Patrick Vieira,48 years old, is the new coach of Genoa replacing Alberto Gilardino,sacked this morning. At Genoa Vieira will also work with Balotelli, who returned to play in Serie A a few weeks ago. Relations between the two have always been difficult. It was Vieira himself who spoke about his relationship with ‘Super Mario’ in an interview when he was managing Nice, explaining that “His mentality is not suited to a collective sport. It’s really complicated for me to work with him. An unmanageable situation for both”. A few months ago, however, it was Balotelli who returned to the topic of his relationship with Vieira: “I was happy in Nice and if I hadn’t had these problems with him I would never have left.” Now the two, teammates also as players during their time at Manchester City, will find themselves together again.
Gilardino’s dismissal was a surprise, considering that Grifone had won 4 points in the last two matches and was currently out of the relegation zone. A surprise divorce, but the motivation would be in the lack of results and play and in the management of the group which caused so many injuries.
Sports director Ottolini would have communicated the decision to Gilardino this morning in Pegli with the team resuming preparations for Sunday’s match at Ferraris against Cagliari. After 12 championship games, Genoa has 10 points in the standings, the result of 2 wins, 4 draws and 6 defeats. Four points have come in the last two games (victory over Parma and draw against Como).