Palermos ex-manager brought panettone to last press conference

With the hiring of Bortolo Mutti, Palermo have now made 23 managerial changes in the last 10 years (and four in 2011) under crazypants owner Maurizio Zamparini -- a man who makes Roman Abramovich seem patient by comparison.

Making the dismissal of former manager Devis Mangia a bit more memorable than the many others was the fact that the naively optimistic gaffer brought a box of a panettone -- the Italian Christmas bread to his press conference ahead of Palermo's Sicilian derby loss to Catania over the weekend. In Italy, there's a saying that a doomed manager "won't get to eat his panettone," meaning he'll be gone before Christmas. Mangia (whose surname coincidentally means "eat"), thought he was playing a little joke with the press, but he bought his panettone a little too soon. Palermo currently sit 10th in the Serie A table.

Upon removing Mangia and naming his next sacrificial lamb, Zamparini said (via Football Italia):

"I say to the fans to stay calm and have confidence in my work. I'm working like crazy for them. The real fans are seen in difficult moments like this. In football there are ups and downs."

And 23 managerial changes in 10 years. He's definitely right about that "working like crazy" part.