Palermo deserve better than what they are being given by Maurizio Zamprini these days.
He has, for a time, been given leeway by much of the Rosanero fans due to the fact that he does love the club and, bizarre as it may sound, act with his club’s best interests at heart.
However, the latest sacking of Giuseppe Sannino has been met once more with anger and frustration by many of the Palermo tifosi who had hoped for consistency under a promising coach who had served his apprenticeship in the Lega Pro before performing well with Siena.
This was never really going to happen though under a president who has sacked 17 other coaches during his career and who has not allowed a man to set on the bench at the Renzo Barbera for an entire season since the 2004/05 campaign.
Sannino acted with great dignity upon his dismissal and had nothing but kind words for the club, the president and the fans and came out of it looking better than the man who had once again hit the panic button.
A button which was undoubtedly hit all too soon. This is a different team who have lost important players especially defensively over the summer.
Zamparini has tried to convince fans that this is a squad no different to the one which drew 4-4 at Inter last season but this is far from the case.
Fiorentina have taken Emiliano Viviano and Francesco Della Rocca while Inter have signed Matias Silvestre while the outstanding Federico Balzaretti was sold to Roma after his displays at Euro 2012.
With so much changes taking place on the field, there is no doubt that a new coach should have been given time to adapt to the players at his disposal rather than the three games he had been given.
Those games failed to bring a win but their two defeats came against sides who have won every game so far (Napoli and Lazio) and were it not for a very late lapse against Cagliari, they could have been sitting higher up the table than they are at the moment.
Nevertheless, Zamparini made the decision that enough was enough and has even attempted to cover up fan ire at his latest sacking by removing banners protesting the decision from around the Renzo Barbera.
The man charged with improving upon Sannino’s tenure is Gian Piero Gasperini, a surprising choice based on his disappointing time at Inter last season.
His first game brought a loss in the Supercoppa against AC Milan before his first five league games yielded one draw and four losses.
He was promptly sacked and only broke his silence in February of this year to reveal why that nightmare run was not all his fault.
His tactics left a lot to be desired with Wesley Sneijder seemingly unsure of his position during pre-season and competitive fixtures but Gasperini said he felt he was not properly backed in the transfer window.
The new Palermo boss insists he wanted to sign Rodrigo Palacio, Radja Nainggolan and Domenico Criscito but instead the club went against his wishes and tried and failed to sign, according to their former coach, Carlos Tevez, Arturo Vidal, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Alexis Sanchez before selling Samuel Eto’o.
Hardly ideal preparation for the season as was the bulk of his squad being away at the Copa America as well as other internationals during pre-season.
It was clearly not a defined and settled squad that the former Genoa boss had inherited and while some felt this was merely a case of sour grapes, his time at Palermo will give him a chance to once more prove himself.
Gasperini is already a name well-known to Palermo fans having played for the club for five years and made over 100 appearances for them at the start of his career.
While his time at Inter was unsuccessful, if he can get the best out of this squad as he did at Genoa then he can perhaps turn their ailing fortunes.
Although Palermo would not appear to naturally have the kind of width in their side to replicate the 3-4-3 formation that got the best out of players like Giandomenico Mesto and Criscito who starred going forward and at the back at the Marassi, he could even decide that a change in his own beliefs is warranted at his latest club.
The main factor that will judge just how well Gasperini can do at Palermo though is one that is outside of his control.
That of course, as it always is at Palermo, is how much patience will he be afforded by Zamparini.
Even he himself does not seem to have too much confidence in the man that he has hired because the new man’s contract includes a clause that will see his salary rise should he be sacked while the Palermo president once again acknowledged that it should no longer be considered a new story if he sacks a manager.
Simply put, it would be more than surprising if Gasperini became a success at Palermo. He showed at Genoa he is an astute tactician who is perhaps best suited to guiding a mid-table side than dealing with the pressures of a top club like Inter but that is no guarantee of success in Sicily.
Francesco Guidolin, Stefano Colantuono, Serse Cosmi and Delio Rossi are all proven, excellent coaches but all of them have been sacked (in some cases more than once) from their respective tenures in charge at the Rosanero.
It is far likelier that Gasperini will not be on the bench come the end of the season but if he is to haul Palermo up the table, then he must be given time to adjust to the task especially given that he is managing a Palermo squad that is not as strong as it has been in recent years.
These players must again familiarise themselves once again with a new coach, new tactics and unless they can do so effectively, they could be heading for a new division.
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