Today’s edition of “La Gazzetta dello Sport” focuses on Dionisi-Day in Palermo with the new Rosanero coach who will present himself at the press conference today.
The day the phone call from Palermo arrived, on Alessio Dionisi’s table there were some half-offers from Serie A clubs. Half, because these were companies that had expressed interest in him, but an interest that was still embryonic and not very concrete. And for one reason or another none of those solutions really convinced the former Sassuolo coach, who after two and a half seasons in Serie A, in which he demonstrated his value beyond the negative conclusion with the neroverdi, wanted start again from an ambitious project. He would have happily accepted another mission for salvation anyway, but inside himself he was looking for something different. On the other hand, going back to play to surprise (as at Venezia in Serie B), to win (as at Empoli in Serie B) or to have fun by scoring lots of points (as in the first year at Sassuolo in Serie A) has a different flavour.
The phone call from Palermo was the turning point. To convince him there was no need for special effects, but a sincere demonstration of esteem (three-year contract) and a perceptible desire to win, not expressed by phrases of circumstance but supported by good ideas. Alessio was a central defender who took penalties: solidity and fun, balance and the desire to amaze. They won him over in the first or second sentence: «We want to bring Palermo to Serie A and we don’t intend to stop there. You are our first choice. Are you there?”. Words are not enough, facts are needed: and so here is the plane ticket for the next day to Manchester and the sports center which is Pep Guardiola’s laboratory, where Dionisi began to fully evaluate the club’s plan, inserted into the galaxy of the City Group. In the following days a meeting in Milan, then another in Rome for the final agreements and the start of programming.
