After earlier reports, Monza have now officially sacked coach Giovanni Stroppa and promoted youth team boss Raffaele Palladino for the match against Juventus.
This is their first ever Serie A campaign after earning promotion via the play-offs last summer, but Stroppa did not survive the rough start of one point from five rounds.
A 1-1 draw away to Lecce brought strong public criticism from President Silvio Berlusconi, who consistently complained about Stroppa’s tactics even when CEO Adriano Galliani was trying to reassure that the coach was safe.
Stroppa has been fired and the formal decision was made to promote Palladino, who has been the youth team coach at Monza since 2021.
The 38-year-old is a former Juventus, Genoa and Salernitana player who retired in 2019 following a brief spell at Monza.
It remains to be seen if this is a long-term appointment or just a caretaker role, as Claudio Ranieri has been linked with the job.
Stroppa becomes the second Serie A coach to be fired this season after just five rounds, after Sinisa Mihajlovic was replaced by Thiago Motta at Bologna.
Oh, Berlusconi is still alive. So, figures that would happen