Hector Cuper = New Claudio Ranieri

By: Francesco | March 11th, 2008

Well, Lord of Prosciutto himself has confirmed that Hector Cuper is practically the new boss of Parma. All that’s left is a few details and it will be made official tomorrow. This is the second consecutive season where Ghirardi has hired an inexperienced manager to take charge, and then firing him mid-season in favor of an out of work experienced boss. This really came as a surprise, since he wasn’t mentioned anywhere, but I guess with options slim (it is reported that Mazzone and De Biasi rejected the offer, and Nevio Scala claimed he was only in Parma to “open some windows at his house and air it out”) Ghirardi had to make a drastic decision.

Cuper will now try to emulate Claudio Ranieri, who after taking over from Stefano Pioli last season led Parma to a miraculous salvation. The only problem I see is that it may be too late. Last year Ranieri came to Parma in early February and he had some time to get things together. Cuper is taking over in March, and only has 11 games left to save the Gialloblu’, and by the time he gets his squad together and such it may be too late.

Cuper became famous at Valencia, where he took the Spanish club to two consecutive Champions League finals, losing twice. After that Inter snapped him up, and he was famous for making all Inter fans, along with Vieri, Ronaldo, and Materazzi, cry on May 5th, 2002 for losing the Scudetto on the last day of the season. In 2003 Cuper was sacked, and he took charge of his old club Mallorca, left, and then took over Betis where he was sacked. He was back in Italy for Inter’s centenary celebrations and Ghirardi must of saw him on tv or something and said, “I must have him!”.

We’ll have to see what Cuper does with the squad and it will be interesting. His first task is to get a result against fellow relegation contenders Livorno this weekend, which is no easy task. He is an experienced manager and knows Serie A, but let’s hope he can get results sooner rather than later. And lets hope if he does do well he stays next season!