Meticulous Mancini deserves more respect
WHEN the last Euros were held, there was a buzz around Italy. We watched with interest because we knew a big character was coming to the Premier League.
Antonio Conte had agreed to become Chelsea manager before the tournament and we loved seeing his passion on the sidelines. His team played good football, he looked the part and his past record indicated he would be successful in England.
When I watch Italy at this Euros, I wonder why there isn’t the same buzz around their current manager and why Premier League clubs haven’t been doing all they can to recruit him.
Some will accuse me of bias when I talk about Roberto Mancini but my relationship with him has nothing to do with it.
He’s one of the world’s best managers and it baffles me why, for instance, Spurs and Everton haven’t targeted him.
Mancini came into Manchester City and, to play for him, you had to understand his attention to detail. He is relentless, he challenges you mentally and a few players felt like they were being taken back to school by his methods. He changed everything at City. Training was moved to late afternoon, the way we ate at the canteen was different.
He would walk around inspecting what people had on their plates and preached the importance of a good diet.
The idea of drinking alcohol was alien to him and you only have to see how he looks now, at 56, to appreciate how seriously he took it all.
You’d see him in the gym doing sessions. He had his road bike, he’d go out running. There was an ‘abs’ workout he did and he wasn’t afraid to do a bit of boxing training. The desire to look impeccable mirrors his desire for his teams to be unbeatable.
Mancini let us all know he was a top player in his prime — ‘where is your technique?’ he’d ask with a smile on his face — but he never made himself untouchable.
When I had to go to Italy to see a specialist for my knee, he rang me when I was over there. ‘Are you OK? Is there anything you need? If you need me, I will fly over’. It was a gesture I never forgot.
And look at his record. He won the Italian Cup with Fiorentina and Lazio, took Inter Milan to Serie A three times, won the Turkish Cup with Galatasaray. And I haven’t even mentioned Manchester City.
He went head-to-head with Sir Alex Ferguson and won. Mancini made us believe we could climb the mountain and laid the foundations for the success you see now.
He is always tactically ahead of the game and will relish this chance with Italy.
I hope he can take another major step forward against Austria tonight. The way he’s lifted a team who failed to qualify for the last World Cup has been incredible. It proves why he belongs in the highest bracket. He’s the reason Italy look like potential tournament winners once more.