Luciano Spalletti, chosen by Juventus to straighten out the season, has had a career as a substitute with excellent results. Here are the precedents with Empoli, Udinese, Ancora, Roma and… the national team
Luciano Spalletti has a professional history certified by… fixer. Four times during his career he was called to the bedside of teams in difficulty and four times he achieved the objective he had been given. Indeed, he often managed to do even better than expected and in some of these situations he earned confirmation on the bench or an advancement in status on the field.
Now it’s Juventus’ turn, inherited from Tudor outside the European zone even if we are only at the dawn of a long season which must express its results and values. In any case, the precedents deny the thesis according to which the former national coach is a “game player” who as such needs a lot of time to take root within a locker room. Good news for the Bianconeri even if the bar of expectations at Juventus rises and is inevitably higher than that of Empoli, Udine, Ancona and Rome.
Spalletti, early career substitutions in Empoli, Udine and Ancona
The first time Luciano Spalletti was called into the running by a club struggling with a results crisis was in 1994 atEmpoli. Chosen in place of Lombardi when there were only six matches left at the end of the Serie C1 regular season and the Tuscans were in dire straits: Empoli then survived by passing through the playouts. He then remained in Tuscany until 1998, guaranteeing the extraordinary climb up to Serie A in three seasons.
After Empoli, here is Udine. Spalletti’s second time as a substitute was in 2001 in place of De Canio at the helm ofUdinese. The Friulians were disappointing and with Spalletti on the bench they managed to end the season with a comfortable survival without, however, obtaining extraordinary results: 9 points in the last 11 matchdays.
The arrival in December 2001 also belongs to the first phase of his career Ancona. Half a season still to be played with the task of saving the Marche team which at the end of the championship even reached eighth place in Serie B, confirming the qualities of the coach from Certaldo so much so as to project him back onto the bench of Udinese, at the time the best that the Italian province could offer, and then to the big clubs.
Spalletti and his dream takeover on the Roma bench
The unforgettable feat, however, was that of January 2016 when he was called to the bedside of Rome (who he had already coached for four seasons and two games, accumulating a long series of second places. He took over from Garcia who was experiencing an ordeal of performances and results and climbed back up to the championship podium with an impressive record: 14 wins, 4 draws and 1 defeat in 19 games. Confirmed as second again the following year (2016/2017) behind Max Allegri’s Juventus.
Then Inter, brought back to the Champions League where they had been missing for a lifetime, Napoli won the Scudetto 33 years after the last time and, finally, the bitterness at the helm of the national where he also took over the running to take the place of Roberto Mancini who flew to Saudi Arabia during August 15th in 2023. A failure, the only one entering the running, which Luciano now wants to cancel.
