Milan fell apart on the last day of the season - dropping from third to fifth after the defeat at Cagliari - and is now trying to pull the club out of its biggest crisis in the past decade. Step one: contact with Andoni Iraola, the Spanish coach who took Bournemouth into Europe for the first time in the club's 127-year history.

The restructuring is brutal. Massimiliano Allegri was sacked, alongside sporting director Igli Tare, chief executive Giorgio Furlani and technical director Geoffrey Moncada. The owners of the Italian giant described the season as „a plain failure" - a formulation with little room for interpretation.

Milan started the season brilliantly and for a long time looked like a favourite for the Scudetto, but fell apart in the second half. The final defeat to Cagliari on the last day only sealed the collapse. The seven-time Champions League winner played a second consecutive season without an elite European tournament. Now - the Europa League as a thin consolation.

Why Iraola? The Spanish coach finished the season with 18 matches unbeaten in the Premier League. With Bournemouth - a small-budget club that before the summer is set to sell stars like Ilya Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez - he built football that attracted both Crystal Palace and Bayer Leverkusen.

Still, there is an odd logic in Milan's move. Italian football is stuck in recycled ideas and familiar names - Conte, Allegri, Spalletti. All of them have titles, but little new energy. Iraola, coming from Rayo Vallecano without major trophies, offers something different: a modern scheme, high-press, discipline under pressure.

Will Milan convince him to stay an Italian giant instead of going to the Premier League? That is the question the coming weeks will answer. For now, everyone knows the talks are open, and Milan does not have a lot of time.