Stefano Pioli looks set to leave AC Milan in the summer and could join another Serie A club straight away, as Napoli have expressed their interest. This is good news for the Rossoneri, financially speaking anyway.
As highlighted by today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), Pioli has a contract with Milan until 2025 and a solution will thus have to be reached in the summer. A departure with a severance pay is the most likely outcome, but this might not be that hefty.
Napoli are looking for a permanent solution on the bench, after hiring Walter Mazzari and Francesco Calzona as interim managers, and Pioli is one of the top candidates for the job. The 58-year-old could thus get a new job immediately after leaving Milan.
This is good news for the Rossoneri as they likely could terminate Pioli’s contract by mutual consent, instead of having to pay a high severance fee. There will likely be some sort of fee involved but it will be nominal compared to the salary, which would be €7.4m gross for 2024-25.
When Milan sacked Marco Giampaolo back in 2019, he remained on the payroll until the summer of 2020 and this is something the Rossoneri want to stop from happening again.
Napoli buys two CB a midfielder to cover the exit of zielinski and it looks like david will come Osi is going.. and that’s that. They’re good to go.
And you know pioli will do fine there because there is no pressure to win the title or go far in eu.. It’s napoli after all. Participation is enough for them 😀
I smile as well 😁😁😁😁😄
Maybe we should get Spaletti after the Euro. Just look at Napoli with Spaletti last year and now without him. His record in Seria A is really good.
Unless the Azzurri have a disastrous Euros I don’t see Spalletti leaving. He’s expected to lead the national side into the 2026 FiFA world cup
Pioli would be great for Napoli but also a bit of a conservative choice.
They’ll essentially be at the start of a cycle next season. It’s a very similar scenario to that which confronted Pioli when he started as Milan. But it also lends itself to a younger coach growing with the new team.
Pioli’s strength is building a united dressing room culture. The Milan players have been united for almost his entire tenure and still seem to have his back. Napoli is going to need that after some turmoil.
While he has his tactical flaws, he can coach. If I was ADL I’d probably go for Palladino or Italiano and be looking at a 5 to 10 year project. But I can understand how a safe pair of hands like Pioli might be more important after ADL single-handedly blew that great Napoli team to pieces. They need to stabilise. They can’t really afford a more unknown quantity to fail there is too much ground that will be lost on the competition.
I don’t know why we’re so eager to see Pioli coach Napoli.
This is just my perspective and of course I could be wrong, but Pioli is the perfect profile for Napoli at the moment. In fact, I can’t even come up with a better guy who would be just that suited to them. Sure, Palladino or Italiano might looks better on paper, but they are not what Napoli needs right now. Remember, Napoli, despite their swashbuckling ways for the past few season, had been reasonably neutralized by Pioli – this might suggest that at the very least, Pioli knows their strength and weaknesses.
Sure, he might lose the service of Osimhen and Kvara next season and had to start from scratch. But he’s certainly able to do that, he stabillized a lot of teams during rocky situations throughout his careers. He would probably be the most suited manager to work under mercurial ADL too. If Napoli missed out on Europe completely next season, be extra alert – that’s just gonna be a bonus to a coach who struggled to rotate properly like Pioli. Compared to other names like Palladino/Italiano/Gasperini, Pioli actually won a scudetto before, that’s another plus in my books. Sure, Conte has a couple of Scudetto too, but would you really think that Conte and ADL would make a perfect couple? Unlikely.
If I was Milan’s management, probably I’ll keep him locked under contract, even if that might cost a bit (7.4M according to article). The thought of just giving up freely a perfect piece of puzzle to a fellow contender do worry me a little. If Napoli wants him, pay up.