Spalletti returns to Udinese

Udinese Calcio have confirmed that Luciano Spalletti will be their new coach for the 2002/03 season.

Second stint
Spalletti, who coached Udinese for the 2000/2001 season before making way for Englishman Roy Hodgson, was in charge at Serie B side Ancona Calcio last season and managed to save them from relegation.

'One-year contract'
"Spalletti has signed a one-year contract with Udinese and will be presented on Friday,'' a club spokesman said. Spalletti, 59, takes over from Giampiero Ventura, who was put in charge until the end of the 2001/02 season having replacing Hodgson in December. Under Ventura, Udinese only managed to avoid relegation to Serie B on the final day of the campaign, finishing one place and one point above the drop zone.

Successive promotions
Spalletti's coaching career has seen him at the helm of Empoli FC between 1993 and 1998, where he won promotion from Serie C1 to Serie B in 1996 and then from Serie B to Serie A in 1997. In 1998 he took over at Sampdoria UC, but was sacked before the end of the season and the team was subsequently relegated. In 1999 he became coach at AC Venezia, but was dismissed halfway through the season and in March 2000 he took over at Udinese, saving them from relegation, before last season coaching Ancona in Serie B.

Agostinelli joins Piacenza
Yesterday, Piacenza FC announced that 45-year-old Andrea Agostinelli would be the club's new coach, having left Ternana Calcio Polisportiva.