Lecce and Giampaolo, crossed destinies

LECCE - While waiting to completely get over the hangover from… salvation, the question about Marco Giampaolo's future is a hot topic among Lecce fans. Will he still lead the Salento team in the 2025/2026 Serie A championship or will a new coach be hired? The only certain fact is that, when he took over from Luca Gotti, the Giulianova trainer signed a contract until June 30, 2025, with an automatic renewal for one season if the salvation goal is achieved. The objective has been achieved and therefore the option until June 30, 2026 has been triggered.

At the end of the victorious match against Lazio that sealed his permanence in the top division, when asked specifically about his future, Giampaolo stressed that those who know him know that his contract is the least of his problems and that, after a few days spent in Lecce and Salento to enjoy the city and the territory, which he likes very much, he would have taken a break for a few days after a long and stressful tournament, always lived on the edge of a razor.

On the other hand, at the club on Via Colonel Costadura, at the end of the season, regardless of whether the coach is still tied to a contract or not, a summit is held to evaluate whether or not to continue the journey together.

In Lecce it was the same last June with Gotti, with the parties then deciding to move forward. The Venetian coach was made to sign a two-year contract, a formula that had previously always been excluded by the head of the technical area Pantaleo Corvino.

In the next few days, the club's managers will meet with Giampaolo. First, the Giallorossi club will have to make the appropriate internal assessments of the work of the coach from Abruzzo. When he was hired, he was given the mission of leading the Salento team to safety and in this sense he has hit the mark without a shadow of a doubt, as demonstrated by the standings.

With Giampaolo on the bench, Lecce had an extremely favorable performance from the 12th to the 24th round in which, thanks also to a calendar that was more affordable on paper, they collected 4 wins and 3 draws against 5 defeats, with a haul of 15 points and an average of 1.25 per game. Far superior to that recorded by Gotti in the first 12 games (2 victories, 3 no-shows and 7 defeats, with 9 points pocketed and an average of 0.75).

For Giampaolo's management, the music changed completely between the 25th and 36th rounds as, of the 12 matches played, Federico Baschirotto and his teammates drew 4 and lost 8, remaining without a win, with an average of 0.33 points per match. The turning point, in terms of permanence, came when the situation seemed almost desperate, in the last two outings, in which the Giallorossi put 6 points out of 6 in the safe.

In the first phase with Giampaolo on the bench, Lecce showed off some interesting performances in terms of play, which was more in line with the characteristics of the squad.

In the second part, however, the trainer insisted perhaps too much on the theory of "making an extra pass", which did not seem to be entirely in line with the group, with the players giving the impression of gradually becoming more and more fearful, although they always put their heart and soul into trying to throw their heart over the obstacle, without however succeeding.

Against Torino and Lazio the desperate attempt to build from the bottom was abandoned. Furthermore, thanks to the eurogoal scored by Ylber Ramadani against the Granata, the sacred fury came out, also dictated by the awareness that salvation could only come thanks to a real feat. Then achieved.

This journey undertaken with Giampaolo on the bridge will have to be analysed and evaluated by the technical area to establish whether to continue the adventure with him.

On the other hand, it cannot be ruled out that, having to start the new season right from the preparation, the coach has some requests to make to Lecce in view of the purchase-sales campaign. Especially given the fact that he has never hidden his preference for a certain type of game, for which, in some roles in particular, certain characteristics would be needed on a technical level.

In this context and while waiting for the knot to be officially untied, the first names of possible replacements are even starting to circulate, as always happens in these cases, and there is a rumor that indicates Gabriele Cioffi among the possible candidates. But the former Udinese player has shown a preference for the three-man defense, while at Lecce, for several seasons, the four-man defense has been a sort of dogma.

As of today, Giampaolo is, given the automatic renewal of his contract, the trainer of Lecce for the 2025/2026 championship, even if the conjectures and rumors are destined to increase as time goes by. To have certainties about the future of the bench of the Giallorossi team, we will have to wait a little longer.