Salernitana rehire Nicola two days after sacking him, coach claims

Salernitana have rehired Davide Nicola as head coach just two days after sacking him following an emotional plea to the club’s president, he claims.

The Serie A club dismissed Nicola on Monday in the wake of a crushing 8-2 defeat to Atalanta a day earlier.

Nicola kept Salernitana in the top flight last term, though they have struggled again this campaign despite reportedly investing around €40million in pre-season, with the loss in Bergamo leaving them 16th in the table.

However, just two days after the club confirmed Nicola’s dismissal in a press release, the coach claims he is back in the hot seat after pleading to president Danilo Iervolino.

“I’ll tell you the truth. Yesterday I received a call from president Iervolino,” Nicola wrote on social media. “With his methods, which are always amiable and kind, [Iervolino] explained the reasons for his decision, which he took with bitterness but was supposed to mark our discontinuity after the very bad match in Bergamo against Atalanta.

“I immediately held my hands up, assuming all the responsibilities for an inadequate performance and the consequential heavy defeat, because I believe in this club, as well as in the men who make it up, just as I believe in the great support behind it.

pic.twitter.com/RcSzp5p4tW

— Davide Nicola (@DavideNicolaOff) January 18, 2023

“I strongly urged the president to reconsider the decision, knowing that I was pulling on the heartstrings of a human soul that has a deep sensitivity to understand, and who strongly wants to build a different kind of football. I love Salerno and I blindly believe in this project.

“It is he [the president] who strongly believes that when men all pull in the same direction, they are capable of extraordinary things, and I have already seen many extraordinary things done by him.

“I thank the president for having called me. This is the demonstration that new football is a football of passion and heart, and for this I want to repay his trust with all my strength and with all the passion I have.

“With the sports management led by Morgan De Sanctis, whom I thank for the mediation without which this operation would not have been possible, weeks of very hard work and continuous discussion await us to achieve our goals.

“Now let’s start again together, ALL of us, and tell another extraordinary football story, giving back to the Granata fans the same passion and the same sense of belonging that they show us unconditionally. This is Salerno, this is Salernitana: much more than a football team.”

Despite Nicola’s passionate letter and claim of being reinstated, Salernitana have not posted any official confirmation of his return on social media nor their website.