The youngsters are coming off the bench

Italy, as we know, is not a country for the young. Serie A, on the other hand, seems to be. At least in part, and especially on the bench. This is because, whilst on the pitch our beloved league tends to be filled with players of a very advanced age (such as Luka Modrić and Kevin De Bruyne), making it one of the competitions with the highest average age, at coaching level the season about to begin has taken a turn towards rejuvenation.

In fact, there are several coaches who, at the start of the upcoming season, will help bring the average age of those on the bench down to under fifty.

It is clear that Parma’s appointment of 31-year-old Carlos Cuesta has influenced this figure. Behind the Spaniard, however, there are other names, some of whom are new to Serie A. Making their Serie A debuts will be 39-year-old Ignazio Abate on the Torino bench (who turns 40 in November), the almost 41-year-old Domenico Tedesco at Bologna, Alberto Aquilani at Sassuolo (aged 42) and the Portuguese Rúben Amorim at Milan, who will turn 42 on 27 January. All are managers of teams that should, in theory, remain in the bottom half of the table. The newly promoted sides, on the other hand, have opted for experience: Giovanni Stroppa of Venezia (aged 58), Massimiliano Alvini (56) and Ivan Juricć of Monza (50). Lecce have also opted for experience, confirming 56-year-old Eusebio Di Francesco following last year’s survival, as have Udinese, with 55-year-old Kosta Runjaić still at the helm of the Friuli-based side.

For this reason too, as reported by the Corriere della Sera and despite the young players mentioned above, the average age of Serie A managers remains high. This is particularly true when compared to the average age of around 43 in the Premier League or 44 in the Bundesliga.

On the other hand, we still have some veteran managers such as Roma’s Gian Piero Gasperini (aged 68), Juventus’ Luciano Spalletti and Atalanta’s new signing Maurizio Sarri (both born in 1959), as well as Massimiliano Allegri. Set to turn 59 on Tuesday, Napoli’s new manager is the fourth oldest in the league. In the top five European leagues, the only manager older than Gasperini, Spalletti and Sarri is Manuel Pellegrini: approaching 73 (on 12 September), the Chilean engineer has been in charge of Real Betis since 2020.

In the Premier League, the benchmark competition for everyone, the oldest manager at the start of the season will be Everton’s Scottish manager David Moyes (63). It is interesting to note that, in the English top flight, there is only one manager who will start the season aged under forty: Brighton’s Fabian Hürzeler (33).

Across the Channel, however, there are many managers who are not yet fifty. Among them are two Italians: 46-year-old Enzo Maresca, who has been tasked with the difficult job of leading a Manchester City side left without Pep Guardiola after ten consecutive seasons, and Roberto De Zerbi, aged 47, who will be looking to turn Tottenham’s fortunes around.

In the Bundesliga, the title of oldest manager goes to 60-year-old Urs Fischer of Mainz, whilst the youngest is René Wagner, Cologne’s manager, born in July 1988. In France, on the other hand, where the average age is higher than here (around fifty-two), the oldest manager at the start of the season will be Bruno Genesio of Marseille (59), whilst the ‘youngster’ of the bunch is the Belgian Will Still, a thirty-three-year-old at Auxerre.

But what is behind this new development in Italy? Is it the start of a generational shift? Only time will tell. An initial analysis suggests, however, that the trend towards rejuvenating technical management is driven by two primary needs: the desire to emulate successful models and the need to reduce costs.

In the first respect, Serie A is a ‘copycat league’, that is, a league in which there is a tendency to copy models that have already proved successful. This was already evident many years ago, during the era of Guardiola’s Barcelona, when certain teams (notably Juventus under Ciro Ferrara and Inter under Andrea Stramaccioni) sought to emulate the Blaugrana’s approach, relying on young managers with little experience.

This time round, Italian clubs have found their role models on home soil. Last year, in fact, three of the most talked-about managers – key figures of the previous season – were Cristian Chivu, Cesc Fàbregas and Fabio Pisacane. The Romanian won the Scudetto with Inter in his first season as head coach of a Serie A side. The Spaniard led Como to the historic achievement of qualifying for the Champions League. For his part, Pisacane guided Cagliari to a comfortable top-flight survival, also in his first season outside the youth ranks.

Following these examples, Turin (Abate), Sassuolo (Aquilani), Bologna (Tedesco) and Milan (Ruben Amorim) have also opted for young managers, albeit with more experience under their belts than, say, Chivu or Pisacane.

Then, as mentioned, there is the financial factor to consider. According to data from Transfermarkt, players such as Abate and Aquilani are among the lowest-paid in Serie A, with a gross salary of less than €1.5 million. Amorim (€6.5 million gross) and Tedesco (€3.7 million gross) do indeed earn considerably more, but they are two managers who already have international experience to their credit. It is therefore only natural that, despite both being young, they receive remuneration commensurate with the calibre of the teams they manage.

It remains to be seen whether this new generation will truly bring about a tactical revolution or whether, at the first sign of difficulty, they will end up falling back on the traditional Italian playbook of a five-man defence, a 5-3-2 formation and counter-attacks.