Coaching changes characterise season

While football chiefs in Italy continue to fight the match-fixing malady that severely blighted their game for several years now, a look back at the season just ended shows that multiple coach sackings and appointments had taken place, some unexpected but others anticipated following a series of poor results.

One change that worked wonders was at Parma where a final flourish helped coach Roberto Donadoni recover some of his lost pride following an unsuccessful and very short stint at Cagliari.

Parma had started the 2011-12 campaign with Franco Co-lomba. But with him around, the Tardini outfit never got going.

Donadoni was called in and he turned the club’s fortunes overnight.

In fact, by the end of the season Parma were also challenging for a place in European football before settling for a creditable seventh place.

Bologna fired coach Pierpaolo Bisoli after only five games with Stefano Pioli taking his place on the bench.

With Pioli, Bologna amassed 50 points in 33 games and finished in a trouble-free, mid-table position.

Ironically, both Donadoni and Pioli got sacked days before the season got underway.

At Cagliari, Donadoni was replaced by Massimo Ficcadenti who was then relieved of his duties after the 10th day.

Ficcadenti’s successor, Davide Ballardini, only lasted 17 games but was re-appointed later on to charter a safe way for Cagliari to avoid the drop.

At Palermo, Pioli was replaced by Devis Mangia, formerly in charge of the youth team, after the side’s premature exit from Europe in summer 2011.

After six wins, two draws and seven defeats Mangia made way for Bortolo Mutti who just made it to keep Palermo afloat.

Things did not work out as desired down south in Lecce.

The league strugglers seemed on the right track to stave off the drop at one point after replacing Eusebio di Francesco with Serse Cosmi. However, a dip in form in the straight for home saw Lecce going down along with Novara and Cesena.

Daniele Arrigoni was hired to help Cesena revive their ambitions after a faulty start with Marco Giampaolo on the bench.

But it was to no avail and, eventually, a third coach – Mario Beretta – could do nothing to help Cesena extend their stay in the top division by another year.

Novara, promoted to the top flight after a long 55-year wait, started and finished the season with the same man in charge, Attilio Tesser.

In between, after 20 matches, he had been replaced by Emiliano Mondonico but the latter left in a matter of a few weeks as Novara turned back to Tesser.

Genoa had a weird season and almost got relegated.

After a promising start, Alberto Malesani soon found himself on the unemployment list in the wake of a heavy 6-1 thrashing to Napoli in December.

Genoa did not lift their game with Pasquale Marino on the bench and towards the end of the season Malesani was handed back the reins.

However, he got sacked for a second time following a three-match winless run, probably establishing a new record (in a negative way that is).

Three coaches not enough to save Cesena from the dreaded drop

Genoa, who only made sure of safety on the very last day, ended the season with ex-Udinese trainer Luigi De Canio.

At Fiorentina, Sinisa Mihaj-lovic was replaced by Delio Rossi after only managing three wins from ten matches.

Rossi promised a lot but delivered practically nothing.

However, the circumstances leading to his sacking were different from those of his peers at other clubs.

In fact, he was dismissed for coming to blows with one of his players – Adem Ljajic – during a league match late in the season.

Vincenzo Guerini took charge of the Viola who finished a disappointing 13th place.

At Inter, it seems that Massimo Moratti cannot come up with the right man to replace Jose Mourinho who left in 2010.

Since then the Inter supremo hired Rafa Benitez, Leonardo, Gianpiero Gasperini and Claudio Ranieri before trusting the team at the hands of novice Andrea Stramaccioni.

The season started with Gasperini on the San Siro hot-seat but he only lasted three games. Ranieri was then called in but he was also shown the back-door with a few matches left and Inter way out of contention.

Stramacchioni did pretty well and Inter succeeded in finishing sixth which at least meant a place in the Europa League next season.