Maurizio Zamparini: The Worst Owner In Football?

September 4, 2008

The big topic in football this week has been the ownership change on the blue side of Manchester and what it means for both the Premiership and football economy. But contrary to popular belief, there is other non-English stuff happening (guilty) and some of it is pretty damn discussion worthy. Take for instance, the champagne bottle being broken on the hull of the new Serie A season. No, I’m not talking about last weekend’s games. I’m talking about Palermo firing Stefano Colantuono. After all, the Serie A season hasn’t truly begun until Maurizio Zampirini has canned his coach. So now that’s done, we can proceed with the festivities.

Now, there are certainly some owners who are less than reputable human beings (cough) and others who may be worse for the game of football in general, but is there a worse person to work for as a coach? Zampa is certifiably insane, doesn’t seem to care about his players (Eugenio Corini, anyone?) and the closest thing to tenure you’ll see is a full season behind the bench from beginning to end. This is now the 27th coach firing he’s made between Venezia and Palermo since 1987, with eight coaching changes coming since the beginning of the 2005-06 season.

On one hand, it’s difficult to feel bad for Colantuono, and on the other it isn’t. This was his third go around in Palermo within two years and he knows exactly how things operate there. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times and I should be IQ tested against a chimp, or something.

But this is after just one game against a very good Udinese team (as well as a cup loss) with a team that lost most of its best talent this summer. Let’s run down the list: Amauri, Andrea Barzagli, Cristiano Zaccardo, Leandro Rinaudo and Bosko Jankovic. Throw Tulio de Melo into that pile as well, if you’d like. They’ve picked up some replacement talent, but they’re still young and rebuilding, no bones about it. This year was always going to be a struggle. And going back to that Udinese game, it’s not like Colantuono could help Edison Cavani from being complete garbage or Antonio Di Natale from being that ridiculously good.

So in essence, Zampa sold half his team and then, when Palermo lost their first game, fired his coach. As much guff as Man City and Chelsea are getting, as a coach, would you rather know you have some semblance of job security but a giant, if ethically questionable, bank account behind you, or be forced to hire a full-time assistant to keep your resume updated 24/7? Expectations are one thing. Consistently unwavering and unreachable expectations are entirely another.

Pray for Davide Ballardini, new Palermo coach and the latest in a long line of men who should’ve opted to bag groceries instead.

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