Posted on Friday, 16th December 2011 by Padraig Whelan

One of Italy’s most unique and enigmatic coaches has returned to the Serie A benches. Serse Cosmi has taken over at Lecce following the recent departure of Eusebio Di Francesco.

The energetic Perugian native is one of the most instantly recognisable managers with his small goatee and trademark baseball cap who is as eccentric as they come but is also a very likeable manager.

He had a very successful start to his coaching career having brought his hometown club Pontevecchio from the depths of the peninsula’s Prima Categoria (the fourth tier of amateur football) to the top level of the amateur game in the space of just five years.

From there, the man famed for his enthusisatic touchline antics and animated personality guided Arezzo from Serie D to before being hired by to take the reigns at amongst the big boys.

He remained with the Grifoni for four years during which time he established his reputation as one of the country’s most promising managers by winning the now-defunct Intertoto Cup in 2003 and showed his keen eye for talent by unearthing hidden talents such as Fabio Grosso and Hidetoshi Nakata as well as resurrecting the careers of Fabricio Miccoli and .

However, he parted company with the club after failing to keep them in the top flight and chose to focus on bringing Genoa in the other direction the following year.  He was successful in his bid as he helped them to promotion as champions playing some terrific attacking football but it didn’t last.

Genoa were demoted to Serie C1 after being found guilty of match-fixing and Cosmi left having fallen out with President Enrico Preziosi to take his place in the dugout at the Fruili with Udinese and it was a hard act to follow as he took over from Luciano Spalletti who had guided the side into the Champions League.

Cosmi, with the talents of , David Di Michele, and Vincent Candela in their ranks, the club went on to beat Sporting Lisbon in the qualifying rounds to take their place in the group stages and despite giving it an excellent effort, they finished third in the end.

Nevertheless, it had helped to further cement Cosmi’s reputation as a quality coach but was unfortunately fired in February of 2006 after a string of poor results.

However, rather poor spells were to follow as manager of Brescia and Livorno as he aimed to turn around the club’s ailing performances. Earlier this year though, he returned as the man in charge at after axe-happy fired after a 7-0 thrashing at home against Cosmi’s old employers Udinese.

Cosmi fared no better than Rossi though at the hands of Zamparini and, despite victory over eventual champions Milan, he too was shown the door after a devastating 4-0 defeat in the derby against Catania.

So what kind of Cosmi will we see on the bench at the Via Del Mare?  Obviously, we will still witness the same wide-eyed, enthusiastic manager who will no doubt become a popular figure with the Salentini but at the moment it is results he will need.

The club currently sit bottom of the table three points adrift of Novara with their top scorer having put the ball in the back of the net just twice as yet this season and are badly struggling for form.

Yet on Monday night against on Cosmi’s debut things seemed to take a turn for the better as Lecce both took the lead and equalised against Edy Reja’s side before going down to a 3-2 defeat due to Miroslav Klose’s late strike.

Signs were encouraging as they did play better football going forward although the task facing him remains his toughest challenge yet as their continuous defensive troubles are a massive threat to their Serie A status.

Cosmi remains confident though and he may just be the kind of manager that they need at this time. His infectious personality and driven character should give this Lecce side the determination they need to stay in the top flight.

Follow Padraig Whelan on Twitter @PWhelan88 and be sure to check out padraigwhelan.wordpress.com

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Padraig WhelanAuthor Padraig Whelan  (187 Posts)

I have been a huge fan of Italian football for many years now and it is still my favourite league in the world. I support Milan but have a great admiration for many of the other teams and the way that they play. My favourite players to have played in the Italian game are Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi. I am currently studying for a degree in sports journalism.


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