Imagine Jurgen Klopp was parachuted in mid-season to replace Ruben Amorim at Manchester United? Or Zinedine Zidane taking over at Barcelona next summer? You can’t? Us neither.
But when it comes to Italy, imagination isn’t required. Iconic managers swapping big clubs and rivals has been part of Serie A’s fabric for decades.
Luciano Spalletti is the latest, having taken over from Igor Tudor at Juventus just over two years on from lifting the Scudetto with Napoli. The former Italy national team boss has also managed Inter Milan, and Roma twice, in his career, making him extremely qualified for the Old Lady job and the managerial merry-go-round.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Success and loyalty don’t go hand in hand
Four of the five most successful managers in Serie A history have taken charge of two of the three biggest clubs in the country. Those are Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan. Record seven-time winner Giovanni Trappatoni managed all three during a legendary career. He is one of two men to do so alongside the lesser-known Alberto Zaccheroni.
Trappatoni won several medals with Milan as a player including two European Cups, and started on the touchline with the Rossoneri before moving onto Juventus. There, he enjoyed a decade of dominance from 1976 to 1986.
Having won everything possible in Turin and then some, he moved across the Derby d’Italia divide to Inter in search of a new challenge. Heavy financial backing brought the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthaus to Inter. And Trappatoni lifted a seventh Serie A title at the San Siro, alongside a second Uefa Cup.
In England and Spain, he might have been viewed a traitor. But strangely he was not in Italy, returning to Juve for a second spell from 1991 to 1994. His successor at the Old Lady, Marcello Lippi, enjoyed a near-mirror career both in terms of dominance and job hopping.
He returned Juve to the top of Italian football, winning three league titles in just under five seasons. Not to mention making them the team to beat in Europe, lifting the club’s second European title and losing two further finals.
Lippi made the switch to the San Siro in 1999 but suffered the only down period of his career, failing to lift any silverware, and was sacked early into his second season. He then returned to his spiritual home, winning two more Scudettos and losing yet another European final.
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Capello, Conte and Allegri continue the work
The manager of AC Milan in that 2003 all-Italian final? Carlo Ancelotti, who made way for the return of Lippi. What’s musical chairs in Italian?
Peculiarly, Ancelotti only won a single Serie A title as a manager with Fabio Capello, Massimiliano Allegri and Antonio Conte instead making up the top five alongside Trapattoni and Lippi.
Capello managed the three clubs he played for — Milan, Roma and Juventus – and enjoyed huge success with all of them. Although, his two Scudettos won with Juventus were stripped following the 2006 Calciopoli match-fixing scandal.
Four of the five he held onto came in two spells with AC Milan in the early-to-mid 90s. A glorious era for the Rossoneri. The other was perhaps his most impressive, leading Roma to their third and most recent title in 2001.
Juventus returned to glory in 2011-12 under former player Conte with the first invincible season in the 20-team league era, which set the club up for a record nine-in-a-row run. The first three were won by Conte before he took the national team job.
His replacement was Allegri, who had won the final Scudetto before Juventus’ run began in 2010-11 with Milan. He won five on the bounce before leaving in 2019 with the ninth and final won by Maurizio Sarri, previously of Napoli and now of Lazio. The man to end Juve’s dominance? Conte with Inter. Of course.
Conte became the first man to officially win Serie A with three different clubs last season when he led Napoli to glory. Allegri is back at Milan for the second time, having briefly returned to Juve from 2022 to 2024.
Why is there a managerial merry-go-round in Serie A?
If you’re not aware by now, the landscape and ecosystem in Italy is chaotic to say the least. Only Turkey can possibly rival it for pure soap opera drama. Owners call the shots – see Watford in England – and short-termism is the name of the game with results paramount. The old saying of “give a manager time” just isn’t in the phrasebook.
It leads to incredible churn. This season started in oddly serene fashion with no managerial change in the first six game weeks for the first time in eight years. Juventus, Fiorentina, Atalanta and Genoa have since corrected that.
There were 12 managerial changes last summer, which almost equalled the 14 the year before. Needless to say, that’s a record in Europe’s top five leagues. As a result, 2006 World Cup hero Fabio Grosso is incredibly the longest-serving manager in the league and he took over at Sassuolo on 2rd June 2024!
On top of the churn, the biggest clubs almost always look to hire Italian managers. That is partly due to the league and ecosystem being very particular, as well as the economic situation that means the likes of Juventus and Inter can’t compete with the Premier League or Spain’s big two for managers or players. It feels at odds with the passion of the fanbases but its an accepted part of the country’s football culture.
A complete contrast to the Premier League
There are only four foreign managers currently in Serie A. In comparison, La Liga and Bundesliga have six, while the Premier League is a complete contrast with just three English managers.
In terms of title-winning managers, Italy and England could not be more different. Jose Mourinho (Inter in 2008-09, 2009-10) is the only foreign manager since Sven-Goran Eriksson (Lazio in 1999-00) to win Serie A. But no English manager has lifted the title in the Premier League era.
That may change this season if Christian Chivu can lead Inter to glory. Or in the future if Cesc Fabregas can be convinced to stay in Italy should he leave Como.
Whatever happens – whether it’s tactical evolution, clubs fortunes going up and down – the only certainty is the Serie A managerial merry-go-round will keep turning.