Mauricio Pochettino sat down with AC Milan representatives last week to discuss their vacant head coach position. That meeting — held just before the USMNT's World Cup camp in Georgia — puts a very public question mark over what happens to the U.S. national team once the tournament ends this summer.
Milan cleared house on Monday in one of the more sweeping executive overhauls in recent memory. Allegri gone. Sporting director Igli Tare gone. CEO Giorgio Furlani gone. Technical director Geoffrey Moncada gone. All of it after a second consecutive failure to qualify for the Champions League, finishing fifth in Serie A. The club's ownership isn't rebuilding quietly — they're tearing it down and starting over, and they want the right manager to front that project.
Why Pochettino makes sense for Milan — and why it's complicated
Pochettino has the profile Milan are chasing: a coach with Champions League pedigree (he took Spurs to the final in 2019), experience across elite leagues, and a reputation for developing squads rather than just inheriting ready-made ones. His contract with U.S. Soccer expires after the World Cup, and while he said in March he was open to staying — "We don't have a contract for the future but why not if we are happy" — a job of Milan's scale is a different conversation entirely.
The wrinkle that makes this genuinely interesting: Pochettino would be walking back into a dressing room with Christian Pulisic, his own USMNT winger. Yunus Musah is also contracted to Milan, though he spent this season on loan at Atalanta. That's either a strange dynamic or a useful one, depending on how you read it.
Pochettino isn't the only name in the frame. Andoni Iraola — out of work after leaving Bournemouth — is reportedly a leading candidate, and Milan's search is described as thorough rather than rushed.
What the betting market should make of this
Milan's next manager hire is arguably the most consequential decision the club makes this summer. Miss again on a Champions League spot next season and the gap to Italy's top three becomes structural, not just seasonal. Whoever takes the job inherits a squad that needs significant investment and a fanbase with very little patience left.
Pochettino brings upside but also a CV that includes PSG and Chelsea — two jobs that ended without the trophies the clubs expected. That's not a reason to dismiss him, but it's context worth sitting with before Milan hand him a long-term project of this size.
As for the USMNT: if Pochettino departs after the World Cup, U.S. Soccer will need to move fast. The 2026 tournament is on home soil, expectations are at an all-time high, and replacing a manager mid-cycle — even post-tournament — is never as clean as it sounds on paper.
