On 5 June 2009, Zenga left Catania to be the manager at arch-rival Palermo. He was replaced by Gianluca Atzori, a relative coaching neophyte with just one year's experience at Lega Pro Prima Divisione team Ravenna. Atzori was noted for using an attacking 4–3–3 formation at Ravenna and was expected to continue a similar approach with the Elefanti. On 8 December 2009, Siniša Mihajlović was appointed new head coach of Catania, taking over from Atzori. He signed a contract until June 2011 with the "Elefanti". Arriving at the club that was dead last in the Serie A standings, Mihajlović debuted with a loss against Livorno. The following week, however, his team pulled off a stunning upset by beating heavily favoured Juventus away in Turin with a 2–1 scoreline. After Mihajlović's departure to Fiorentina, Catania appointed Marco Giampaolo as new head coach for the 2010–11 season. On January 2011, Catania decided to remove Giampaolo from his position due to poor results and replace him with former Argentine star Diego Simeone, who had no previous experience at Serie A level but managed to guide the Sicilians to safety before to part company by the end of the season, after only four months in charge of the team. As a replacement, Catania appointed 37-year-old Vincenzo Montella at his second managerial experience after having served as caretaker at Roma during the final part of the 2010–11 season. Then came Rolando Maran in the 2012–13 season, who guided Catania to a record-breaking season where they accrued 56 points from 38 Serie A matches. The season also saw Catania take a record number of home wins in one season, its record number of victories overall in a single top flight campaign, as well as its record points total in Serie A for the fifth consecutive season. They also finished ahead of Internazionale at the conclusion of the season and were just five points away from competing in the UEFA Europa League, which would have been an incredible achievement for the side. After being relegated from Serie A after the 2013–14 season, Catania was again relegated to the Lega Pro and deducted nine points, after, during the 2014–15 season, head coach and owner Antonio Pulvirenti admitted to fixing five matches.  .