The Serie A Coaching Carousel Continues

By: chris | April 16th, 2008

A few months back Arsene Wenger was bemoaning the quick trigger fingers on board rooms across the Premiership, eagerly text messaging pink slips as though they were firing t-shirts out of a cannon. Arsene was right about the quick hook shown to managers, all nine changes were made before the 16th of January (one of those being Steve Bruce, who left for vacant Wigan job). But they’ve got nothing on the coaching drama of Serie A, which has a penchant for using and reusing old coaches til they run all the rubber on the tires. Walter Novellino was sacked today by Torino, becoming the 13th coaching change in the peninsula this season. His replacement? The guy he was hired to replace. Nice.

This wasn’t the act of an off-his-rocker owner or a knee-jerk reaction, Torino have been sucking and sucking hard for the last month after their stellar run of 8 games unbeaten. For me the axe was lined up the day Novellino benched Alessandro Rosina, Torino’s best player, for “tactical reasons”, only to be hosed in the opening half hour by the then worst team in the league……then bring him on as a “tactical change” in the 27th minute. Bush league stuff. Maybe leaving Sampdoria wasn’t the smartest of decisions.

De Biasi, on the other hand, has been brought back under the same exact circumstances as last February, when he made a midyear dash to Torino in an effort to stave off relegation. Same deal this year; they suck, they’re heading towards the zone, they need massive amounts of help. End of. Only this time he was employed by another squad when he was beckoned. That club being Spanish side Levante, who are almost definitely heading toward the second division and definitely a mess.

So this makes three coaches in Serie A this season who have been picking up unemployment checks before being rehired in less than a calendar year. Stefano Colantuono of Palermo and Gigi Cagni of Empoli have both been called back home during the current campaign. Why they agreed to a return? No one knows. Either it’s fierce loyalty or fierce stupidity. But there’s never a dull day in Serie A.

* - Just noticed…….is that Harvey Keitel?