Ten Years Away is Too Long… Is This Palermo’s Time to Return to Serie A?

With perhaps the notable exception of Inter Milan, no other team across the top three divisions of Italian football is under as much pressure as Palermo this season.

The Rosanero begin a 10th consecutive campaign outside of Serie A, once again as promotion favourites, wearing a tag that has been more of a weight around their necks than a springboard to success.

The fifth-largest city in Italy, Palermo is also the only one of the country’s eight most densely-populated areas without a top-flight team. The southernmost club in Serie B, they are also Sicily’s only representative in the top two tiers of Italian football, a stark contrast with the days when they, along with Messina and Catania, were a staple of Serie A, only two decades ago.

With Napoli and Lecce the only Serie A clubs based south of Rome, Palermo’s return to calcio’s upper echelon would partially restore the geographical imbalance.

Relegated to Serie B at the end of the 2016-17 season, the Rosanero spent two seasons in the second tier before plunging all the way down Serie D in 2019 due to financial irregularities.

The City Football Group takeover three years later coincided with their return to the second division, but further promotion has remained frustratingly elusive.

Palermo narrowly missed out on the play-offs in their first season back in Serie B, before being knocked out in the semi-finals in 2024. Twelve months later, there was more post-season heartbreak as they meekly came undone against Juve Stabia in the first round, which proved to be Alessio Dionisi’s final game in charge.

Filippo Inzaghi’s appointment last summer was meant to take Palermo to a new level. The former AC Milan striker had just led Pisa back to Serie A after 34 years, adding another promotion to his CV after the one he won with Benevento in 2020.

And for a while, it worked. The Sicilians were in the top two until the end of October, but three defeats in the next four fixtures saw them slip out of the automatic promotion spots and they never recovered, the season again ending in the play-offs with defeat by Catanzaro in the semis.

While other clubs may have pulled the plug, Palermo stuck by Inzaghi and again backed him in the transfer window with a number of high-profile signings. Former Como striker Gabriel Strefezza arrived from Olympiacos, while Hernani joined from newly-promoted Monza and Mattia Perin made the switch from Juventus, with more than 1000 fans turning up to welcome him.

The supporters have stuck by Inzaghi and his team, too. Palermo had Serie B’s highest average attendance last season at just over 28,000 and have sold out their 17,000 season tickets this summer.

One of the three Italia 90 host venues still in use in Serie B, the Renzo Barbera is one of the best stadiums to watch football in Italy, courtesy of its raucous atmosphere and the picturesque backdrop of Monte Pellegrino.

Palermo remain hopeful renovation plans can be signed off in time for the October deadline the Italian FA has imposed for cities wanting to present their candidacy as host venues for Euro 2032.

Even without a facelift, the Barbera should top the list of grounds to visit in Serie B for any groundhopper and tickets are straightforward to get.

Plans were halted earlier this summer amid a stand-off with the council over a number of changes to the proposal, but the fact a redevelopment of the Barbera is being discussed at all is testament to the ambition City Football Group have shown since taking control.

Palermo moved into their new state-of-the-art training complex in Torretta, approximately 10 miles from the city centre, two years ago and the Abu Dhabi-owned consortium has bankrolled expensive squad overhauls, spending an average of €11m on players in their five seasons in charge.

“Our goal is clear: we want to win promotion and establish ourselves,” Palermo CEO Giovanni Gardini told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Bouncing back and forth between divisions makes no sense, financially or otherwise.

“But Serie B is a very tough league — nothing can be taken for granted. We’re disappointed not to have achieved promotion already, but City Group’s vision is long-term, and the investment remains constant.”

While that may be true, patience will be wearing thin should another season end without promotion to Serie A.

There is a real sense that this could be the season to watch Palermo, though. Consider the atmosphere, that setting, the city, and then add the pressure into the mix.

Davide is 23 years old and from Palermo. He has supported the team for as long as he can remember.

He told Destination Calcio: “Ever since the City Group takeover, I’ve always said that Palermo’s only objective is to be in Serie A, and the transfer market said as much.

“Every year in September we have the strongest squad of all — except last year with Monza, who’d just come down from Serie A. But we always got it wrong on the bench: the two years with (Eugenio) Corini, then (Michele) Mignani and then (Alessio) Dionisi.

“Last year I wasn’t a big fan of Inzaghi, for one simple reason: he’s always been the kind of manager who gets promoted and then moves. But even so, last year I was super confident, because apart from Monza, in my view we had a stronger squad than everyone. It didn’t turn out that way because once again we didn’t go up.

“But I’ve always been hopeful. This year I’d like to say the same thing, but by now I’ve developed a few doubts. Looking at this transfer window, you can’t say we’re not the favourites. The teams that came down don’t look all that ready, you saw it on matchday one, all three of them lost — and we’ve had a very good transfer window.

“We’re pretty much covered everywhere. So this year I’m confident again, but with a bit of fear, once more, of being let down.

“Last year I noticed something at the stadium. With Inzaghi, the stadium was packed and buzzing, whereas with Dionisi I didn’t see it that fired up.

“Last year I could feel a different life inside the ground. And this year too, on matchday one, the stadium was the 12th man. So in my opinion, this year is officially the year.”

Palermo got off to a winning start, defeating Juve Stabia 1-0 at the Barbera on the opening weekend, before a 3-2 victory at Arezzo. But the road to the top flight remains long and fraught with pitfalls.

The Sicilians are almost the complete package: a passionate fanbase, a deep-pocketed and ambitious ownership, an elite Serie B manager and shiny, brand-new training facilities.

Yet, all the off-pitch momentum means nothing if they fail to deliver the ultimate goal— that long-awaited return to Serie A.