(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Napoli coach Rafael Benitez is the first Serie A coach to have announced his departure while three other clubs may also have to seek a new helmsman for the 2015-2016 season starting in August.
Benitez looks set for a bright future in his native country, with Spanish giants Real Madrid expected to hire him this week after the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti.
His decision to depart on friendly terms after two seasons in Naples came last week, but the actual farewell late Sunday was infamous, with jeers and hisses at the San Paolo after a 4-2 crash to Lazio denied Napoli access to the play-offs of the Champions League.
The team slipped to fifth place and will play the Europa League as a major overhaul is to affect staff and roster for the next season.
On Monday, Benitez must have bristled as la Repubblica commentator Fabrizio Bocca wrote that "with a defence leaking like a sieve, you cannot give football lessons."
With 54 goals conceded, Napoli have the worst defence among the first Serie A top teams, making cold comfort of their third best attack on 70 goals - champions Juventus lead on 72 and Lazio follow on 71.
Leapfrogging Napoli into fourth place from a 3-0 defeat of Chievo was a good season end for Fiorentina after they got into the semi-finals of the Europa League.
But coach Vincenzo Montella already Saturday expressed serious doubts about beginning a fourth season in Florence.
"We could have done more, but now the technical development is over," he said. "Given the latest (financial) efforts of the club, it is difficult to further improve, or keep getting the same results. I think it is easier to get worse."
Also on the verge of departure was Sampdoria coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, who said his future was to become public Monday.
The Serb trainer looks set to leave despite a seventh place that should take the seaside club into the Europa League as sixth-place Genoa may be ruled out over an irregular application to ruling body UEFA.
A new coach should arrive also at troubled giants AC Milan after closing one of their worst ever seasons in 10th position - a bitter disappointment for the seven-time European champions.
Filippo Inzaghi, a former Devils striker who lifted the club's last two Champions League titles, was promoted last year from the bench of youth team, but failed to deliver and looks bound to go despite almost begging to be given a second chance.
Milan, however, have more than the coach to worry about, as the squad proved to far below par of the teams competing for the European berths.
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