BARI – «I am really very happy to be here». And this time they really aren’t words of circumstance. Because Moreno Longo has always had a place in his heart for Bari. And the sincere smile he showed off yesterday upon arrival at the airport of the Apulian capital is a clear demonstration of this.
The Piedmontese coach has always been linked to the red and white colors: his mother was born in the city centre, in Corso Mazzini and spent his childhood there. Apulian originally from Foggia, he is also the father of the 48-year-old coach (born and raised in Turin) who, therefore, knows the area perfectly: from traditions to passion, from sporting potential to the ambitions that the Bari area has always had.
«I’m excited: let’s start well», also added Longo who certainly has a great desire to get to work after the incomprehensible dismissal he received in the last season in Como: and to think that in the autumn of 2022 he had taken over the Como team in penultimate place in Serie B, he had brought them to just two points from the playoffs and, in the recently concluded championship, he lost the bench when he was fifth, with a match to recover. Yesterday he landed in Bari around 11.30 and immediately reached the club headquarters: who knows what effect the idea of being at home at San Nicola would have had on him. Suffice it to say that in October 2016, in his first year as a professional coach on the bench of Pro Vercelli, he declared to the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno: «Entering the “spaceship” means having arrived in the football that counts».
Other times he has been an opponent of the Galletti, but today he will enter the press room as a protagonist to begin an ambitious project. The greatest curiosity will certainly be to understand on which module the Turin coach who, in his professional career, has proved particularly flexible will want to build his strategy. A starting point could be the three-man defense that has distinguished him somewhat in all his recent experiences: he has adopted it, in fact, in Frosinone as well as in Alessandria, as well as in Como. Just as the offensive structure was not a “dogma”, sometimes proposed with an attacking midfielder and two pure strikers, or with two playmakers and a center forward, while the use of a pure trident was less.
Starting from the start of the championship, Longo will be able to agree with the market on a precise idea which will have to include two players per position and an abundance of solutions, particularly in the advanced department. Without a doubt, the new coach of the Galletti has already begun studying the material available: of the players under contract, he only had Raffaele Maiello under his employ (an immovable in his Frosinone team) who, however, still comes from the serious injury to cruciate ligament and goes on for 33 years. For the rest, a strong selection will be necessary, focusing on those who are functional for the type of game envisaged, but above all seriously motivated.
At the same time, a robust reinforcement campaign will be essential. On this level, we must be sure that Longo will not betray expectations: talking and explaining football is an aspect that particularly excites him. Alongside him, in addition to president Luigi De Laurentiis and Valerio Di Cesare in their new managerial roles, there will also be the new sporting director Giuseppe Magalini. The Villafranca manager arrived in Bari around 2pm yesterday, but he has already been working for days to re-establish the Apulian staff. «I’m here to work and do well», the first words of the Venetian manager who comes from a positive two-year period at Catanzaro. His place at the Calabrian club will be taken by Ciro Polito who in the next few hours will sign the termination of the contract with Bari (the link is until June 30th) to define the agreement with the Giallorossi club.
Shortly after 11.30 today, therefore, the new red and white general staff will be presented. Two weeks of intense work will follow: the meeting at the headquarters is scheduled for July 8th (with athletic tests, medical visits and first training sessions) which will precede the departure for the training camp in Roccaraso, scheduled from the tenth to around the 24th. And this time in Abruzzo a “temporary” Bari will not be able to work as happened last summer…
