Italy "begged" handsome, and Gattuso was infinitely close

Written by Han Bing After Spalletti's resignation, it was only a few days, and the selection of coaches in Italy was almost impossible to talk about, to be precise, to the point of "seeking".

First the negotiated Ranieri collapsed, and then Pioli seemed to be idle, and only after contact did he know that he had a verbal agreement with Fiorentina. In a panic, the "06 generation" surfaced. Gattuso? Cannavaro? De Rossi? At present, it seems that Gattuso has achieved a "temperamental" advantage and is infinitely closer to the Italian position. The question is, is Gattuso okay? Will he be the savior of Italian football?

Ranieri was the ideal candidate, and he initially accepted the Italian Football Federation's offer. Roma's American financiers, the Friedkin family, also supported Ranieri in two roles: the Italian national team coach and the personal adviser to the president of the club as Roma. There are many precedents for such part-time jobs, with Alex Ferguson also managing Scotland during his time at Aberdeen, leading them to the 1986 World Cup. In 1974, Michels was also the manager of the Netherlands when he was in charge of Barcelona, leading the team to the first World Cup final. Guus Hiddink also managed Australia (2005-2006) and Russia (2006-2010) and briefly spent four months in charge of Chelsea (2009).

Just as Ranieri waited for the official announcement on Monday, an exhaustive memo from the Italian Football Federation on "part-time" ruined everything: it detailed all the details to avoid a possible conflict of interest between the Italian team and the club Roma, including how Ranieri gave interviews, dressed publicly, and spent time with the national team and the AS Roma training base.

The memo left Ranieri stunned and embarrassed.

The Friedkin family feared the complete loss of a backer who could "control" the Roma fans, and Ranieri's agent intervened to coordinate with the Italian Football Federation to no avail. Ranieri called the president of the Football Federation on Monday night Gravina to announce that he had given up because he did not want to "lose" Roma.

Ranieri's abandonment plunged the Italian Football Federation into new chaos. Some of the candidates were quickly rejected, and Pioli, who had just returned from West Asia, had a pre-contract with Fiorentina and the negotiations would be in the same either-or" dilemma as Ranieri. Mancini is experienced and relaxed, but his past feud with the president of the Football Association will not be resolved in the short term. With no one around, the so-called "06 generation" surfaced. The Italian Football Federation, which is desperate to go to the hospital, is counting on the "championship mentality" of the new coach, as the saying goes, "players who have missed two consecutive World Cups need a coach with a World Cup winning resume to boost morale", although this seems more like a no-brainer.

Soon, the names of Gattuso, De Rossi, Cannavaro surfaced.

Gianluigi Buffon, Italy's national team sporting director, called Gattuso five times on Tuesday, and his resume is the most impressive of the '06 generation', having coached Milan, Napoli, Valencia, Marseille and Croatian side Split Freedom Fighters. However, he only won the Coppa Italia in 2019/20 during his tenure and was sacked on five occasions for failing to meet the standards. Gattuso's fearless 'Ringhio' is considered the best fit for the Italian team, which currently lacks self-confidence. His 4231 formation when he was in charge of Napoli was compact and aggressive, with a fluid style, and he also coached the 433 and the back three, which was dubbed Ringhismo by the media following Atletico's Cholismo. But in terms of team achievements, Simeone and Gattuso are very different.

In the current so-called "06" generation, Gattuso is actually the most advanced, and in fact, under the current circumstances, he is infinitely close to becoming the new Italian coach. According to a poll by Sport, fans are more supportive of Roberto Mancini (34 per cent), followed by De Rossi (23 per cent) and Gattuso (20 per cent), while Stefano Pioli (17 per cent) and Cannavaro (6 per cent) are far behind. But the Italian Football Federation is locked in Gattuso's spiritual attributes, and nothing else is taken care of.

Former Italian coach Sacchi revealed: In 1994, Milan offered him an annual salary of 3 billion lira, Real Madrid's reached 5 billion lira, and the Italian Football Federation's was only 1 billion lira, but he did not hesitate to choose to coach the Azzurri, because it was the supreme honor of representing the country. But now, he admits that the national team is not as attractive to the coach as much. As for the three candidates for the "06 Generation", Sacchi emphasized the difficulty of coaching the national team, especially in terms of managing the team and coordinating relationships. The implication is that none of the three "06 generation" candidates are ideal candidates.