Bologna market, bench earthquake continues with Vincenzo Italiano
Bologna soccer market: Vincenzo Italiano is just the latest tile in a domino that is sweeping Serie A even before the month of May is over. In fact, the coach of the historic Coppa Italia won in 2025 and of the Felsinee adventures in the Champions League and then Europa League is leaving the Rossoblù in agreement with the club. For his future there is a hypothesis AC Milan, for his replacement there is talk of Eusebio Di Francesco, Domenico Tedesco, Raffaele Palladino (who at Atalanta should be replaced by Maurizio Sarri) or a return of Stefano Pioli after the three-year period 2011-2014.
“Bologna FC 1909 – reads the Emilian club’s statement – announces that it has reached an agreement with Vincenzo Italiano for the consensual termination of his contract. Italiano has informed the Club that he considers his cycle in Bologna to be concluded, at the end of two seasons marked by excellent results, regardless of any future job prospects. The club would like to thank Vincenzo for the passion and dedication with which he has carried out his work during these years, which will also remain in the Club’s history for winning the Coppa Italia on May 14, 2025. The best wishes for the continuation of his career go to Italiano and his staff.”
The most likely destination for Italiano actually seemed to be Napoli. After the farewell of Antonio Conte – who guided the Azzurri to their fourth Scudetto and then to second place last season – President Aurelio De Laurentiis had jumped on the former Bologna and Fiorentina coach as the ideal profile to pick up a heavy legacy. In the meantime, however, Massimiliano Allegri’s overtake has arrived. The Livorno-born coach, fresh from his exoneration with AC Milan after a disappointing season culminating with the failure to qualify for the Champions League, was the name strongly advocated by Azzurri sporting director Giovanni Manna, with whom he shares a fruitful experience at the time of Juventus. Contacts between the Neapolitan club and Allegri’s entourage have continued relentlessly, to the point of relegating Italiano to the background.
Acc Milan, for its part, is closely monitoring Italiano’s situation precisely with a view to a new and widely expected turnaround on the bench. With Allegri on his way out and the Rossoneri intent on resetting the technical and managerial set-up after the failure of European qualification, the former Bologna coach’s name had already emerged in the past as a welcome profile at Milanello. The moment Allegri’s landing at Napoli becomes official, the Italian hypothesis for the Diavolo’s bench would come back powerfully into the spotlight.
Meanwhile, the domino of benches also involves Lazio, where Maurizio Sarri has officially left the biancoceleste club with a consensual termination of his contract. For the Tuscan coach, the Atalanta track is now open, where he is expected to pick up the legacy of Raffaele Palladino. The biancocelesti, on the other hand, seem to be leaning toward Gennaro Gattuso, who is close to a two-year deal until 2028: one more piece in a coaches’ market that, in this end of May, is redrawing the map of Serie A benches.
