Soccer: Two more heads roll in Serie A
Rossi in for Zenga at Palermo, Malesani for Baroni at Siena
23 November, 18:02
(ANSA) - Rome, November 23 - Two more heads rolled
in Serie A Monday as Italian soccer's top flight set a new axing
record.Ex-Lazio coach Delio Rossi replaced Walter Zenga at Palermo and former Parma manager Alberto Malesani came in for Marco Baroni at bottom club Siena in the Tuscans' second change of leadership in a month.
Eight Serie A coaches have now been replaced in 13 games.
New Palermo boss Rossi, 49, coached Lazio from 2005 until the end of last season, leading them to a European Champions League berth in 2007 and victory in last season's Italian Cup Final against Sampdoria.
He has signed a contract with Palermo until June 2010 which gives the club an option of extending it by one year.
Zenga, a former Inter Milan and Italy goalkeeper, got the chop after the mid-table club could only manage a draw in the Sicilian derby against second-from-bottom Catania.
The 49-year-old former Red Star Belgrade and Dinamo Bucharest coach made a surprise switch from Catania to Palermo in the close season and did so well at the start of this campaign that there was talk of him one day replacing Jose Mourinho at Inter.
But Palermo have slipped from the European qualification zone to 12th place and 'coach-eating' Chairman Maurizio Zamparini, who has seen off 28 coaches in 20 years, had been widely reported as itching to fire Zenga if he didn't win the derby.
Malesani replaced Marco Baroni after Siena's 2-0 home defeat to Atalanta left the Tuscans three points below Catania at the foot of the table.
Malesani, 55, won an Italian Cup, a UEFA Cup and an Italian Super Cup and earned two fourth-place finishes at Parma in 1998-2001 before enjoying much less success at Verona, Modena, Panathinaikos, Udinese and Empoli. Former youth team coach Baroni had been in the job for less than a month, coming in for Marco Giampaolo on October 29. Before Baroni, the last coach to go was his predecessor at Siena, Marco Giampaolo, shown the door on October 29.
Before that, on October 20, Bologna replaced Giuseppe Papadopulo with former Napoli and Cagliari coach Franco Colomba.
A day before, then bottom club Livorno brought in ex-Perugia coach Serse Cosmi in place of joint coaches Vittorio Russo and Gennaro Ruotolo.
AS Roma, Atalanta and Napoli are the other clubs to have seen heads roll.
Luciano Spalletti was sacked after Roma's two opening defeats and replaced by Claudio Ranieri; Angelo Gregucci got the push at Atalanta on Day Four and was replaced by Antonio Conte; and former Italy manager Roberto Donadoni fell in favour of Walter Mazzari after Napoli's seventh game.
photo: Rossi
