When clubs and managers broke up badly

Dismissals, resignations, releases, terminations: there are various ways in which the bond between a coach and a club can be ended, but often it is not the formula of separation that distinguishes relationships ended badly from those ended peacefully. A theme, this one, traditionally topical at the current time of year, at the end of the season, and especially in the days following the earthquake that swept Juventus, which took the pitch in Bologna led (ad interim) by Paolo Montero.

Massimiliano Allegri's second adventure in Turin ended in the most “rancorous” way possible, with the exoneration of the coach from Livorno following the victory of the Coppa Italia and the “show” that saw him as the protagonist at the Stadio Olimpico, before and after the triple whistle; a case in which the frictions reached the public in such a sharp and resounding way that the possibility of dismissal for just cause even emerged, at the expense of the seven million euros provided for the last year of his contract. The implosion of tensions, after all, occurred in front of the cameras-from the ejection in the dying minutes to the words later directed at Juventus officials, the refereeing class and the media-and so the club's official announcement, issued Friday morning, seemed an inevitable consequence.

A long tradition

The events in Rome put an end to the relationship - which had been soured for months - between Juventus and Allegri, touching peaks of tension rarely observed in the Italian context, which is also known for the ease with which presidents make changes in the course of the season (16 in Serie A 2023/24, the highest figure among the major European leagues), and thus for the recurrence of tumultuous separations. Juve itself, more than two decades ago now, parted ways with Carlo Ancelotti amid controversy and mutual accusations, which have never fully diluted over the years. “They hated me for playing in AC Milan, sometimes I had to go out with the police, it was not a good experience,” the current Real Madrid coach would later recount (by the way, how can we not mention the “galactic” exoneration of a Fabio Capello fresh from winning LaLiga); in Turin, Ancelotti was greeted by the famous banner “a pig cannot coach” and took his leave with “most of the fans and the press against,” the words of Umberto Agnelli. In the same period, between 2000 and 2001, the other two “banners” were also making themselves protagonists of unhappy epilogues in this sense: the “televised” one of Alberto Zaccheroni at AC Milan, announced live by Berlusconi after the rout with Deportivo LaCoruña; and that of Marcello Lippi at Inter, anticipated by the person directly involved with the interview in which he said that “if he had been in the place of President Moratti, he would have fired the coach and kicked the players.”

In addition to the changes on the benches of the big ones, one can recall a host of more and less recent departures that have caused a stir, including the tensions fueled by those presidents dubbed “coach-eaters.” Namely, first and foremost, Maurizio Zamparini, Enrico Preziosi and Massimo Cellino, at Palermo, Genoa and Cagliari, respectively; and one can add the aforementioned Massimo Moratti, as Gian Piero Gasperini, Luigi Simoni and the sixteen other coaches torpedoed by the historic Nerazzurri patron will recall. Sometimes questionable times and motives, together with not always distensive tones, have triggered more than a few bickering and caused many pebbles to be removed, from many different shoes, in these squares more than elsewhere. More or less consciously, thus, many coaches have picked up the baton of Bela Guttmann, the guide of Benfica, bi-champion of Europe in the 1960s, who at his farewell launched a curse to the club that is still alive today: “from here to a hundred years no Portuguese team will be two-time European champions and Benfica will never win a Champions' Cup without me.”

The serial killers

One case that has remained in the collective memory concerns Davide Ballardini and his dismissal by Genoa in 2018, after picking up four wins in the first seven days of the championship. A choice that Preziosi explained without mincing words: “I am not pleased to send him away, but I cannot continue to witness such spectacles. I talked to him for an hour and a half but he did not give me the answers I expected. He is poor, and in fact in 14 championships he has collected 13 exonerations. Last year he had accrued a credit, but Ballardini remains a manager of complicated situations: if he starts the season with a team, he does not make the leap. He is a good person but he doesn't know how to put players on the pitch.” For the sake of completeness of information: it was Ballardini's third time on the Genoa bench, and later on there will be a fourth; to which are added, not coincidentally, three at Cellino's Cagliari and two at Zamparini's Palermo.

Another example of Preziosi's lack of patience comes from 2012, when he dismissed Luigi Delneri after just five league games (and at least as many defeats). The same Delneri who, incidentally, had had an experience of rare brevity a few years earlier in 2004, his first (and only) international match: he sat on the Porto bench for a handful of weeks, 36 days to be precise, from which he was released at the players' request during the summer training camp. Finally, the Cagliari case of Luigi Radice illustrated the modus operandi of Cellino back in '93, whose first relief as president lasted no longer than a day in the league.

Recurring tensions the Italian way

Then there are coaches who seem inevitably destined for traumatic breaks, usually preceded by months of tensions blamed on the media and fans. Antonio Conte and Roberto Mancini belong to this group, perhaps due to a series of coincidences, but also due to the way they interact (publicly) with clubs and their communication style. The two have a shared history on the Inter and Italian national team benches, but also a certain recidivism when it comes to ending their journeys badly, as just experienced at Appiano Gentile and Coverciano.

2014, 2018, 2021 and 2023: These are the dates on which Conte's relationships with Juventus, Chelsea, Inter and Tottenham broke down in tumultuous fashion respectively. Conte's time at Juve (the first was as a player) ended abruptly during the team's pre-season training camp, which had just won the surprising Scudetto. The reason: the same disagreements over the market and the club's plans that would lead to friction with Marotta, Ausilio and the Nerazzurri management in Milan seven years later (again after winning the championship). In between was the Chelsea interlude, which ended in an English court over compensation and allegations of breaching the London club's internal guidelines, and finally the hostilities with the Tottenham management, which culminated in a venomous press conference by the former Azzurri coach shortly before his dismissal.

Mancini's three abrupt interruptions, on the other hand, date back to 2008, 2016 and 2023, with Inter (twice) and the national team respectively. Eight years later, the coach from Jesi has repeatedly surprised Inter's environment and management, first Moratti and then Thohir, with unexpected farewell promises (the press conference after the Champions League exit against Liverpool) and resignations ten days before the start of the season (when handing over to Frank De Boer, who also did not leave the club in the best way). Even with these examples, perhaps Mancini's sudden departure as Italy coach, at a crucial moment on the road to Euro 2024, came as a relative shock to the public.

Another group of relapses concerns “hot” clubs such as Roma and Napoli, where a combination of environmental and social factors have often exacerbated antagonism towards departing coaches, even when they have achieved good results on the pitch. The tenures of Josè Mourinho and Rino Gattuso, for example, went down in the archives on these bittersweet notes. The most emblematic case, however, is Luciano Spalletti, who had to deal with both realities. Twice he parted ways with the Giallorossi in a rather hostile atmosphere, first in 2009 over market issues, then in 2016 over the management of Francesco Totti's final season; and he also soon went on a collision course with Aurelio De Laurentiis despite a historic Napoli year, relinquishing the helm shortly after the Scudetto party. All in all, nothing earth-shattering for the Italian public, who have only seen the Italian champion coach confirmed for the following season once in the last five years, with Stefano Pioli in 2022.