At the beginning for the 2022/23 season, goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon decided to hang up his gloves, stating that he could no longer handle the physical demand of professional football. 4 months later, at the beginning of October, Buffon was given the opportunity to manage struggling Serie B side Cittadella, having gained his UEFA coaching badges.

Buffon was in for a tough time, as he joined a team that was dead last and had only earned 1 point in 7 games and had been knocked out in round 1 of the Coppa Italia. Buffon was not initially much of an upgrade on the previous manager, as Cittadella were still last, 4 points away from the 19th placed team, by the end of January. By then, Buffon had broken the club’s transfer record of 0,6m Euros when he signed Luca Ghiringhelli for 1m Euro from Ternana. Fans were calling for the sacking of Buffon to take place, but the board decided to give Buffon more time.

This proved to be a terrific decision, as Buffon went onto win 7 games and get 5 draws in the last 13 games, with one of their only 2 losses coming against the strong Cagliari. This put Cittadella in 16th place, level on points with 15th place SPAL. This turnaround was partly made possible by Buffon’s decision to abandon the 442 diamond formation, and use a 433 instead.

Following Buffon’s good job of turning Cittadella’s fortunes around, he was given the Genoa job at the end of the season. Genoa had run away with the Serie B title but were soon left with the disappointing news of head coach Alexander Blessin leaving them to join Sassuolo.

Transfers in (all in January):
Luca Ghiringhelli 68 from Ternana (1m Euros)
=1m Euros spent

Transfers out (all in January):
Alessandro Mattioli 60 to Annecy (375k Euros) - requested to leave
=375k Euros spent

Performances:
Serie B: 16th place
Coppa Italia: round 1 (knocked out before I joined)

Captain: Branca
Player of the season: Kastrati