He shouts at his players in the menacing tone that only Gennaro Gattuso can manage “Come on, come on. See we can’t even string four passes together, for God’s sake come on.” As the drill goes on Gattuso continues to bark out his orders, then one of his players has the audacity to try a back heel with him only yards away. The riposte is immediate, “Stop with the heel flicks, stop with the heel flicks, it’s hard enough to play football.”
It is probably not a surprising response from a man who was far from renowned for his silky skills on the ball and more for his aggressive intimidating presence. Yet it shows even now, a number of years after hanging up his boots and donning the managerial jacket, that Gattuso is still the same man no matter what.
As for the unlucky players on the receiving end of him, well they are from Lega Pro club Pisa where Gennaro was appointed manager on the 22nd August. The Nerazzuri are Gattuso’s fourth managerial job in just over two years and more than likely his last real chance of proving that he can be just as much as of a success on the bench as he was on the pitch.
If you think however that Pisa with its world famous leaning tower will be a nice quite place out of the spotlight for Gattuso to finally get his coaching career going then you are sorely mistaken. Despite not having played in Serie B since the 2008/09 season this is an ambitious club with a demanding fan base, which was only second in size to Salernitana in average attendance last year throughout all three Lega Pro divisions.
So while on the face of it, it may look a perfect place for Gattuso to learn the trade, it does not come without its own unique pressures. Yet Gennaro is a man more than used to the pressures of the professional game.
Having left Milan in the summer of 2012, he moved north and into Switzerland to sign for FC Sion where he wound down his illustrious career in the shadows of the Alps and Sion’s twin castles Valére and Tourbillon.
Barely seven months into his spell with the club he was thrusted back into the limelight when the club relieved then manager Victor Munoz of the reigns and handed them to Gattuso on a temporary basis. It was perhaps too soon for him to be given the responsibility of first team management, but even at that he was given nowhere near the time need to do anything constructive lasting only three matches as player coach.
Those not in the know would later use this as a stick to beat his back with when things went wrong elsewhere. There were though mitigating circumstances, Gattuso was the seventh man in less than a year to have been placed in charge of the club. If nothing else this showed a greater fault with Sion than with Gattuso, but nobody seemed to pay that any notice all they saw was him sacked after only a month.
While he may have had an excuse for what happened at Sion he would have no such alibi for what happened at his next club Palermo. Again it was a somewhat surprising appointment for Gattuso with not many people expecting him to get such a relatively big job so soon in his career. Along with that also came the added pressure of having to get Palermo out of Serie B after they’d been relegated the season before.
With the Rosanero faithful demanding an immediate return to the top flight anything other than a perfect start would be deemed unacceptable. Sadly for Gattuso the perfect start never materialised in fact it was far from it as the club won only two of their opening six matches leaving them off the pace early on. Palermo’s infamous owner Maurizio Zamaprini soon gave the 35 year the dreaded vote of confidence, insisting that he would not sack Gattuso. Yet after only eight matches in charge Zamparini did what comes naturally to him and gave Gennaro the booth.
“It is with true and profound sadness that I announce the dismissal of Gennaro Gattuso as coach of the first team. The results have forced us to take this decision.”
“Perhaps he and I have taken a step too far in what was his first experience as a coach (Full Time), in a club and a city as challenging as Palermo is.”
To anyone who knew the two reputations of the men it was no surprise that it all ended in tears, but while Zamparini could hire and fire without reproach, Gattuso was now though to all intents and purposes out in the cold.
When he finally emerged from that cold it was in a most unlikely of spots with OFI Crete of the Greek Superleague. Once more it seemed as if Gennaro had bitten off more than he could chew by taking over the club. Even before his arrival rumours were abound that the side were in a poor financial state.
Things though were soon to get worse. A few months into his spell with the islanders more stories of the club perilous financial state began to emerge with murmurings that neither players nor coaches were being paid.
Gattuso though demanded that his players continued to give there all and that it was not about money but the game. However the stresses of managing a club on the brink soon came to a head in what has now become a famous press conference.
In a way very similar to fellow Italian Giovanni Trappatoni’s outburst while in charge of Bayern Munich, Gattuso unloaded on the journalists sitting in front of him. In an expletive laden rant he unloaded all of his frustrations on those present. Perhaps the highlight of the press conference however was the sheer look of terror on his translators face when he realised he had to repeat Gattuso less than PC words.
In the end Gattuso decided to cut his losses and resigned in December 2014 after six months and 17 matches in charge.
Now however he is back in the dugout once again, this time at Pisa. How will it go? Nobody knows. Pisa will be aiming for promotion and have made moves towards that already with the additions of Arturo Lupoli and Edgar Cani on deadline day.
It’s make or break time for Gattuso, can he keep his head while all those around lose there’s? Whatever the answer Rino is back and Lega Pro just got a whole lot more interesting.
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