CONTE THE TOP CHOICE TO RESCUE ITALIANS
Furious Italians searching for a scapegoat but legend Sacchi says: This has been coming for years .. it is cultural, not individual
ANTONIO CONTE is the man Italy will turn to after their World Cup humiliation.
The Chelsea boss is the preferred choice of senior members of the Italian FA, still coming to terms with their failure to get past Sweden in a two-legged play-off. Carlo Ancelotti
AFTER the shock and the tears came the anger in Italy.
And the search for scapegoats following the Azzurri’s catastrophic failure on Monday night to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years.
“Disaster”, “nightmare” and “humiliation” were the words splashed across the stunned nation’s newspaper front pages after play-off defeat to Sweden.
Giuseppe Bergomi, a key member of the 1982 World Cupwinning side, said: “It is a humiliation that we are going out and they are going to the World Cup.”
Coach Gian Piero Ventura was the No.1 target and there were calls for Carlo Ancelotti, Antonio Conte or Roberto Mancini to replace him. But Arrigo Sacchi, who took Italy to the 1994 World Cup final, claimed the calamity had been coming, after failure to get out of the group stages in South Africa and Brazil.
“This defeat isn’t a result of chance, just look at the two disastrous World Cups,” Sacchi (left) warned.
“The right team is born of so many things, it’s not that one player makes the difference. Our problem is cultural, football is a team sport, not a personal one.
“In these cases we look for a scapegoat, we ease our collective conscience this way, but an individual can’t solve the problems. Ancelotti is great, but we need to do so many things differently from the way we are, starting with the basics.”
Although Serie A is enjoying a resurgence due to foreign investment, the national team has been in decline since the 2006 triumph and Conte’s genius papered over the cracks at Euro 2016. Italian TV reported yesterday that Ventura, 69, had tried to resign after Friday’s defeat in Sweden, when senior players complained about his tactics. And the enduring image of the San Siro fiasco was defensive midfielder Daniele De Rossi arguing he should not be sent on in the second half.
He was caught on camera saying, “Why the hell should I go on? We don’t need to draw here, we need to win!”
The Roma star later explained: “It was a fraught
moment and I wanted them to bring on the attacking players. I thought maybe Insigne or El Shaarawy would be more effective than me.”
De Rossi added: “It’s a dark moment. It’s very bad that we’ve all been part of this and now we’re all going to have time to think. The Federation will have to reflect on how we can put things right.”
Italy has suffered a long recession and unemployment is still above 11 per cent. The country needed a lift. Instead it faces further introspection.
Politician Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Northern League, tweeted: “There are too many foreigners, from youth teams to Serie A, and this is the result. STOP THE INVASION. Give more room to Italian lads.”
It is certainly the end of an era with Gigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli and De Rossi quitting the international stage.
Winger Federico Bernardeschi said: “To not go to the World Cup is really tragic. It was moving to see people cry, like Buffon, Barzagli, Chiellini and De Rossi.”
Buffon, who retires after 175 caps, said: “The blame is divided equally among all of us. There must be no scapegoats. We win together and we lose together.
“I’m sorry about the whole affair. We blew something that could have meant so much. The main regret is that it ended like this.
“We have failed and, at a social level, this could have been so important”.