There is no peace in the Salernitana house. As if the defeat suffered against Pisa at the Arechi wasn’t enough, coach Giovanni Martusciello has to deal with yet another muscle injury in this first part of the season. The one to stop is Tongya, one of the few players to get a passing grade against the Tuscans and a now immovable starter in the tactical chessboard of the Granata coach. The official website announced it with a short note: “Franco Tongya underwent diagnostic tests this morning at the Check-Up polydiagnostic center in Salerno which revealed a muscle injury to the right soleus. The athlete will be out for four weeks and has already started the rehabilitation protocol”. In practice, the former Juventus player will return in a month and will miss important matches such as those against Reggiana, Catanzaro and Palermo. This is the second muscle injury for the striker who, during the second friendly in Rivisondoli, suffered a muscle injury that compromised his entire preparation. The same thing happened to other players signed in the summer session in January: Gentile, Adelaide and Soriano ran into a series of problems, to them we must add Maggiore and the departing Bradaric and Sambia who, in fact, never saw the field in the month of July. Pure fate or, as Martusciello said, are these calculated risks when you build a squad piecemeal by inserting so many new pieces day after day?
In the meantime, the match in Reggio Emilia is already becoming particularly delicate for the Granata colors. The numbers are starting to cause some concern and demonstrate the technical and numerical shortcomings in all departments, despite the satisfaction shown by the sports director Petrachi after the transfer market. Salernitana has conceded 13 goals in 6 official matches (more than two per game, 10 in the league), has lost three matches out of five despite a theoretically affordable schedule and finds itself close to the playout zone, also avoided thanks to the 4-point penalty inflicted on Cosenza. The defense, despite the three additions on August 30, continues to concede goals in bunches and there is a midfield without a holding midfielder and an element capable of guaranteeing protection for the rearguard. Martusciello’s unscrupulous and offensive tactics allowed the Campania team to place second in the best attacks ranking with nine goals and a very high percentage of ball possession and presence in the opponent’s half of the field, but this is not enough to bring home positive results if there is no tactical balance. “I don’t like to take a punch and return a punch, I’m a coach who doesn’t like to concede goals and who is trying to convey his beliefs to the boys. We can’t be perfect, we need to work together because this is a completely different squad from the one I had available during the retreat. I ask for time and patience, playing as we did against Pisa I’m sure we will comment on more victories than defeats” was the coach’s thought in the last press conference. This is another worrying fact: Salernitana almost always went behind first, with the exception of the home match against Sampdoria unlocked by Simy after 12 seconds.
Then there is always the corporate issue that takes centre stage.. No U-turn, no change of direction: the now ex-president of the Granata Danilo Iervolino has no intention of continuing his adventure at the helm of Salernitana and of remaining in a world, that of football, that he has not liked for some time and that has made him fall out of love for many reasons. At the moment there are no concrete negotiations underway, however the dialogue continues with two groups headed by Italian entrepreneurs who, however, to date have not formulated a binding offer that would push Iervolino to concretely evaluate the handover. In this respect, the work carried out by Petrachi in the summer makes the balance sheets lighter, guarantees millionaire incomes also for the immediate future and has allowed Iervolino to cash in many millions. The feeling is that, compared to an offer of 10-12 million euros, the sale of Salernitana could materialize, provided that the buyer guarantees payment methods that go beyond installments and that he envisions an ambitious project in the colors of the garnet. Obviously, with a new owner, the positions of all current employees and managers would have to be evaluated.