Sacking coaches is endemic of Italian football and this season has been no different as 13 head coaching changes have been made.
It seems the league’s owners always have their eyes set on the short-term rather than the long-term futures of their teams.
Despite the regular chopping and changing within Serie A, most of the league’s clubs in 2012/13 have resisted coaching changes – only eight teams have pulled the trigger on their bench bosses. Whether to due with the economic climate in Italy or a changing attitude, things seem to have quieted down a little.
AC Milan and Inter, two clubs with varying degrees of success over the course of the season, are examples of Italian teams have kept their coaches for better or worse. The Rossoneri have stood behind Massimiliano Allegri, to a certain extent, and after a rocky start that had – and still does – supporters calling for his head, the Italian has turned things around. Milan currently sit in third place and are light-years apart from the team that lost three of their opening four matches.
Inter’s Andrea Stramaccioni had the Nerazzurri flying high early in the season, but with the team collecting only four wins since the new year, expectations of his sacking have been raised. However, unlike in years past owner Massimo Moratti has kept his finger off the trigger. Something he was unable to do before hiring Stramaccioni a year ago when the oil tycoon fired Claudio Ranieri.
Stramaccioni is bucking the trend at Inter as his failure to secure points is similar to Ranieri’s. The latter was canned after winning two matches in 13 tries last term. However,unlike Ranieri,the young and inexperienced Stramaccioni has continually received Moratti’s backing during the rocky road that is calcio.
Ranieri’s Inter reign ended following two wins in 13 matches.
Other Serie A clubs, however, have not been able to resist the temptation of removing the man on the bench. As every Serie A season, it has worked for some clubs while others have only fallen down the table and into the quagmire of relegation.
Calcio followers should look no further than the ever-in-crisis clubs of Genoa and Palermo to see the trouble that sacking coach after coach generates. Their coaching and player wheeling and dealing has taken both clubs from the league’s top 10 just a few years ago into the bottom three and possibly Serie B.
Genoa have gone through three coaches with Luigi De Canio getting the sack in October despite picking up two of the club’s six wins. De Canio was replaced with the team in ninth place by the highly ineffective Luigi Delneri who put the club on the path to relegation. Like De Canio, Delneri was also able to pick up two wins, though it took him 13 games to do so. Since his dismissal in late-January with the club in 18th place the Grifone have ebbed and flowed under the guidance of Davide Ballardini. Though his stint got off to a great start, the club are now winless in seven and are odds on favourites for Serie B next season.
Palermo have seen three coaches come and go over five different changes. Sacked in September with one point from nine, Giuseppe Sannino returned to Maurizio Zamparini’s play-thing in mid-March. His re-appointment has improved the club as the Rosanero have gained seven points from 12 and despite their difficult upcoming schedule, Zamparini’s methodical madness could pay off.
Genoa and Palermo’s coaching carousels overshadow the rest of Serie A, where coaching changes have been the catalyst to improvement for some. However, the jury is still out on Siena who sacked their head man, the much loved Serse Cosmi, in December.
The Tuscan club entered 2012/13 with a six point deduction which was quickly overturned by Cosmi’s men, but with only four wins by the end of the year, Siena appointed former Sampdoria boss Giuseppe Iachini. Iachini led Sampdoria back into Serie A prior to this season, but was dropped for a more well-known coach in Ciro Ferrara. Like Cosmi, Iachini has picked up a mere four wins and Siena’s current table status is more of a reflection on the atrocious play of the clubs below them than on themselves.
If the clubs in the bottom four positions of the table are lesson in what not to do, than Sampdoria, Cagliari and Roma are their exact opposites; or at least nearly. Unlike their Ligurian counterparts, Sampdoria are nearly safe.
The Marassi outfit are nine points above the drop zone and since Delio Rossi’s hiring in December, the club have turned around a season that was unraveling under Ferrara. To Ferrara’s credit, Sampdoria came out of the gates as one of the hottest properties in the league. However, two wins in 12 matches saw the former Juve man to the door. Rossi’s work with the Blucerchiati hasn’t only changed the team’s season, but it has revitalised his career following last season’s bust-up with Adem Ljajic.
The lovable loser, as he is known, Zdenek Zeman was let go by Roma on February 2 in favour of former assistant coach Aurelio Andreazzoli. Since the Italian’s arrival, Roma have seen their fortunes change giving up a mere nine goals and keeping an equal amount of cleansheets (two) to the team under Zeman’s control.
Andreazzoli has brought the smiles back to the Giallorossi.
The Romans still have a shot at making the Europa League next season via the league standings and the Coppa Italia. Of the teams to make coaching changes during the season, Roma sit the highest in the form table at sixth and with the hiring of the interim Andreazzoli, Roma have completed changed the atmosphere around the Stadio Olimpico.
With all the distractions on Sardinia this term, the last thing Cagliari needed was a revolving door of coaches. Luckily for supporters and players, this was a matter the club saw fit to prevent. Whether that is due to President Massimo Cellino’s legal troubles or not is unknown. Ivo Pulga joined the Rossoblu in October with Cagliari in dead last. Now sitting 10th, relegation is an afterthought as the team sit comfortably in midtable and have played some good football along the way.
This season has seen less coaching turnover than the year previous. Perhaps the economic climate in Italy can be seen as a benefit to long-term stability for clubs and coaches. Or perhaps this is an anomaly that reflects more on a weaker pool of available coaches.
Whatever the reason, the willingness to allow a coach like Stramaccioni or Giampiero Ventura to ride out the rough patches is refreshing in a league known for its intolerance towards losing.
Follow Drew Farmer on Twitter: @CalcioFarmer. Drew is a Forza Italian Football senior writer and Genoa correspondent. He also hosts the Forza Italian Football Club Focus Podcast.
