Crotone pulled off a Houdini-like escape from relegation last season but, unfortunately for their fans, they couldn't repeat the trick this time around.
After last season's miraculous survival, Davide Nicola fulfilled a promise to his players that he would cycle the length of Italy but the manager failed to last the distance this term. He resigned after suffering nine defeats in the opening 15 matches of the season. Crotone were in a much worse position at the same stage last season and Nicola managed to turn things around but he was allegedly undermined by club president Gianni Vrenna, which proved to be the final straw.
Walter Zenga, who was last seen in Italy at Sampdoria where his tenure was less than memorable, took charge of the team for the rest of the season. He made a pretty disastrous start with four defeats from his first five matches in charge but the Squali soon improved their form.
An excellent draw at home to Juventus in mid-April, where Simy scored one of the goals of the season, looked to be a turning point and they won their next two games over fellow strugglers Udinese and Sassuolo. However, defeat to Chievo was a big blow as they were always going to struggle to get anything in their final two games against Lazio and Napoli. In the end, they were relegated on the final day of the season.
Quite incredibly, Crotone went down with one more point than the tally which kept them up last season. They also scored more goals with Marcello Trotta and Ante Budimir getting 15 between them. Simy also provided some fine cameos and Andrea Barberis was a constant in midfield. Crotone failed to really kick on in the transfer market last season and it cost them in the end. They'll do well to hang onto their best players now.
