Pianigiani: That’s one million…
Firstly comes the question of — believe it or not — economics. Beyond a handful of big deals given to players in the off-season, Pianigiani was given a contract of two years plus a third-year option. Showing the Italian the door right now would cost the Turkish team $4 million. While the contract does account for payment by installment, Fenerbahçe would still have to immediately pony up $1 million — and what European club has that kind of money lying around in 2013?
The second X-factor is, well, who would replace him? On Saturday, Spain-based Jordan y Pippen reported that Fenerbahçe officials were utterly willing to part ways with Pianigiani after the team’s embarrassing 97-75 loss to Caja Laboral Baskonia and that Zeljko Obradovic was the first choice for replacement.
However, yesterday, Eurohoops reported that at least three candidates for the head coach spot have turned down Fenerbahçe’s current offer — and as for Obradovic, nothing doing, apparently.
And so, like it or not, it seems that Pianigiani is there to stay — perhaps until, say, February 21. That’s when FC Barcelona comes to Istanbul for game eight of the Euroleague Top 16 round with the possible intention to all-but-mathematically eliminate the once-daunting Fenerbahçe…
Tags: Euroleague, Euroleague 2012-13, Fenerbahce Ülker, Simone Pianigiani
I am a Panathinaikos fan and what I wanted to add to the conversation is that fans in Turkey should be patient. It is obvious that some teams are trying to become great but what i have learned from all these years watching my team is to be patient. You can’t create a ”big” team from one year to another. If a good coach like the above mentioned works for two or three years maybe there will be a good result. I don’t know if Pianigiani is the coach for this but certainly a 6months time is not enough.