Serie A side Salernitana appointed a familiar face as their new coach on Wednesday, bringing Davide Nicola back to the club only two days after sacking him.
Nicola was relieved of his duties on Monday, a day after a chastening 8-2 defeat at Atalanta, but club president Danilo Iervolino took the remarkable step of recalling him to the position on Wednesday to give the coach “another chance”.
Davide Nicola was sacked, then re-hired two days later.Credit: Getty Images
“You only realise how much you love someone when they leave,” Iervolino told a news conference.
“It was the only way we could clear the air. So for the good of the club, the players and everything, it’s only right that the coach has another chance, with the promise the team will never again suffer such a humiliating defeat.”
Nicola thanked Iervolino and sporting director Morgan De Sanctis for taking him back. The 49-year-old coach said he convinced Iervolino to rehire him during a phone call.
“This means that the new football is made of passion and heart, and I want to repay his trust with all my love,” Nicola wrote in a message on Facebook.
“We have weeks of hard work ahead to reach our targets.”
The loss at Atalanta was Salernitana’s fourth in its last five matches – a run that has sent the team plummeting down the Serie A table to 16th place after 18 matches, nine points above the relegation zone.
The first match of Nicola’s second spell in charge of the team is at home to runaway leaders Napoli on the weekend.
Nicola was appointed Salernitana coach last February when the team was trying to stave off relegation from Serie A, and he helped to turn things around. Back in the top flight after an absence of more than 20 years, Salernitana had spent nearly the entire campaign at the bottom of the table. But under Nicola, Salernitana recorded 18 points in the remaining 15 matches to stay up and he was rewarded with a new two-year contract in June.
Reuters, with AP
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