Luciano Spalletti and the return to the bench: there's a hurdle to overcome
The news of a rapprochement between Luciano Spalletti and Fenerbahce, looking for new technical leadership after the’farewell to Mourinho, has quickly made the rounds in Europe but for the Certaldo coach there’s an obstacle to returning to the bench three months after the end of his stint as technical commissioner of the national team.
As in fact reported by ‘Türkiye Today’, Turkish businessman and former athlete Sadettin Saran, currently on the board of the Istanbul club, of which he is also a candidate for the presidency, revealed that the club would first be considering another name, that of Sergio Conceiçao, also a veteran of an experience that ended without much glory (except for the Super Cup success in January) at the helm of AC Milan.
Spalletti, who has not coached a club since the end of the 2022-2023 season, which ended with Napoli winning its third Scudetto, has already said he is ready to return to the bench, to put the bitter end of his Azzurri adventure behind him. This summer his name had also been approached to’Al-Nassr after Stefano Pioli’s farewell, but the club known for the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo in the squad preferred to veer to another profile, that of Jorge Jesus.
In the meantime, Fenerbahce is being led on an interim basis by Zeki Murat Göle, already on the club’s technical staff since 2014 (and before that leading the youth team). Mourinho’s exoneration came last Aug. 28, in the’aftermath of Fener’s defeat against Benfica that ousted the Turkish club from the Champions League Phase, forcing it to play in the main stage of the Europa League.
