‘Guidolin the best, but Gattuso…’

Maurizio Zamparini calls hiring Gennaro Gattuso at Palermo a mistake, and suggests the best Coach he worked with was Francesco Guidolin.

The Rosanero only achieved seven points after six games with former Milan midfielder Gattuso at the helm last year, before the trigger-happy President replaced him with Beppe Iachini.

“It wasn’t easy to bounce back immediately and our problem at the beginning was Rino Gattuso – it was a mistake to hire him,” Zamparini told Il Messaggero Veneto in an interview.

Maurizio Zamparini calls hiring Gennaro Gattuso at Palermo a mistake, and suggests the best Coach he worked with was Francesco Guidolin.

The Rosanero only achieved seven points after six games with former Milan midfielder Gattuso at the helm last year, before the trigger-happy President replaced him with Beppe Iachini.

“It wasn’t easy to bounce back immediately and our problem at the beginning was Rino Gattuso – it was a mistake to hire him,” Zamparini told Il Messaggero Veneto in an interview.

“Then we have replaced him with Giuseppe Iachini who is a very capable Coach, and who has helped us from many points of view.

“We won the League [14] points clear of second placed Empoli and last Sunday at San Siro the line-up featured 10 of the regular starters in Serie B – we don’t feel like a newly promoted club.

“In fact, I think that it’s a very balanced League. If Sampdoria are third and Genoa are fourth, it means that, apart from Juventus and Roma, there could be from six to eight teams on course to qualify for Europe.

“Personally, I prefer a tournament like this when nothing is decided and everything is uncertain and unpredictable.

“In the summer for instance, Fiorentina were supposed to give sparkling performances according to many, but it’s not so.”

Being asked who were the best of the 52 Coaches he has hired and fired in his life, Zamparini said: “Francesco Guidolin is the best Coach I have ever hired, but I’ve hired many – Luciano Spalletti, Alberto Zaccheroni, Cesare Prandelli and also Giampiero Ventura.

“Ventura for instance didn’t make it to a big club just because of his introvert character – that has penalised him.

“Giuseppe Sannino, however, I took him here after I called Vincenzo Montella who was free but who then decided to join Fiorentina.

“Sannino instead is like Rolando Maran – he doesn’t make the difference. I am not surprised that he didn’t have his break-through in England.”

Finally, as Palermo welcomes Udinese this weekend, Zamparini compared the realities of Udine and Palermo in terms of new stadiums.

Whilst the Zebrette are currently rebuilding the Friuli, the Rosanero have been unable to bring their project forward.

“In Udine you are lucky to have such a modern mayor. I say this according to my experience, because in the past I’ve invested there and I had to deal personally with the mayor.

“With him things move forward. While in Palermo the project for the stadium has been locked in a drawer in the last three years and nobody takes it out.

“The financial cover is there, and everybody would benefit from it – the City of Palermo, Sicily. But nobody moves and that’s our ridiculous politics in a nutshell.”