Andoni Iraola has still not decided where he will go next after ending his three-year spell at Bournemouth, and Milan has already started to widen its search. The Serie A club has opened talks with the agents of Mauricio Pochettino and is also looking at Matthias Jaissle as it prepares for the chance that Iraola chooses another path.
Iraola’s hesitation matters now because Bournemouth’s run under him ended with a place in the next Europa League, making him one of the more sought-after coaches on the market. Milan is not alone in waiting; Crystal Palace are also in the picture, while Bayer Leverkusen are understood to be ahead in the race for the 43-year-old Spaniard.
Pochettino, meanwhile, has made it clear he is not free to walk into another job on demand. He said it was possible his agents had spoken with Milan, but added that such contact is part of how coaching business works and that he has also held talks with people from other clubs. He pointed to his contract with the United States, which runs until July after the World Cup, and said he would honor that commitment if a club wanted him to start immediately.
That leaves Milan balancing two different realities at once. One is a coach in Iraola who is taking his time after a successful spell in England. The other is a market in which Pochettino is available only within limits, while Jaissle brings a very different profile: 38 years old, at Al Ahli since 2023, with two continental Champions Leagues on his record and a contract that runs next year. His salary, about 11 million euros per season, shows the scale of the negotiations Milan may have to enter if it moves seriously.
The club’s board is already operating in a changed setting after a purge launched by RedBird earlier in the week, and that makes the coaching call even more consequential. Ralf Rangnick is also being discussed for Milan’s technical area, which could shape the final choice on the bench. For now, the clear point is that Milan is no longer waiting on a single name; it is building a fallback plan while Iraola decides whether his next step is in Germany, London or Italy.
