For the moment it is a two -way run between Alberto Aquilani and Ignazio Abate. Indeed, it is almost a sprint, given that the sports director Ciro Polito wants to choose the next coach of Catanzaro by the end of this week. We have probably not yet reached the final straight, perhaps the last corner should be overcome and this implies that some competitor can also recover ground, but the strong idea of Catanzaro is to entrust the assignment to one of the two.
And the first, Aquilani, seems to be favored for several reasons. One is what happened last year, because the almost forty -one -year -old who had recently finished the experience at Pisa, had been immediately identified as Vivarini’s heir. The club had tried to convince him for a long time, first also with the mediation of Pietro Iemmello, friend and former teammate at Sassuolo, then entrusting the conduct of the negotiation to Polito, in the meantime he became the new sports director of the eagles. The technician had refused on several occasions and Catanzaro at the beginning of July had made his turn on Caserta, who yesterday signed the consensual termination of the contract that would expire on 30 June 2026: the separation is now also formal. The second reason is that Aquilani gives the guarantee of tracing the game imprint that has enhanced footballers and led to results in some ways surprising: for a group that will still focus on Iemmello and Petriccione, who has good defenders in the possession phase (Brighenti, Scognamillo, for now also Antonini and Bonini) and several other elements that make it better “playing” (Pontisso, D’Alessandro, at the moment. Pompetti and Biasci), a coach who knows how to use them as he owes is a fundamental condition not to break out everything.
Moreover, Caserta also continued in the wake tracked by Vivarini: one step at a time has inserted some of his concepts, but the “player” vocation – construction from below and insisted possession – remained substantially the same. Unlike last year, the possibilities of a “yes” of Aquilani, stopped by a season, are much more. However, Abate does not seem to fall back, since he has similar ideas in terms of the game, he knows how to work with the boys like his colleague and he is also a young man who wants to grow and emerge. But he has not yet tested himself with the Serie B and this is definitely a point in favor of Aquilani. Of which, among other things, he is a good friend, considering some holidays spent together, with their respective families, after sharing the locker room for Milan. On them there is also the Bari of Magalini, who does not seem to be able to close with Nesta.