Unfortunately we live in reality. Managers have to think about themselves. Guys like Conte are not forcing to break their contracts with their clubs to save Italy (for a fraction of the salary) with a scarce talent pool no less. The fact is that the best guys are not available.
You are correct and many will disagree with you. But you are 100% correct. This is not on Spalletti as much as people believe. Also, if you tell me that Spalletti is a worse coach than Serghei Clescenco and Solbaken than you absolutely cannot be serious. We are actually downgrading. Unless we take Mancini back. Mancini is a good coach, but even he will struggle here. But at least, we have a shot with him.
I know Conte, Allegri etc the best options are not available. But there are certainly better options than people like DDR. Such as Mancini or Palladino.
How is it not on Spalletti? It's his job not only to get the best out of his players but also design game plans and choose the best players for the job. The man insisted on a 4-3-3 system last Euros with a 3-5-2 squad, had no ********ing wingers, complete disaster, should have been sent packing immediately afterwards. It's literally his job to motivate his players but instead he sticks to stubborn tactics and players which have absolutely backfired. The man is a buffoon and an embarrassment to the NT along with Ventura.
How is it that it is not on the players? If you are talking big oppositions I can understand. But against Norway? 3-0? You are telling me it's all on Spalletti? I don't think so.
I know many of you may disagree but at this point Gatusso may be the one we are looking for. We need someone who will give everything to qualify. Maybe Gatusso is the man. We need someone with a little madnesses right now to wake up everyone and everything. Maybe.
Whether or not we qualify for the next WC, doesn’t change the fact that our entire system is in the toilet. Even if we gut the heads of the federation, another crew of dinosaurs are waiting to come in and collect a nice cheque. I recently learned that Franco Carraro is in the running to be new CONI chief at the tender age of 86 years old. Yes the same disgraced Franco Carraro that was the FIGC president during calciopoli and was removed because he had some involvement. This is Italy. Every time we are in a crisis, people cite the Baggio story where he prepared a 900 page dossier with a full plan to revamp the system. The FIGC said thanks and threw it in the garbage. Yet here we are 15 years later with the same problems. Gravina is great at saying what’s wrong but they make 0 plan of action because they don’t know how. There are too many shitty coaches in the Italian system. Kids at 10 years old who want to dribble and have fun are cut because “they don’t know how to play with the team.” If Lamine Yamal were born in Italy, all of his skill would have been coached out of him because most of his time would be spent drilling tactics. Our entire ethos needs a deep rethink
Our players are not that good. Italy always had problems scoring goals but now, we have no forward in the Serie A who can put the ball in the back of the net consistently, a very suspect defense and no midfielders as well. I can't name one player to get excited about. This is a problem no CT on earth can easily resolve.
Once again, I haven't seen anybody misrepresenting our talent pool as one brimming with talent like the old days. The players are culpable in their performances, but to absolve the coach of a large amount of blame over the last few years is baffling. Spaletti did himself no favors and was an absolute mess tactically. There's a large enough sample size in his coaching tenure to come to this realization. You can point to the Norway game, which was also another match where he got it all wrong, but there's plenty of examples against better competition of the same. The man needed to be canned after Euro 2024 and Gravina trying to save face with begging his guy to stay around only snowballed this mess into where we are today. Does anybody in their right mind think that starting DiMarco and DiLorenzo in a back four against Yamal and Williams was not going to be a total shit kicking? Don't talk to me about the score because if it wasn't for an all-time Donna performance, that game should have been a complete rout. Complete and utter no show against Switzerland in a major knock-out game along with bizarre tactics highlighting his terrible personnel selections for that tournament. The team looked unmotivated, confused, and simply put, lost, on far too many occasions under Spaletti to not see a pattern of a coach completely out of his depth.
I'm surprised inter didn't ask for him. Probably the only big club that would take a chance on the special (ed) one..
You all dodged a bullet with Ranieri turning it down. One dinosaur wanted to hire another. Sure he did well with Roma but he also failed with Greece. He's old and wants to enjoy his cushy job and retire. The pressure that would have been put on him could have been bad for his heart. Let him retire. Why don't you follow in Spain's and our footsteps and hire your youth manager after the U21 Euro's are done? Yes, you have to qualify and he knows the players at that level and they will be hungry. Your game yesterday was so boring I fell asleep watching it. I'm not here to piss you off. Inject some youth into your mix and let them dictate the pace.
Ranieri would have been the ideal short term manager in a crisis moment. Nunziata would be a great choice but post cycle. The guy hasn’t won anything yet though. De La Fuente had the U21 championship on his resume before he was promoted
The general sentiment around here is that qualification is again in jeopardy. Hypothetically speaking if with Nunziata it doesn't work out, he has 2 years to build a winner. Scaloni had a short stint with U20, winning a relatively meaningless tournament before joining the men's team as coach. He injected youth into the national team. Italy needs this. Yesterday he said we don't need Messi anymore. He's right, we play as good without him as we do with him. He's still going to the World Cup but he won't be the focal point.
Even Ranieri early on lost a few games with Roma so that could easily happen again. There is no time for failure from here on out. They have these next 6 games to figure it out. September 5th, 2025 20:45 Italy vs. Estonia Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia, Bergamo September 8th, 2025 20:45 Israel vs. Italy Nagyerdei Stadion, Debrecen (Hungary) October 11th, 2025 20:45 Estonia vs. Italy October 14 2025 20:45 Italy vs. Israel November 13th, 2025 20:45 Moldova vs. Italy November 16th, 2025 20:45 Italy vs. Norway
He will shame and throw these players under the bus. Then give a football heritage speech that we haven't seen a WC group stage match in 12 years. If you thought Spaletti was bad with the dressing room, he is an angel compared to Mourinho. Mourinho is a coach for warriors. No prima donnas. I would love to see him tho. But no way these players last with him.