The Andoni Iraola idea appears to be gathering speed, as Fabrizio Romano and Matteo Moretto confirmed that AC Milan have held talks with him.
On Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours after Milan’s defeat to Cagliari saw them finish outside the top four, the axe was wielded by Gerry Cardinale. In addition to Igli Tare, Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada, Massimiliano Allegri paid the price for the collapse in results.
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Who might replace him? Iraola seems to be one of the frontrunners. In a video published on his YouTube channel, Fabrizio Romano commented on the Milan revolution and the interest in Iraola as a replacement for Allegri. MilanNews relayed what he had to say.
“A part of Milan has collapsed after Cardinale’s heavy decisions: the farewell to Allegri and above all to a large part of the management with the departures of Furlani, Tare and Moncada. It was a strong choice by Cardinale with Ibrahimovic at his side,” he said.
“For the future of the bench, the name of Andoni Iraola has emerged. It is a name that is circulating, the Spaniard has left Bournemouth who have hired Marco Rose in his place.
“Iraola has done a fantastic job at Bournemouth, he has been one of the best coaches in England in recent seasons in terms of quality of play and also of game proposal and he has been able to withstand the impact despite the sales.
“Bournemouth have sold his most important players in every transfer window, but it has not been a problem for Iraola who has always been able to restart and rebuild, even bringing the Bournemouth in Europe. In short, he’s done an incredible job, attracting the attention of several teams.
“He was on Manchester United’s list , who then chose to continue with Carrick. He’s also highly regarded by Liverpool, who will, however, continue with Slot. He was close to joining Tottenham, but Bournemouth didn’t want to release him, and Chelsea also considered him.
“Iraola has two offers in hand, one from Bayer Leverkusen and one from Crystal Palace. Palace consider him the perfect manager to continue their pursuit of Europe, while the Germans have been courting him for weeks, but Iraola preferred to wait to see if other opportunities might arise.
Matteo Moretto spoke on the same video and added a bit more information, confirming that the Rossoneri’s admiration for the Basque-born coach goes beyond being trivial.
“There’s an important detail regarding Milan’s interest in Iraola: last week, the Rossoneri already met with the Spanish coach England. So, there’s already been a face-to-face meeting between the two parties to understand what kind of project they can potentially build together.”