Venezia Sack Giovanni Stroppa After Six Defeats, Zero Points and the Club's Worst Start Since 1949

Venezia have sacked head coach Giovanni Stroppa, one day after a 3-1 defeat at Atalanta completed a run of six losses from six Serie A matches. The club sit bottom of the table on zero points, four adrift of safety, with 16 goals conceded and only five scored — a start that equals the club's worst-ever league beginning, set in 1949.

From Promotion Hero to October Exit

The dismissal ends a tenure that began with a celebration. Stroppa was appointed in June 2025 and led Venezia to promotion as Serie B champions, carrying the club back to the top flight. That goodwill bought him the opening weeks of the season; the manner of the defeats spent it. Monday's loss in Bergamo — where Franck Kessie struck in the fourth minute and a Nikola Krstovic double put Atalanta out of reach before half-time, Antoine Hainaut's reply notwithstanding — left the club with nothing left to defend.

Whoever Comes In Faces Fire

No successor was named immediately, but the fixture list is already circling: Venezia play Napoli, Inter Milan and Como in three of their next four matches. Whoever inherits the job will meet the top end of the division before ever settling into it, with a squad that has conceded 16 times in six games and scored more than once in a match only once all season.

The Fourth Sacking of the Season

Stroppa's exit is the fourth coaching change in Serie A this season, after Paolo Vanoli replaced Fabio Grosso at Fiorentina, Raffaele Palladino took over from Domenico Tedesco at Bologna, and Alberto Gilardino replaced Carlos Cuesta at Parma. What marks Venezia's apart is the sample size: none of the others acted on zero points from six games.

The Brutal Calculation

For a promoted club the arithmetic is unforgiving. The gap to safety is four points with 32 matches to play — recoverable in principle, but not at a rate of zero points per game. Venezia have decided the man who won promotion cannot be the one to keep them up, and that the next window, with its winter transfer business, belongs to a coach they have yet to name.