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This year has seen an unprecedented churn of managers at some of Europe’s top clubs.
Some changes have already been made, whilst others could be in the offing. Here are some of the clubs affected.
Inter Milan
Italy
When Antonio Conte led the Italian side to their first league title in a decade, the future seemed bright for Inter and their supporters. But, shortly, after the end of the season, Conte resigned by mutual consent and left the club.
The reason is the insistence on the Chinese owners of the club, the Suning Group, on substantial cost savings and the sale of some of the club’s stars in order to raise funds. The Chinese conglomerate had already withdrawn their support from Chinese football, leading to the liquidation of the Super League champions Jiangsu FC.
Conte, who was planning to invest further in the squad, felt that promises had been broken and he decided to leave immediately. He is currently being linked with the vacant Tottenham job.
Simone Inzaghi has been appointed to replace him.
Roma
Jose Mourinho, fired by Tottenham in April, is the new boss of Roma. He has taken over from fellow Portuguese Paulo Fonseca, whose contract was not renewed after a disappointing Serie A season.
Juventus
Juventus took a chance at the start of the season by hiring former player Andrea Pirlo as their name manager, despite the fact that Pirlo had just been appointed as their reserve team manager and had never taken charge of a senior game before,
The gamble did not pay off, despite winning the Super Cup and the Copa d’Italia , Juventus failed to win the league title for the first time in a decade, went out of the Champions League at the round of 16 stage, and only scraped into next year’s Champions League ion the last day of the season.
He has been replaced by former boss Max Allegri, back in football after a two year absence.
Napoli
Juventus achieved a top four finish in large part due to Napoli’s failure. Their inability to beat Hellas Verona on the last day of the season, cost Gennaro Gattuso his job. He has since taken over at Fiorentina.
Luciano Spalletti, former Roma and Inter Manager has taken Gattuso’s place at Napoli.
Spain (Part One)
Real Madrid
Zinedine Zidane resigned for the second time as Real Madrid manager at eh end of the season, claiming that the club no longer had faith in him.
The Frenchman re-joined the club in 2019, and led then to the league title last year. However, Real could only finish second to neighbours Atlético this season, were knocked out of the Copa del Rey early, and suffered a semi-final defeat in the Champions League at the expense of Chelsea, leaving them without silverware for the first time in a decade.
He has been replaced by Carlo Ancelotti, surprisingly brought back at the club he last managed in 2015, leaving his post as Everton manager.
Zidane has indicated he wants to get back into management straightway, and has been linked with PSG, although, theoretically, there is no vacancy there.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.