In what could be a very ironic turn of events, AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli and Bologna coach Thiago Motta could find themselves swapping jobs in the summer.
As has been reported by Sportitalia (via Milan News), there could be a real managerial merry-go-round in Serie A this summer with a number of coaches set to be on the move and many likely to still stay within the division rather than move abroad.
Pioli is expected to leave Milan this summer after an underwhelming season which saw them fail to challenge Inter for the Serie A title and miss out on a Champions League run.
He has been linked with the Napoli job which should be available this summer, but Bologna are now also said to be interested in the event that Motta leaves.
Motta is out of contract at the end of this season but the Rossoblu will be working hard to keep him given how well he has performed this season.
Pioli has coached Bologna in the past. Between 2011 and 2014, he won 32 matches out of 97 as the Rossoblu coach.
Milan are certainly not the only team looking at Motta for the bench next season, with Juventus and Chelsea also linked.
Oh well, it’s silly season already, so might as well jump in then.
Personally I think if Motta is leaving, his replacement would be Italiano, whereas Pioli would be very much suited to Napoli..
Nah, you have it the wrong way around. Italiano is suited to Napoli, who would benefit from his attacking style, while Pioli’s mid-table club tactics will be perfect for Bologna after they have sold off all of their best pieces.
32% win rate, sounds like Pioli’s standards.
32% for a team like Bologna (especially around 2012) is not too bad.
And if you talk about standard, his winning percentage for Milan (55%) should rank quite high among Milan coaches. About top 5 from all Milan coaches in history. So his standar is quite high for us (hence top 2 finish mostly in league except last season)
Most of those other coaches were in charge when Serie A was the best league in the world. Completely different standard of competition (and achievement). There were 6-7 sides filled with some of the world’s best talent. Of course, we were stronger too, but I think the relative decline of our squad now vs. our squads then, and that of the league now vs. then is sharper for the league as a whole.
Bologna would be a really good landing spot for Pioli. I think he’d be better off there then going to work for Napoli’s crazy owner. More stable and a chance to build on what they did this year.
Can you imagine if Pioli goes to Bologna and causes the Saladmaker deal to fall through?
Nice.. People seem to love saladmaker so we’d get a superb asset back. 20 goals in his first season back imao. Then after 3 years we can sell him for 70M