2008–09 US Città di Palermo season

[6] On June 19, Palermo announced to have re-signed Croatian striker Igor Budan from Parma and Genoa defender Cesare Bovo, the latter in exchange with long-time rosanero Giuseppe Biava.

Successively, Zamparini confirmed the intention to sell newly acquired striker Túlio de Melo, citing the impossibility to ensure the player a guaranteed place in the starting lineup as he wanted.

[21] The very next day saw notable criticism from supporters and local and national media regarding the club's strategy in the transfer market, particularly underlining the lack of an appropriate replacement for Amauri and the controversial sale of Túlio de Melo a mere two months after signing with the rosanero.

Zamparini responded to these criticisms by making the whole bid amounts in the seasons available to the public, in a very unusual move in Italy, noting his club was among the ones who spent the most money in order to sign new players.

Namely, striking duo of Fabrizio Miccoli and Edinson Cavani proved to be instrumental to the rosanero's successes, with the former Benfica star establishing himself as team topscorer despite being limited by injuries.

In the January 2009 transfer window, Palermo opted to loan out all of their players who did not play regularly in the first half, namely Hernán Paolo Dellafiore, Andrea Raggi, Davide Lanzafame and Maurizio Ciaramitaro.

Later in the market window, Palermo also announced the loan of Ciro Capuano to Sicilian rivals Catania, and the signing for free of Mirko Savini from Napoli, then completing the transfer session with two international youngsters, Swiss full-back Michel Morganella and Uruguayan striker Abel Hernández.

Palermo also managed to come back from two goals down to achieve a 2–2 draw at San Siro against José Mourinho's league leaders Internazionale thanks to efforts from Edinson Cavani and backup striker Davide Succi.