Diego Simeone, the former Inter Milan, Athletico Madrid and Lazio legend has taken his first management position in European football as head coach at Catania, succeeding Marco Giampaolo as boss of the Massimino as the Etnei parted company with the former Siena manager. Initially the replacement of a manager for a club that perhaps most would favour to battle relegation for the season may come as somewhat of a surprise. After all, Catania are joint 14th in the table and 3 points away from 11th place and don't necessarily look like being in any significant danger, especially compared to last season where prior to the Christmas break they were rock bottom of the division until Sinisa Mihajlovic took over and on his second game in charge of the club mastered a stunning 2-1 win in Turin against Juventus.
Still, perhaps this is a sign of progression from their clubs point of view. Not content with simply battling it out in the depths of the division Catania are looking to progress up to at least midtable now that they can consider themselves an established club in this division as they have been in it since the 2006-2007 season and much like Udinese they are beginning to get into the habit of buying for cheep and selling for significant profit, as testified by the sale of Jorge Martinez to Juventus in the summer and Juan Manuel Vargas to Fiorentina a couple of seasons ago.
That is testament to their scouting system with seems to scour South America, Argentina specifically, in search of new talent. Indeed, the clubs has a huge number of Argentines already on their roster and that will add to the attraction of the job for the Argentine hard man. Similar presence to Sinisa Mihajlovic Simeone will provide a fearsome figure from the Sicilian touchline that will inspire a mixture of fear and fire in the Catania players, perhaps something that has been mising this season since Mihajlovic headed up to Florence.
There is however significance substance behind Simeone however. With two titles to his name, the Argentine Apertura with Estudiantes in 2006 and the Clausura with River Plate in 2008 Simeone has already shown that he knows how to win. Now he needs to demonstrate that the Massimino faithful, and in my view it is simply a matter of time before he does that and moves onto coach a major European club. Athletic Madrid is known to be on his radar, but what price he manages Lazio or even Inter Milan one day too. Watch this space.
That is testament to their scouting system with seems to scour South America, Argentina specifically, in search of new talent. Indeed, the clubs has a huge number of Argentines already on their roster and that will add to the attraction of the job for the Argentine hard man. Similar presence to Sinisa Mihajlovic Simeone will provide a fearsome figure from the Sicilian touchline that will inspire a mixture of fear and fire in the Catania players, perhaps something that has been mising this season since Mihajlovic headed up to Florence.
There is however significance substance behind Simeone however. With two titles to his name, the Argentine Apertura with Estudiantes in 2006 and the Clausura with River Plate in 2008 Simeone has already shown that he knows how to win. Now he needs to demonstrate that the Massimino faithful, and in my view it is simply a matter of time before he does that and moves onto coach a major European club. Athletic Madrid is known to be on his radar, but what price he manages Lazio or even Inter Milan one day too. Watch this space.
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