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From today, the club will have to start searching for a new coach - on Tuesday, Roberto Donadoni stepped down from the position of head coach of the first team, deciding to submit his resignation after unexpectedly receiving public criticism from the club president.
The 42-year-old legendary "Milan" player R. Donadoni arrived to lead "Livorno" in January 2005 and that season helped the club avoid relegation to a lower league. It was thought that this year would be even more difficult for the Tuscan club, which almost did not strengthen its small budget in the summer, but the opposite happened - the team became one of the surprises of the season.
Just three weeks ago, "Livorno" was in fifth place in the league and very close to the fourth place guaranteeing a ticket to the Champions League, but four draws and one loss in the last five matches pushed the club down to sixth place.
Despite such a successful start to the season, club president Aldo Spinelli was very dissatisfied with the coach's work in the last few team matches, in which "Livorno" failed to hold on to a two-goal lead and had to settle for draws after two penalty kicks by "Messina" forward A. Di Napoli.
"Sunday's match for him, like for the referee, was disastrous. In my opinion, this loss - because it was a loss - is the coach's fault. Let's be honest - those player and tactical changes... I don't know what I'm going to do now," Spinelli burst out on TV.
After learning of the president's criticism the next morning, R. Donadoni decided to resign, citing as the main reason the words spoken on television: "This is the most difficult and painful decision I have had to make in my career, but on Monday evening, after the president criticized my work directly on television, I had no other way out. If it was expected that I would resign by doing so, then that is exactly what I did."
The first "Livorno" match without R. Donadoni will be the match against "Ascoli" away tomorrow evening. Temporary coach for this meeting will be assistant Mario Bortolazzi, who has worked up until now, and the favorite to take over this position for a longer period is 68-year-old Carlo Mazzone.
