Italy's Serie A suffered its 16th managerial change of the season last week. There are six matchdays left in the calendar, so who is to say if the eventual total might not match, even exceed the number of clubs in the top division?
With Palermo still in the ranks, still jittery about their spot in the relegation zone and still under the presidency of the volatile Maurizio Zamparini, anything is possible. Zamparini has changed his manager six times since September.
If Palermo will almost always stand at the surreal end of the spectrum of Italy's hard-to-shake-off reputation for knee-jerk, trigger-happy hirings and firings, AC Milan — once a watchword for executive stability — are very quickly moving closer to its centre.
On Sunday, Cristian Brocchi, 40, will be in charge of his first match, against Sampdoria, as their manager. It may well be one of just six he has in that role in the league.
On his immediate horizon there is also the Coppa Italia final, against the strongest club in Italy — Juventus — which is the only viable source of optimism left for milanisti, the weary fans and indeed Milan's players after another desperate and indeed dull campaign.
Brocchi, who has never coached at senior, top-flight level before, would be forgiven for wondering less about what is on the horizon than what is immediately behind him.
The Milan coach’s position has become an ejector seat, the latest to be catapulted, Sinisa Mihajlovic, who started in the job last summer and has become the third man in just over two years not to last a full season. Brocchi knows one of those very well.
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Clarence Seedorf, who was appointed in January 2014, lasted until the end of that season. He and Brocchi were teammates at Milan in far happier days than the club are experiencing now, scrabbling about trying to hang onto sixth place and a shot at next season’s Europa League. Seedorf and Brocchi won two Uefa Champions League titles together in 2003 and 2007. They were fellow midfielders, Seedorf the more gifted, Brocchi a valued scrapper.
Brocchi knows the coach who followed Seedorf into the perilous chair, too. Filippo Inzaghi, appointed in the summer of 2014 and dismissed in May 2015, was another of the Milan players from a gilded era whom the club president Silvio Berlusconi admired for what they had shown on the pitch and appreciated talking to about the game.
He saw evidence in Seedorf’s sharp mind that here was a coach in the making. He saw Inzaghi apply himself effectively and intelligently to work with the club’s youth team. Brocchi had been in that job, coaching Milan’s youth players this season, up until his sudden promotion to replace Mihajlovic.
There are many patterns here.
There is the enthusiasm of the president to entrust the revival of an ailing club, with a budget curtailed over the past five years, to men who knew Milan as a fiercely competitive giant of Europe. And there is the limited time they get to make good on their perceived potential.
The same Milan who employed just one coach, Carlo Ancelotti, between 2001 and 2009, have had eight since Ancelotti left, four of them former players, including Leonardo, the man who followed Ancelotti.
Mihajlovic was always an outsider, because he had played for Inter Milan, as well as various other clubs but not AC Milan. He was sacked, Berlusconi said, not just because results were poor, but "the football was not of the standards this club expects".
The last coach to regularly fulfil the requirement of success and stylishness was Massimiliano Allegri, dismissed at the beginning of 2014, and now on his way to winning a second successive title in charge of Juventus.
“This is not a club in chaos,” Berlusconi’s right-hand man, Adriano Galliani, found himself insisting at Brocchi’s appointment last week.
What Brocchi’s appointment precisely was seemed unclear. He is something between caretaker and stopgap, or on audition for the longer-term. And he is the latest nostalgic link to a better past.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK — VAGNER LOVE (Monaco)
Monaco have a tradition of recruiting strikers with plenty of experience, which does not work all the time, and will hope Love, 31, will justify his move.
Ageing rockers
Monaco has been a popular destination since the turn of the millennium for thirtysomething goalscorers with international reputations. Love, who won the last of his 20 caps for Brazil seven years ago, follows the likes of Christian Vieri, Oliver Bierhoff, Marco di Viao, Jan Koller, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Dimitar Berbatov.
Winter fuel
Berbatov joined Monaco from Fulham just as he turned 33 two winters ago, and his goals and guile helped Monaco qualify for the Uefa Champions League. Love, who signed in January from Corinthians, has a similar assignment. Monaco have a battle on to finish in Ligue 1’s top three, the minimum to reach Europe’s elite tournament.
The look of Love
With his distinctive, colourfully beaded braids, Love was once an eye-catching figure around the top stadiums of Europe. He regularly struck important goals for CSKA Moscow in Russia and in the Uefa Cup, precursor to the Europa League. He hit the third CSKA goal in their 3-1 win over Sporting Portugal in the 2005 final and was leading marksman in the 2008/09 Uefa Cup.
Vagner the voyager
He spent two spells at CSKA, the first lasting six years, during which time he won most of his Brazil caps, picking up Copa America gold medals in 2004 and 2007. He played for Palmeiras and Flamengo and has tried Chinese football too, with a season at Shanding Luneng Taishan. He moved from there to Corinthians last year, where his form — 14 goals in 30 games — caught Monaco’s interest.
Fox in the box
Love’s trademark assets are his slipperiness in the penalty box and his sharp instincts as a finisher. He has not lost his knack of goals, with four so far from eight league starts. He hopes to add to that in Sunday’s Mediterranean derby against troubled Olympique Marseille.
MATCH OF THE WEEK — CELCTIC v RANGERS
Rangers manger Mark Warburton has again shot down striker Martyn Waghorn’s hopes of taking on Celtic. The Ibrox manager revealed last week that the forward’s knee injury would rule him out of this Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden.
But Waghorn, 26, refused to throw in the towel and on Wednesday urged Warburton to let him play against the Old Firm rivals.
However, the Englishman has had to disappoint the former Sunderland frontman after insisting he would not risk his recovery by throwing him into action on the newly relaid Hampden turf.
Waghorn has not featured since damaging ligaments on Kilmarnock’s plastic pitch in February but has resumed light training.
“Martyn, as I’ve said many, many times, will not be fit for the semi-final,” said Warburton. “The right thing to do is to do the right thing by Martyn.”
His absence is another blow to Rangers ahead of facing their old rivals. Playmaker Harry Forrester is out after sustaining a hairline fracture in his leg. And with wingers Billy King and Michael O’Halloran cup-tied, the attacking options appear thin on the ground.
Rangers will have to pin their scoring hopes on veteran frontman Kenny Miller. The 36-year-old has had an impressive campaign to date after netting 18 goals in 37 outings. But then again, he has not had to face a defence as tough as the Celtic rearguard this term. Dedryck Boyata may be the weakest link in Ronny Deila’s back four, with lapses in concentration a problem for the former Manchester City centre-back, but his pace and power will make life difficult for Miller.
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