Dreaming of the new Palladino: why Galliani chose Bocchetti. Without Berlusconi, Monza is sailing by sight and should become yet another Serie A club in foreign hands. Fininvest is just waiting for the right offer, but now it has to wait

Salvatore Bocchetti was a very interested spectator of Monza-Juventus on Sunday evening. He had already been forewarned that, if another defeat came, he would become the new coach of the team that today looks up to everyone from the bottom up. He observed the match carefully, he scrutinized a Monza team that still suffered its ninth defeat of the season against a far from impeccable Juventus. And then he reached Brianza to sign the contract.
Bocchetti yesterday signed an agreement valid until 30 June 2027, the same one he had with Hellas Verona. He doesn't inherit a resigned team: it's a Monza that is sometimes rude, often imprecise, but not without a soul. But ten points in 17 days was too small a loot to carry on as if nothing had happened and so here's the turning point: Adriano Galliani gave the sack to Alessandro Nesta when the panettone was already under the Christmas tree and called another old woman knowledge. A meteor of his Milan with only eight appearances in the second part of the 2015/16 season.

Bocchetti was called with the hope that he can immediately reverse the trend of negative results. The safety zone is five points away: not too many. But what is worrying is an absolutely insufficient roadmap resulting from just one victory achieved in 17 games. Adriano Galliani's hope is to have pulled the rabbit out of the hat, to have been the protagonist of the same coup of theater that characterized the Brianza team's first year in Serie A. On that occasion, after an absolutely inadequate start, Monza decided to give Giovanni Stroppa – the promotion coach – the sack to promote Raffaele Palladino from the Primavera. It was a very good choice.

There is no shortage of points in common between the two. Bocchetti and Palladino, Neapolitans with a difference of two years and seven months, are both footballing sons of Gian Piero Gasperini. They played together in his Genoa team from 2008 and 2010 and above all from Grugliasco's coach they took inspiration for their second career. Physical and well-organised football, many individual duels and even more competitive spirit. Bocchetti was chosen by Galliani also because he gave guarantees on the tactical structure: Monza will start from 3-4-2-1. And a market will also be based on this module which will inevitably have to bring another midfielder to the team in addition to Akpa-Akpro, a deputy Djuric and at least one full-back winger.

The undertaking is difficult. Five points to recover are not a lot, but if you have only achieved ten so far they are anything but a detail. Numbers that photograph a complicated situation and tell of a ranking resulting from the general context, of a situation which has inevitably changed since the death of Silvio Berlusconi. The children do not have the same passion, for Fininvest today Monza is a burden more than a resource and this is why for a year and a half now Galliani has had to enter self-management mode. He found himself forced to sell important pieces like Di Gregorio and Colpani to move forward. Yes, but how long can it last?

Less than two weeks ago Pier Silvio Berlusconi could not have been clearer: “We do another job and football is now a crazy world. Our desire is to find someone who wants to help Monza grow as we would like.” Words that reiterate once again that the company is for sale, that the Biscione is today only waiting for the right offer for the handover. The problem, however, is that today the right offer cannot arrive. If in October there was persistent talk of an interested US fund and a valuation of around 100 million euros, today without the slightest certainty on the category making economic estimates on the value of the club is almost impossible. Simply put: if Monza stays in Serie A it will have a value, if it is relegated to Serie B it will be completely different.

So all that remains is to wait, rely on the new coach, hoping for a Palladino-style miracle. The fact that half the team is out of contract is a further sign that goes in the direction of the sale: it would give greater freedom to a new buyer to rebuild Monza as he wishes. But now this discussion can only be frozen: this return round for Bocchetti, Galliani, Fininvest and all of Monza will be worth much more than a simple salvation.