Ready to leave a mediocre season behind, Zamparini is already thinking about changing the organizational structure at Palermo. First, Zamparini and Sagramola reached an agreement with a new sponsor in Puma (finally an international brand instead of the current Legea kits). Then, the Palermo patron surprised everyone by hiring Christian Panucci as team manager. To tell the truth, this doesn’t seem to be a great move: Panucci has zero experience in the organizational field, having ended his career as a player just one year ago. Furthermore, Panucci would take the place of a Rosanero icon, Giovanni Tedesco. Why did Zamparini decide to make a change (again)?

 Iron Sergeant: Panucci has been an undisciplined and charismatic player in the past. Who better than him knows the tricks of certain youngsters (any reference to Hernandez is not coincidental) about the best way to not get caught in the club at 4 a.m.? Let’s not forget Carrozzieri’s words from this past summer about the poor discipline of several players and, most of all, about the cohesion of the group. The self-discipline code imposed by Panucci will be useful to avoid these problems. Panucci already established a system that will fine any player booked because of protests – which will calm some mental cases (and avoid episodes like Miccoli’s yellow card against Roma).

Good Connections: Playing for Europe’s best teams and working for Sky Italia allowed Panucci to establish some good contacts at media levels. Palermo still doesn’t have great clout and this is also why Zamparini is currently looking for a new person to take charge of the marketing area. With new investors always interested in how to advertise, improvement in this area is needed.

Road to the Future: Zamparini doesn’t want to leave the team, but he wants to entrust it to young and trustworthy hands. In this sense, the Panucci-Cattani duo is a good choice. They will divide their work: Panucci will take care of internal policy, while Cattani will work on transfer market…and maybe supervised by an expert Sporting Director (dS) Perinetti? Lo Monaco?

Finally, a thought dedicated to Giovanni Tedesco. He was an icon of the team who was fighting for a Champions League spot, he accepted the team manager role without any hesitation. Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed in imposing his authority and his former teammates kept looking at him like one of them, not like a chief. This wasn’t his role at all, but I hope he will stay within the society, perhaps with an easier role in Primavera team where his experience would really be useful.

Forza Palermo!!!!