Transfer Palermo: the City of Mansour on the attack

All done. Palermo enters the Manchester City galaxy, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan with the City Football Group becomes the owner of the newly promoted club in Serie B. James Pallotta’s attempt to overtake (together with Mauro Baldissoni, his right hand at the time della Roma) was rejected, despite the letter of intent of recent days. The choice is made and will be ratified by the end of the month. The new era of Palermo could start from a precise date: 1 July 2022.

City Group had entered the scene first, already in April, thanks to the work of Giovanni Gardini, a former manager of Inter who had a mandate for the sale of the club. Gardini himself and other Mansour emissaries have been to Palermo several times to follow the playoff games and negotiate the purchase of the club. Even in the final won against Padua there were the sheik’s men: above all Luciano Zavagno, former Argentine defender (in Italy with Ancona, Catania, Pisa and Turin) who then stayed in the city to get to know the soul from the inside. of the club. The outcome of the final was expected to move on to closing, above all so as not to upset the team, even if the parties had already agreed on a plan A (club in Serie C: value of about 8 million) and a plan B (club in Serie B: value between 10 and 12 million). The thread of the speech was reconnected on Wednesday in Milan, where Gardini and the president Dario Mirri met to define some details. In particular, the role of Mirri himself, who should keep a place in the company and also a minority stake and then resell it in the future.

In the last few days Mirri has taken the situation in hand by managing the affair alone, with his lawyers. At the company level, a masterpiece has been made: from Serie D to B in three years with a reasonable economic commitment (remember the sale of Lucca to Pisa a year ago for 3 million), without creating large debt situations and above all bringing the city closer to the squad. In the four games of the last playoffs, with the results and the announced arrival of the sheikh to raise the euphoria at the same time, the Barbera saw a total of almost 150,000 spectators. If you think that at the beginning of the season there were a few thousand at the stadium … Mirri, a longtime fan, will go down in history for this relaunch, which should continue with all the men who have helped him in this enterprise.

Since Serie D, Palermo has been managed by an experienced manager like Rinaldo Sagramola, who still has a contractual relationship with the club and therefore should remain, even if Gardini himself has been assumed to replace him. Instead, the sporting director Renzo Castagnini has his contract expiring and, after Tuesday’s meeting with Zavagno in which he explained his way of working and his project, he should soon see the men of City Group for renewal, after having continued, in these days, in his work, see the ransom of Soleri from Padua. At this point, Silvio Baldini, the architect of the promotion, should remain on the bench, given that after his arrival at Christmas (wanted by Castagnini himself) the team began to fly. In the aftermath of the promotion, sniffing the air, the coach had put his hands on saying that he would have renounced the renewal of the contract (automatic with B) if all the staff had not been confirmed, in particular the ds The men of the City have received the message and understood that continuity would be the wisest move, also to ride the enthusiasm that has been created. And Baldini, who has decided to move to Palermo in the villa he bought in Mondello (without forgetting his origins in Massa …), can’t wait to start working in view of the new adventure.

Palermo has an excellent starting point for the team and enthusiasm. The new ownership will have to announce the plans, which however seem willing to try to bring Palermo back to Serie A with substantial investments. 6-7 reinforcements are expected, and it is possible to confirm Brunori (29 goals, now he has returned to Juve). But everything can be expected from the City Group. Palermo restarted from Serie D three years ago with Mirri, now it enters a company controlled by the Abu Dhabi United Group fund (78% of the shares) which has as partners the Chinese of China Media Capital and Citic Capital (12%) and the Americans of Silver Lake Partners (10%). Yes, a new world.