Milan finally has a plan B, and it has an address in London. After failing to lure Andoni Iraola away from Bournemouth, the Italian giant will sit down next week with Oliver Glasner, the Crystal Palace manager, as Gazzetta dello Sport reports. Glasner has just won the Conference League, the one real trophy of the season for Palace - and now Milan is looking at him as the "saviour" after a disappointing year.

The seven-time European champion is coming off a season that started brilliantly and then vanished. Milan had an unbeaten run in the first half, and January wiped it all out. Leão and Pulišić could not find a shared language, Santiago Giménez was without a goal and with injuries, and then the club brought in Niclas Füllkrug from West Ham too - a move that instantly looked like an expensive refit with no concept.

The result: no Champions League next season, no Allegri on the bench. After missing out on Europe, the management let go of Massimiliano Allegri, sporting director Igli Tare, chief executive Giorgio Furlani and technical director Geoffrey Moncada. A clear-out without precedent at the end of a single season, even by Milan's standards.

Glasner brings something that has been missing in the last few years - courage. High-pressing football, fast transitions, a clear attacking structure. After Allegri's passive model, this would be the direct opposite. The question is whether Milan gives him the mandate without half-solutions, or puts him under the microscope from the first five matches.

Another crucial figure may emerge behind the scenes - Ralf Rangnick, who is already in talks with the club about a non-managerial role. The German is the man who put Glasner on the big stage; if both of them step into Milan, the entire sporting project tilts towards the central-European model. For Balkan fans following Italian football, this is the biggest structural change at San Siro in the last decade. And the riskiest.