There is a problem with the National side obviously. The problem is a bit more complicated than just saying “We should’ve played the youth more”, etc. The main issue that led to this point is the fact that several prospects just did not pan out – for one reason or another. There was the post-2006 crop of Giovinco, Balotelli, and Joe Rossi. Then came the ‘Pescara 3’, as I refer to them – Ciro, Lorenzo, Marco V. While these guys were hailed as the future, the remainder of that 2006 side (Buffon, Pirlo, DeRossi and to a lesser degree, Barzagli) were thrust into prominent roles – deservingly. Our midfield was comprised of DeRossi-Pirlo exclusively for years and our backline was Juve-centric, for good reason. It’s not like you could just discard these guys in favor of younger talent – you play to win at national level, not groom. Now that 2006 crop have moved on and those post-2006 group never panned out – not one reached a world-class level. And now we are scrambling. How do you blame that on a specific manager? A specific mindset? A specific philosophy? They played their cards and they hit nothing on the river. It’s as simple as that…
This is why I don't think it's one thing (or person) specific. I can't kill a manager for not playing youth when the youth was less talented than the guys we already had. I'm not sure how anyone can blame them. The job of the manager is to field the best team possible to win (at least on the NT level). You could say on the youth levels the main thing is training the talent so they develop and that winning is secondary. But honestly, these youth teams aren't together for a long period of time. So that leaves the youth to develop at the club level. But the club teams have different priorities. They are much like the NT team in that it's win first before anything else. That's why while I understand people aren't happy with the number of Italians in Serie A, you have to stop and ask whats the reason behind that. The fact teams play more foreigners than years in the past should maybe be examined in more detail. It's should have rung alarm bells not because managers refuse Italian players but because our talent has lacked so much that you win more with the foreign born guys. Also (and this is true of any fan of any team)........you tend to overrated your own players. That's why we looked at the Pescara 3 and thought we had something there. But once the veterans left and it was time for the young players to shine, you began to realize they just aren't on the same level. It's a big jump from a youth team to a national team. I'm beginning to realize you never really know what you got until they get called up. Having said this, I still maintain this goes in cycles. Italy will be back. I have no doubt in my mind about this.
Also to add, there is an element of bad fortune a lost generation. In football there is no luck but a series of things must go right to create a successful generation. The bad fortune of the Grand Torino put Italian football into a tail spin arguably a lower low than what we are seeing now. This creates catenaccio and the creative players of past like Mazzola were no more. Then comes The Milan team of the late 60s, once in a generation players like Zoff Rivera Riva Fachetti. A modest run of euro 68 champs and 1970 finalist. While a great moment Italian foot ball didn’t truly recover until 1982 where Serie A and the national team woukd remain world class for 25 years until Calciopoli. Ok so that brings us to this current situation, Calciopoli with all due respect is the modern equivalent of the Grande Torino. 2012 is an outlier as it had leftovers from 2006 which is really the 1990s development era of Pirlo Buffon and early 2000s era of Barzagli DeRossi all of which won youth tournaments world cups and European trophies. So we can take away 2012, 2013/2018 is the dark period. We may be losing our collective patience but the decline hasn’t even settled for a decade yet. It really hasn’t been that long or that poor of a decade yet. By 2020 things may turn around as they did in 1968/1978 and lead to a competitive era. If we’re in this state next decade then we have a problem. I understand it’s hard to watch, it is for me too. Now when I mentioned the lost generation I’m talking about like others have mentioned Giovinco Balotelli Marchisio Montolivo among many others. What would these players (1986-1992)have been if Serie A was not descimated by Calciopoli? If the European pedigree was not stripped from Milan and Juve? What if Giuseppe Rossi was not injured and Cassano was the bridge between Baggio Totti Pirlo and this current generation that his talent suggested. These are not excuses, this is not bad luck but it is a perfect storm of bad fortune. You can not lose a generation of talent like that to those circumstances and hand the baton to Federico Chiesa and expect it to be business as usual. It will take time but I do believe by Euro 2020 we will be competing and proud of this squad. If healthy Chiesa Pellegri Verratti Romagnoli Donnarumma could well be generational talents in 2020/2022 and form a formidable spine. Once the spine is formed outliers like Insigne, Balotelli Bernardeschi (take your pick) can play their role as they always have for the Azzurri. Think Camronesi Toni Schilacci etc.