2006–07 U.S. Città di Palermo season

U.S. Città di Palermo played the season 2006–07 in the Serie A league. It has been the third season in a row for Palermo in the top division of Italy.

Review and events

Palermo initially ended the 2005–06 season in eighth place, and thus was expected to play the UEFA Intertoto Cup 2006. Meanwhile, Francesco Guidolin was re-hired at Giuseppe Papadopulo's place. However, due to the Serie A scandal of 2006, the FIGC had stated they would not enter Palermo into the Intertoto Cup.

After the verdicts penalized numerous clubs, Palermo's overall position for that season was elevated to 5th, meaning they had qualified for the 2006–2007 UEFA Cup. In the transfer window, Palermo spent millions adding players to their squad, including Aimo Diana, Mark Bresciano, Fábio Simplício and Amauri, but sold World Cup winner Fabio Grosso to Internazionale. Several football experts and pundits tipped Palermo to do well in the season ahead, including Alessandro Del Piero.^[1]

They started well by knocking out English side West Ham United in the UEFA Cup. However, this time around the group stage proved to be more difficult than the previous year, and Palermo finished last in a group that contained Celta de Vigo, Eintracht Frankfurt, Fenerbahçe SK and Newcastle United.

For the first time in its history Palermo sat on top of the Serie A table in September 2006 after beating Catania 5–3 at home in the Sicilian derby. Another notable victory, was a 2–0 away win to AC Milan at San Siro stadium. A serious knee injury for Amauri caused Palermo to replace the powerful striker, and Uruguayan Edinson Cavani and Polish Radosław Matusiak were signed in the Winter transfer market, together with midfielders Maurizio Ciaramitaro and Guillermo Giacomazzi.

On 2 February 2007 Palermo was involved in a controversial away Sicilian derby match which was suspended for 30 minutes during the second half after some tear gas explosions from outside the stadium, used by the police to minimize hooliganism outside the Massimino Stadium, drifted onto the playing area. After the match, violence went on and policeman Filippo Raciti was killed by a small explosive launched by a Catania hooligan.^[2] This led Commissioner Luca Pancalli to suspend indefinitely football leagues and national team matches in the whole country. Following these events Palermo, which was clearly third-placed at the time, was not able to achieve a single victory, and dropped to sixth position in the Serie A. Maurizio Zamparini, the chairman, became more and more critical of Guidolin, who was finally sacked on 23 April following a 3–4 home defeat to third-last placed Parma which extended the run of poor results to 11 games without a single win. Assistant coach Renzo Gobbo and youth team coach Rosario Pergolizzi were subsequently appointed as caretaker coaches at Guidolin's place.^[3] On their debut match, Pergolizzi and Gobbo led Palermo to a 2–1 away win at Livorno, finally ending the negative run.^[4] The victory was however followed by two further defeats, including an upset 3–2 away loss against last-placed team Ascoli, already relegated to Serie B, which left the rosanero in seventh place, the last UEFA Cup spot, only three points above Atalanta. The events led Zamparini to reappoint Guidolin as head coach for the remaining two matches.^[5] Guidolin's return brought two victories, to Siena^[6] and Udinese, clinched fifth place in the final table, qualification to the UEFA Cup 2007-08 for the third consecutive time and broke its previous record of 53 points of two years before.^[7]

Match results

UEFA Cup

Date and time	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Scorers	Attendance
14 September 2006 – 21.00	1st round – 1st Leg	West Ham United	Away	Won 1–0	Caracciolo	32,222[8]
28 September 2006 – 20.45	1st round – 2nd Leg	West Ham United	Home	Won 3–0	Simplício (2), Di Michele	19,284[9]
19 October 2006 – 18.15	Group Stage	Eintracht Frankfurt	Away	Won 2–1	Brienza, Zaccardo	50,000[10]
2 November 2006 – 20.45	Group Stage	Newcastle	Home	Lost 0–1		16,091[11]
23 November 2006 – 19.00	Group Stage	Fenerbahçe	Away	Lost 0–3		39,071[12]
13 December 2006 – 20.45	Group Stage	Celta Vigo	Home	Drew 1–1	Tedesco	10,222[13]

Player details

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Serie A		UEFA Cup		Coppa Italia
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK		Federico Agliardi	11	-17	7+2	-13	1	-1	1	-3
12	GK		Alberto Fontana	35	-36	31	-38	4	2	0	0
20	GK		Salvatore Sirigu	2	-4	0	0	1	-3	1	-1
2	DF		Cristian Zaccardo	42	6	35+1	5	4+1	1	1	0
15	DF		Hernán Paolo Dellafiore	13	0	5+2	0	3+1	0	2	0
16	DF		Mattia Cassani	36	0	22+7	0	4+1	0	2	0
21	DF		Giuseppe Biava	27	1	22+2	1	1+2	0	0	0
26	DF		Marco Pisano	39	0	30+3	0	5	0	1	0
32	DF		Ciro Capuano	9	1	2+5	1	1+1	0	0	0
43	DF		Andrea Barzagli (vice-captain)	42	1	36	1	5	0	1	0
53	DF		Alberto Cossentino	3	0	0	0	1	0	2	0
4	MF		Giovanni Tedesco	31	4	8+18	3	2+1	1	2	0
5	MF		Eugenio Corini (captain)	29	10	27	10	2	0	0	0
8	MF		Aimo Diana	28	1	20+5	1	2+1	0	0	0
14	MF		Roberto Guana	40	1	29+4	0	3+3	0	1	1
18	MF		Guillermo Giacomazzi	7	0	0+7	0	0	0	0	0
22	MF		Maurizio Ciaramitaro	6	0	3+3	0	0	0	0	0
23	MF		Mark Bresciano	39	6	32+2	6	3+1	0	1	0
30	MF		Fábio Simplício	40	7	32+1	5	4+1	2	2	0
50	MF		Nicola Ficano	3	0	0	0	1	0	2	0
90	MF		Franco Brienza	29	2	9+13	0	3+2	1	2	1
7	FW		Edinson Cavani	7	2	4+3	2	0	0	0	0
9	FW		Radosław Matusiak	3	1	1+2	1	0	0	0	0
10	FW		Andrea Caracciolo	35	6	17+10	5	6	1	2	0
11	FW		Amauri	19	8	17+1	8	0	0	1	0
17	FW		David Di Michele	33	10	28+1	9	3+1	1	0	0
Players sold or loaned out during the January transfer market:
3	DF		Cesare Bovo	2	0	0+1	0	0	0	1	0
18	MF		Francesco Parravicini	14	0	1+7	0	4+1	0	1	0
22	MF		Gianni Munari	5	0	0	0	3	0	2	0

January transfer market bids

In

18		MF	Guillermo Giacomazzi (on loan from Lecce)
22		MF	Maurizio Ciaramitaro (loan return from Parma)
7		FW	Edinson Cavani (from Danubio)
9		FW	Radosław Matusiak (from GKS Bełchatów)

Out

3		DF	Cesare Bovo (loaned to Torino)
18		MF	Francesco Parravicini (loaned to Parma, co-owned with Fiorentina)
22		MF	Gianni Munari (loaned to Lecce)

See also

• 2006-07 in Italian football
• 2007 Catania football violence

References