Prandelli is Lippi's Replacement

La Gazzetta dello Sport has confirmed that the coach that will follow in Marcello Lippi’s footsteps will be Cesare Prandelli. The ex-Fiorentina coach seems to have reached an agreement with the FIGC chief Giancarlo Abete and will take over as soon as Lippi’s contract expires on July 30th. Prandelli’s contract is four years long until the end of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, with possibilities of it being extended if he does well, or terminated if the positive results don’t arrive.

Lippi seems very happy about the decision about his successor, here are some comments released by him about Prandelli and his future after he found out about the decision,

“The federation (FIGC) has found the right person, I told Natale and Abete that I would do two more years and that’s it. About motivations of why I leave the National team after the World Cup I don’t want to talk about right now, I’m here to talk about what we’re doing to prepare. That I wasn’t the National Team coach for the future you all knew, but about my motivations we’ll talk after South Africa, not now.”

It’s interesting to see Lippi very calm and happy about his successor, and his confirmation of departure after South Africa will certainly spur rumors about a possible return to Juventus. While it seems inevitable that he will return either as coach or as a director, probably a bigger concern for most is who will replace Prandelli at Fiorentina.

Fiorentina’s coach has two main options although they would like Luciano Spalletti, but it seems like Zenit St. Petersburg are unwilling to give him up. The other options are Genoa’s Gianpiero Gasperini and Catania’s Sinisa Mihajlovic. While Gasperini seems like the safer option, Mihajlovic could be a better bet even if he could move to the San Siro stadium as Jose Mourinho’s replacement. His post at Catania has already been taken by Marco Giampaolo, so Mihajlovic will certainly be going somewhere this summer, whether it be Fiorentina or Inter Milan.

While Prandelli seems like a very safe option for the Italia coach due to his ability to raise Fiorentina up into the Champions League, but there are often inconsistencies in his teams. I think he will learn a lot, and possibly become a world-class coach, but that will be after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa where Lippi will still be coaching the team.

How do you think that Prandelli will do? Who will he be replaced by? Be sure to share your thoughts below by commenting!