Unfulfilled love hurts: Canepa has now realized that too

The president of FCZ, Ancillo Canepa, pulls the rope and dismisses his protégé Ludovic Magnin. It is an unavoidable step for the people of Zurich. A comment.

In February 2018, the FCZ fired Uli Forte. The separation at that time was a surprise. The city of Zurich came in third place in the table and in the cup semi-finals. However, President Canepa’s partner lowered their thumbs.

They practically already had his successor in their own ranks. Ludovic Magnin has already coached several youth teams, ultimately the U21s. In the lively French-speaking part of the country, which used to be a FCZ player, they saw the ideal man to lead the club into the future.

His team should be unpredictable, Magnin said as his motto when he took office. At first, the collaboration seemed fruitful. He led the club to win the cup against the champions Young Boys. And in the following Europa League campaign, FCZ beat Bayer Leverkusen among others and qualified for the knockout phase.

In good phases, the team seemed to be able to transfer the energy of the coach, who always marched up and down the wing during the 90 minutes, commenting on the field. In the bad phases, she seemed strangely bored and uninvolved, sometimes just giving in to her fate. The FCZ was a reflection of their coach. Enthusiastic and charming one moment, angry and irascible the next. This mixture is not necessarily an advantage on the lawn, especially if you have to keep a cool head.

One defeat too many

It was also not really helpful that a lot of changes were always made to the team. So many players shook hands, but there were no identifying figures. Since the departure of club legend Alain Nef, there has been a leadership void on and off the pitch. The careful strategy with directed transfers, which was started by sporting director Thomas Bickel, who was pushed further and further into the background, in the Challenge League season, became increasingly diluted over time.

So Magnin’s team was one thing above all else: a bag of luck. She was completely lacking in constancy. Of course, this was also due to the partly young players, but this should not be used as an excuse. Other teams also relied on inexperienced workers, and still succeeded.

However, Ancillo Canepa and Ludovic Magnin always spoke strongly to the club and imagined that they were on par with the greats of the country, although they often hung low on the table. Over the past two seasons, they came in seventh place.

They are currently at the bottom of the table. In the Cup, the Zurich team failed miserably at FC Chiasso, the last game of the last Challenge League season. Still, Canepa has been stubbornly making calls for perseverance for the past few months. But now patience has been broken after twelve competitive games without a win in all seasons. In 2020, fans were only allowed to celebrate a victory three times.

After underperforming 0: 4 against Lausanne, the FCZ president also had to accept that he had to cancel the project with his student Magnin. It should not have been an easy step for him due to the close ties to the former Swiss international. The lack of victory simply left him with no way out. A simple law in the football business.

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