Rock-bottom Salernitana hire Nicola after sacking coach Colantuono

Salernitana hired Davide Nicola as new coach on Tuesday after sacking Stefano Colantuono, as Serie A’s bottom side attempts to pull off a miracle in staying up.

In a statement, Salernitana said that Nicola had been “entrusted with coaching of the first team”, without specifying the terms of the former Udinese, Genoa and Torono coach’s contract.

Colantuono was earlier fired after barely four months in charge, with promoted Salernitana on 13 points, eight adrift of Venezia who sit just above the relegation zone.

However they have two games in hand after the Italian Football Federation overturned on Monday Serie A’s decision to dock them a point and hand them a 3-0 defeat for failing to travel to Udinese in December following a spike of Covid-19 cases in their squad.

Their home match with Venezia just after the winter break also went unplayed for the same reason, with a decision on that fixture yet to be made.

Colantuono’s sacking is the latest episode of what has been a dramatic season for the southern club, who are based in Salerno just down the Campania coast from Naples.

They were saved from being kicked out of the league at the last minute when businessman Danilo Iervolino’s bid to buy the club was accepted by trustees just ahead of a midnight deadline on New Year’s Eve.

The club had been placed in trust in June because previous owner Claudio Lotito also owns Lazio, and multiple club ownerships in the same division are banned.

Under Iervolino Salernitana brought in 11 players during the January transfer window, with the deals made by incoming sporting director Walter Sabatini.

Colantuono was fired despite two draws with Spezia and Genoa since the window shut.