Viva Italia! Dundalk’s charismatic new boss makes instant impression
FILIPPO Giovagnoli was a ‘killer’ defender who is now embracing his ‘kamikaze’ mission as Dundalk’s head coach.
Bearded and bald, a beaming Giovagnoli certainly talked the talk in the Oriel Park sunshine yesterday after a turbulent week for the champions.
It was a unique press conference for Irish club football as the 49year-old Italian with no experience of managing adults or knowledge of the League of Ireland embraced his challenge.
Hired on a three-month deal, along with fellow Italian Guiseppe Rossi, Giovagnoli’s target is ‘to win every game’ as the club’s US owners have demanded.
‘We have a strong group of players, really professional. Already, we start to work like animals,’ he said.
There were shades of Giovanni Trapattoni’s arrival at the RDS as Irish manager in 2008, at the way Giovagnoli, a lifelong Juventus fan, charmed the media.
His English was better than Trap’s and his message bubbled with a similar Italian passion and evocative imagery.
For Dundalk players shuffling through a humdrum season, the energy and ideas of Giovagnoli may provide the lift they need after the departure of Vinny Perth, and his No2, John Gill.
Already, Giovagnoli feels he is making his mark, after splitting training sessions up between defenders in the mornings and midfielders and attackers in the afternoon.
‘Today, I had a good conversation with one of the key players and he told me: “I’m really enjoying what we are doing now.”
‘I told him this is not only about winning games for me, this is also about developing you as a player.
‘I managed players like I manage my coaches in New York. I’m leading a group so the mindset is the same. I have to help them to be better players.’
Giovagnoli joked about his ‘kamikaze’ reference to the Dundalk posting.
‘When I set my mindset on a kamikaze mission means that I have nothing to lose.’
And what happens should Bill Hulsizer, the chairman of Dundalk, interfere with team selection or tactics from Fort Lauderdale?
‘I’m not going to do it, I will play who deserves to play. If I have people close to me who want to interfere then I am not going to accept it.’
It was Hulsizer, acting on a recommendation from a contact at the Metropolitan Oval Academy in New York where Giovagnoli was Director of Coaching, who called on Friday, after Robbie Keane and Mark Kennedy decided against the Dundalk vacancy.
‘I was surprised. I was at home in Italy on vacation since June 26 waiting for my visa to go back to New York.
‘When I got the call from Bill, I didn’t wait. I started work as a manager, started to work watching games, to understand what’s going on.’
Unlike Dundalk whose title defence is on shaky turf, Giovagnoli reckons, ‘I have nothing to lose’.
‘I have no other option, I can only do well. I have a three-month contract. To do well is the only way for me.’
The future starts on Sunday at Cobh Ramblers in the Extra.ie FAI Cup before the Europa League qualifying draw on Monday.
The modest facilities of St Colman’s Park won’t upset Giovagnoli who, like Rossi, hails from the tiny commune of Apecchio, in the Marche region, not far from San Marino.
Giovagnoli was a lower division clogger who was with Rondinella, the second club of Florence, in Serie D when Juve legend Andrea Barzagli made his debut as a teenager in 1998.
‘The the first time Barzagli played centre half it was with me, I was moving him like a baby. He was really good.’
And what was Giovagnoli like? ‘I was an animal, I was a killer,’ he gushed.
Asked about his early impressions of Dundalk, he smiled: ‘All I know is when I sleep and the club. I’m going to ask for a mattress here at the club.’
‘I have three months, I can only try and do well’