AC Milan will make some big decisions ahead of the 2025-26 season, ones that will determine the near and potentially distant future course of the club. 

The initial two-step has already been outlined. Firstly, Milan are looking for a new sporting director to join the current management following Antonio D’Ottavio’s exit in December. Geoffrey Moncada should return to being a chief scout, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s influence redirected slightly.

From there, the director will have to begin planning how the squad will look for next season, and that includes picking the right head coach. A number of candidates continue to be mentioned as potential replacements for Sergio Conceicao, and it will dictate things such as formation and playing style.

The new director and manager will have the responsibility of making joint assessments on the squad including those who are to be a crucial part of the plans moving forward, those who offers might be listened to and those who are actively offloaded.

Perhaps the department that continues to draw the most scrutiny and debate is the midfield for Milan, currently consisting of Warren Bondo, Youssouf Fofana, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Yunus Musah and Tijjani Reijnders, in alphabetical order by surname.

At present the midfield jigsaw appears to be incomplete, who stands to gain from a potential reshuffle, whose days could well be numbered and what exactly is missing?