Livorno Club Focus: Amaranto join the Serie A sack race

Date: 17th January 2014 at 11:14pm
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It may have got off to a slow start this year but the annual Serie A sack race is now in full swing and Livorno joined in the race this week sacking their coach Davide Nicola after a 3-0 home defeat to Parma last weekend.

Nicola had been on a shaky peg for a long time and the axe finally fell this week, with the Amaranto handing over first team duties to now ex-technical director Attilio Perotti.

Many Livornesi were not happy with the sacking of Nicola, pointing the finger at club president Aldo Spinelli for the lack of sufficient signings in the summer mercato.

However, it is easy to see why he did sack him with the Tuscan side without a win in their last eight games, picking up only one point in that period. They have also lost each of their last seven away games failing to score in their last six.

Although unfortunately for Livorno, Nicola an is not a miracle worker and can only do so much with the squad of players he’s given to work with. It also seems strange to sack ‘the next Mazzarri’ as Spinelli once described him. Surely if he is ‘the next Mazzarri’, you would want to keep him at all costs never mind fire him?

Apart from the opening day defeat to Roma, the Amaranto made a decent start to life back in Serie A losing only one of their first five games. Despite the decent start to the season things started sour towards the end of September starting with a defeat away to Hellas Verona, in a game they really should of won.

Ever since the defeat to the Gialloblu, the Tuscan team have been in free-fall losing ten, drawing two and recording only one victory against Atalanta, way back on the third of November.

It is possible that a fresh face could help lift the Amaranto out of this slump, but as aforementioned, it will be extremely difficult unless they make some serious moves in this transfer window.

However, right now it doesn’t look like they will be making any significant moves in the mercato, with all the transfer talk being about potential departures and not arrivals.

One official transfer is that of Pasquale Schiattarella who has moved to Spezia. It is a strange move considering he has played and started in the majority of games this season. One can only imagine that they have a replacement lined up to slot into the vacant wing-back position left by him. There have been rumors that the likes of Marco Motta of Juventus could join but the Italian has supposedly rejected a move to Livorno.

However, the biggest story this week as far as the Amaranto are concerned, is the supposed interest from Fulham, in star striker Paulinho. The London based club supposedly offered €2 million to loan the player until the end of the season, with an option to buy at the end of the loan. It is believed that the Amaranto will not let him go, especially considering he is their most important player.

Despite a change of coach it’s almost impossible to see anything change at Livorno, and they seen destined to go straight back down to Serie B in their first season back in the big time. It certainly doesn’t get any easier this week as the Amaranto travel to the capital to face Roma.

 

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