletin

Below, we have collected the most important Milan news from the last week, including our longer reads, match results and newspaper reports.

📰 Latest News

While the senior set-up is in chaos, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Futuro project too. They are consigned to another year in Serie D, which hasn’t eased concerns, but Andrea Longoni and Simone Lontani’s potential exits are worrying too. Milan confirmed that Luca Menon and Mattia Mercogliano have put pen to paper on their first professional contracts.

There have been some interesting interviews in the build-up to the World Cup. Alexis Saelemaekers documented his journey at Milan and spoke about those who influenced him, while Santiago Gimenez did the same and backed himself to fire Mexico to winning the trophy. Meanwhile, Christian Pulisic is ready for the pressure of a home tournament, and Rafael Leao chose to reiterate his desire to leave.

One of the situations that Milan will have to deal with is the players who are returning from loan. While Musah, Bennacer and Chukwueze are expected to be a bit more of a headache, there is the chance that three young players - namely Comotto, Camarda and Zeroli - could stay to form part of a new Italian core.

Mercato round-up: Rangnick could look to bring a Barcelona defender and a player just released by Real Madrid to Milan; Jashari and Pavlovic are determined to stay despite the potential mass exodus; Glasner wants a Crystal Palace star; two potential Maignan replacements have emerged; an Eintracht Frankfurt playmaker has again been linked.

🔍 Longer Reads

Our longer reads from over the past week include: Milan’s 10 World Cup call-ups and their schedule, a dissection of the 2026-27 fixture list, a summary of the preseason plans in place so far, and a revisiting of the striker targets last summer to see if any would have helped the cause.