Heads rolled at two struggling Serie A sides Monday as Torino sacked coach Alberto Zaccheroni and Cagliari dumped Franco Colomba.
Curiously both men were replaced by their predecessors, Marco Giampaolo at Cagliari and Gianni De Biasi at Torino.
What's more, Giampaolo and De Biasi will face each other in Wednesday's relegation battle between the teams in Turin.
Zaccheroni was dismissed after going down 3-0 to Chievo in Verona Saturday and registering Torino's sixth consecutive defeat to equal the club's longest losing streak.
Those results have sunk Torino to 16th place, just two points above the relegation zone.
The former Inter, Lazio and AC Milan coach was brought in by Torino Chairman Urbano Cairo to replace De Biasi three days before the start of the season.
De Biasi led Torino to promotion from Serie A last season but Cairo was unhappy at his side's showings in summer friendlies and at an early exit from the Italian Cup.
Colomba's dismissal came after Cagliari were beaten 2-0 Sunday by a Lazio side that totally outplayed them at their home ground.
It was Cagliari's third defeat in four games and leaves them just three points off the relegation zone in 14th place.
Cagliari Chairman Massimo Cellino told reporters a few days ago that "changing coach would not resolve the problems", but he has obviously changed his mind.
Giampaolo returns to the Sardinian outfit only two months after departing.
Cellino sacked him on December 17 following a 3-0 thumping at Udinese.
Zaccheroni and Colomba are the eighth and ninth Serie A coach sackings of the 2006-2007 campaign.
The first was De Biasi's dismissal on September 7.
On October 16 Giuseppe Pillon was replaced at Chievo by a former favourite with the Verona club's fans, Luigi Del Neri. Chievo had been knocked out of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and were still seeking their first league win at the time.
Bottom club Ascoli brought in Nedo Sonetti for Attilio Tesser on November 13.
On January 16 Udinese sacked Giovanni Galeone because of the team's erratic form and hired former Parma, Fiorentina, Verona and Panathinaikos boss Alberto Malesani.
Alberto Cavasin took Bruno Giordano's place on the Messina bench on January 30. Under Giordano, Messina won just three league games out of 21.
Two weeks later Stefano Pioli was dumped by second-from-bottom Parma to be replaced by former Valencia and Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri.
