Market, Raffaele Palladino and Atalanta officially say goodbye: two hypotheses for the young coach
The separation between Raffaele Palladino and Atalanta has become official. In a statement released on Tuesday, the Bergamo-based club announced that it had relieved the coach and his staff, composed of Stefano Citterio, Federico Peluso, Fabio Corabi, Nicola Riva, Mattia Casella, Andrea Ramponi and Andrea Berti, of their duties. A clear closure, which came after weeks of internal evaluations that should lead to Maurizio Sarri, while for Palladino a new phase opens, perhaps the most delicate of his still young career.
The coach from Mugnano di Napoli in fact finds himself at a crossroads. On the one hand, there is a desire to remain in Serie A, but the landscape of available benches is virtually deserted. Among the teams qualified for the next Champions League, Inter has confirmed Chivu, Napoli is waiting for Allegri, Roma has armored Gasperini and Como is continuing with Fabregas.
Among the other clubs, Juventus continues with Spalletti, while Milan is negotiating with Oliver Glasner but in Rossoneri circles Palladino’s name has never been mentioned. Even the possible outsiders have already defined their technical arrangements: Tedesco at Bologna, De Rossi at Genoa, Runjaic at Udinese, Aquilani at Sassuolo, Grosso at Fiorentina, Gattuso at Lazio, Pisacane at Cagliari, Abate at Torino, and Cuesta at Parma. Not even among the newly promoted teams there are no glimmers of hope, and Monza (which Palladino knows well) has, among other things, confirmed Paolo Bianco just in the past few hours.
The most realistic scenario, at the moment, is to put himself on hold. Palladino could choose to stay at the window, ready to take over in case of exonero-lamp, just as happened at Atalanta with Juric. A risky but not unusual strategy for a coach who nonetheless enjoys a good reputation and has already shown he can make an impact even entering the season in progress.
The other road leads abroad. Palladino’s name has been circulating for some time in France and England, two leagues that are monitoring his situation and that could offer him a different project, along the lines of the path taken, for example, by Roberto De Zerbi. A choice that would require courage, but which could represent a turning point at a time when the Italian market seems to have closed all doors.
