Seven days before the end of Serie A, the suspense remains total to know who will succeed Antonio Conte, crowned last year with Inter after having been three times with Juve (2012 to 2014).
Pioli, the “Normal One”
Some believed that Stefano Pioli would only be passing through AC Milan, when he arrived in October 2019 on a real ejection bench, where coaches have marched for ten years without succeeding in straightening a sailing club far from its glorious past. But the former defender of Juventus and Fiorentina who became a coach in Serie B then in Serie A (Bologna, Lazio, Fiorentina) was able to restore the game and a soul to the Rossoneri.
Without outbursts of voice or blows of the chin, Pioli trusted the young people unearthed by Paolo Maldini and knew how to gently manage the star Zlatan Ibrahimovic (40 years old). While his departure seemed to have taken effect in the summer of 2020, the good post-lockdown results thus encouraged the leaders to keep him. It took them well: after regaining the Champions League thanks to second place last year, Milan have never been so close to winning their first scudetto since 2011. Pioli, he can win a first title as a coach at 56, after having been Italian champion as a player with Michel Platini’s Juve in 1986.
Spalletti, the experienced
Titles, Luciano Spalletti is not lacking: two Italian Cups (2007, 2008) and a Supercup (2007) with Roma and two Russian championships with Zénit Saint-Petersburg (2010, 2012). The scudetto, on the other hand, has always refused him: four times second with Roma and twice fourth with Inter Milan. Napoli can fill that hole in their CV – which would make Spalletti the oldest manager (63) to win a scudetto, ahead of Maurizio Sarri crowned in 2020 at the age of 61.
After the tensions between the explosive Gennaro Gattuso and the suspicious president Aurelio De Laurentiis having disrupted last season, concluded without qualification in C1 (5th), the merit of “Lucio” is to have been able to bring serenity to the club with his experience and his calm tone. Without panicking despite the many winter injuries, Naples remained compact (better defense) to stay in the race, losing only once in the return phase. As carried by this immense dream of a whole city: to become again the kings of Italy for the first time since the two scudetti offered by the idol Maradona (1987, 1990).
Inzaghi, the ambitious
If the adventure in the Champions League ended in the round of 16 against Liverpool, Simone Inzaghi can still win everything at national level for her debut on the nerazzurro bench. After the Supercup snatched from Juventus, the 46-year-old technician can lift a second Italian Cup (after that in 2019 with Lazio) and above all his first scudetto as a coach (he won it as a player with Lazio in 2000 ). Until the beginning of February, the championship seemed to him promised, as he had managed to maintain Inter, defending champion, on the high standards established by Antonio Conte. But the defeat in the Milan derby (1-2), through the fault of a double from Olivier Giroud, stopped the machine.
Third at the start of the final sprint, Inter however showed that they would not let go by dominating – with difficulty – Juventus (1-0) last weekend. Because of a more favorable calendar on paper, she remains “favorite”, judge as a connoisseur of the bianconero coach “Max” Allegri who, barring a miracle, will have to wait for her to win a seventh scudetto (one with Milan, five with Juve).
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