Serie A coaches pay hefty price for poor start to the season

The 2009/10 Serie A is currently observing a break and resumes on January 6.

As usual, we already had various episodes which will leave their mark by the end of the campaign but a significant aspect of the first half of the season is the failure of nine coaches to retain their jobs after receiving the sack.

Although changing coach so early in the season is always a risky move for any club, some teams have benefited in no small way as the change marked a notable upturn in their fortunes.

Others, however, could not halt their slide, implying that the team's woes are more complex and deep-rooted than originally thought.

Roma were the first Serie A club to change coach this season as Luciano Spalletti quit after successive setbacks to Genoa and Juventus.

Now at Zenit St Petersburg, Spalletti had been toying with the idea of leaving Roma last season but then decided to stay put. His decision to leave after only the second day is still queer though.

Claudio Ranieri took over from Spalletti and Roma were soon back on track.

In their next 15 league matches, Roma amassed 28 points and are currently joint-fourth in the table, level with Parma. Ranieri's players regained confidence and the team has also progressed to the KO stages of the Europa League.

Ranieri's top priority is to lead Roma to a Champions League berth next season and his cause is likely to get a huge boost next week with the signing of out-of-favour Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni.

For Toni, a transfer back to the Serie A will help resurrect his waning international career and, perhaps, make it to Marcello Lippi's squad for next year's World Cup finals.

Further down the peninsula, Napoli have also done pretty well with Walter Mazzarri as coach and are unbeaten in their last 10 matches.

The ex-Sampdoria trainer took over from Roberto Donadoni after the seventh day when the Southerners were simply heading nowhere after an indifferent start.

Donadoni's Napoli had just two wins and one draw to show from their first seven outings and were in the mire of relegation despite having spent big in the transfer season.

Mazzarri has completely changed the spirit of the team. Napoli are showing great determination and winning seemingly-impossible games like they did at Juventus when they won 3-2 after going two goals down.

Unkept promise

Palermo were rather inconsistent under Walter Zenga. His vow to transform the Sicilians into a formidable outfit capable of challenging for the title heightened expectations.

When Zenga was shown the backdoor by club owner Maurizio Zamparini in November, the Sicilians were only lying in a mid-table position with four wins from 13 matches.

Contrary to Zenga, new coach Delio Rossi talked cautiously when presented to the media.

Rossi, who led Lazio to Coppa Italia success last season, could not avoid defeat in his debut for Palermo against Chievo but then led the side to victories over Cagliari, Milan and Siena.

Up north, last week's sacking of Pasquale Marino sounded peculiar for many in that it came when Udinese had their home fixture against Cagliari postponed due to bad weather.

Udinese have been ravaged by injuries this season and currently lie just five points above the drop zone. Marino was replaced by ex-Torino mentor Gianni De Biasi.

At the lower end of the standings, Atalanta, Bologna, Livorno, Siena (twice) and, more recently, Catania have all resorted to the change of coach to get out of troubled waters.

Angelo Gregucci was the first one to go as Atalanta lost all their initial four games.

Antonio Conte, who steered Bari to Serie A last term, restored some lost pride in the team but lately the Bergamo team endured a terrible run which kept them flirting perilously with relegation.

Livorno played some good football at first but could not get the desired results. It was no surprise when the Vittorio Russo-Gennaro Ruotolo tandem had to make way for the flamboyant Serse Cosmi.

Since the shrewd ex-Brescia coach took over, Livorno won five matches and lost four.

Like Livorno, Catania played entertaining football but results were not going their way. After the 15th day, Gianluca Atzori became the scapegoat and the club instead appointed Serb Sinisa Mihajlovic to coach the team.

Mihajlovic was off to a stuttering start as Catania went down to Livorno at home before reviving their chances of staying up by surprising mighty Juventus 2-1 in Turin.

It was always going to be a mammoth task for Marco Baroni to rejuvenate a dejected Siena side who were rock bottom when he replaced Marco Giampaolo after 10 matches.

Giampaolo is a good example of how volatile a coach's career in Italy could be. He was on the verge of joining Torino in the close season but Siena did not release him.

Up to last summer, Giampaolo was widely considered as an emerging talent but Siena's poor start left the club bosses with no option other than to sack the coach.

Meanwhile, Baroni's tenure lasted only three games in which Siena managed only one point.

On the 14th day, ex-Parma coach Alberto Malesani made his debut on the Siena hot seat. Since then, the Tuscany outfit chalked up back-to-back home wins over Catania and Udinese.

Giuseppe Papadopulo was the inspiration behind Bologna's survival last term. However, the same cannot be said this time around as he lost his job after the eighth day of the season.

Franco Colomba could not have had a worst start on the Bologna bench as they were comprehensively beaten by Sampdoria 4-1.

Since then, Bologna have shown timid signs of improvement and currently lie fourth-from-bottom with 16 points, level with misfiring giants Lazio.

By contrast, Lazio, also languishing in the lower half of the table, have kept faith in coach Davide Ballardini and Juventus did the same with novice Ciro Ferrara despite an early exit from the Champions League.

Only time will tell whether Lazio and Juve have made the right decisions though.