In mildly surprising news, Carlo Ancelotti looks set to take over as head coach at Napoli in the coming days.
Indeed, the Guardian are reporting that Ancelotti has already signed a two-year contract at the Partenopei and, according to Italian newspaper Il Giornale, he wants to bring Andrea Pirlo in as his assistant.
The former Bayern Munich boss will take the reigns from Maurizio Sarri, who took Napoli to the brink of a Serie A title last season only to be muscled out by Juventus in the final few weeks.
Speaking after the final game of the campaign, Sarri hinted that the “beautiful story” he and his squad had embarked upon may have reached its conclusion:
The situation is complicated. You can’t say you’re ready to go and try again with this squad when you don’t know that everyone will remain here.
I don’t know if the club will manage to keep the players who have release clauses when offers will come in from big clubs.
What I do think is that I could not go directly to another Italian team, and that if I had to make a change I would prefer to go abroad.
As it happens, Sarri is supposedly now mulling over an approach from Zenit St Petersburg, who lost their coach Roberto Mancini to the Italian national side earlier this month, though Chelsea are also said to be interested in talking to the 59-year-old.
Chelsea, of course, being a former employer of one Carlo Ancelotti.
How conveniently symmetrical for all involved.