CIOFFI’S GOT BIG IDEAS FOR REDS
GABRIELE Cioffi is confident he can win over the doubters following his surprise appointment as Crawley Town manager on Friday.
Following Harry Kewell’s departure to take the reins at fellow League Two outfit Notts County last week, the Red Devils received more than 80 applications for the vacant hotseat.
From that extensive list, they plumped for the little known Cioffi, who celebrated his 43rd birthday on the day he was appointed manager at the Broadfield Stadium.
The Florence-born defender spent the bulk of his career playing in Italy’s Serie B and has since coached in his native country, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and England, where he was on the coaching staff during Gianfranco Zola’s ill-fated stint in charge of Birmingham City.
Some will no doubt be questioning whether Crawley have made a mistake in appointing the rookie boss, but he’s confident he will be able to make an impression in West Sussex.
Aggressive
A big fan of English football, he said: “I want my team to be aggressive, confident on the pitch and not to give up until the end of the game.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to transmit a mentaliy in pre-season, but I jump in almost in the middle of the season with a team that’s lost two important players – this is reality.
“I’m confident I will show in my first game a big part of my idea. I know very well who I am, I know very well what I want and I’m sure that I can generate something important here.”
Crawley director of football Selim Gaygusuz is convinced the Italian has exactly the right qualities.
He said: “We wanted a head coach with passion, dedication and someone who is prepared to work hard to improve our existing squad.
“In our extensive discussions with Gabriele we were impressed with his ideas and enthusiasm for the job and his short and long-term vision. He will inherit, in our opinion, the best squad we’ve had during our time in League Two and we are all looking forward with Gabriele to help take the club forward.”
Cioffi attended yesterday’s game at table-topping Lincoln City but the team – 16th pre-weekend – was due to be taken by caretaker-managers, and players, Filipe Morais and Jimmy Smith.