The Tottenham Hotspur supporters have been wondering what has happened to the set piece coach who made a big impression last season
Set piece coach Gianni Vio has not been a part of the Ange Postecoglou era at Tottenham Hotspur, answering a question asked by many a Spurs fan.
When Postecoglou took over at Tottenham as the club's new head coach this season, his coaching staff was announced to include senior assistant coach Chris Davies, who previously worked alongside Brendan Rodgers at Swansea, Liverpool, Celtic and Leicester City, with Ryan Mason, Matt Wells and Mile Jedinak as assistant coaches as well as Rob Burch, who was named as first team goalkeeping coach.
One name that was left off the list was the well travelled Vio, who had joined the club the previous summer as attacking set pieces coach from the Italian national team.
The word within the club at that point and for a number of weeks after was that a decision had not yet been made on the 70-year-old Italian, who operates on more of a freelance basis rather than as part of a travelling coaching unit. For instance, Vio remained at the club after Antonio Conte's exit from Spurs in March and then stayed after the rest of the Italian contingent left a few weeks later with Cristian Stellini to continue working with Mason and Wells.
So all eyes were on whether Vio, a former banker, would eventually join Postecoglou's staff. The highly-regarded Italian has famously designed 4,830 different attacking set-piece scenarios which he adapts to the players at his disposal, and he made a huge impact in his first season in north London.
An area they previously struggled in, Spurs scored 16 goals from set-pieces in the 2022/23 Premier League campaign, with Liverpool the only team to score more than them after netting 17, and Vio received praise from numerous Tottenham players during the campaign.
However, now the Premier League season is underway and there has still been no sighting of Vio around Hotspur Way nor his name mentioned around the Enfield-based training complex and it seems the Italian's current tenure at Tottenham has come to a close.
He was not involved in the club's pre-season tour to Australia, Thailand and Singapore this summer or trip to Barcelona, having been part of Conte's staff during last year's matches in South Korea and Israel.
Ironically, Spurs did score from a set piece for their first goal of the new Premier League season at Brentford, Cristian Romero heading home James Maddison's free-kick at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday.
With Vio's wandering nature though you cannot rule out a return one day to a club where he clearly enjoyed himself enough to stay through three different regimes in a single season and made a big impact on the Premier League.