Defiant Di Canio insists he can be a winner like Conte
Paoli Di Canio explains to Sam Wallace that he is a nice guy really and Sunderland did not give him a chance
P‘It is clear that I am a good guy. I didn’t touch one person. I didn’t create problems for anyone’
aolo Di Canio is halfway through an 11-minute answer to the question of whether he felt he was harshly treated by Sunderland when he raises the subject of tomato ketchup and mayonnaise – both very much banned substances under his ill-fated Stadium of Light regime.
We are talking at an East London hotel, or rather Di Canio, 49, is talking and I am listening as one of the most controversial coaches of recent years in English football holds forth on what he sees as the various public misconceptions around his brief management career. Almost four years after he was sacked by Sunderland five games into the 2013-2014 season he is in London to play in the Star Sixes veterans’ tournament at the O2, a break from his new hobby of extreme running. I have been told that Di Canio, bruised by the Sunderland experience, could be a difficult interview and in the room are many PR people who would rather we talked about six-a-side football, but luckily Di Canio has different ideas. In fact, he is comparing his start to the 20132014 season at Sunderland with the one endured at Chelsea last year by his friend and former Juventus team-mate Antonio Conte.
“Conte at the top level is an example at Chelsea. He didn’t start very well. He is similar to me. He’s a hammer every day, works so hard. Everybody was laughing when I brought a diet regime to Sunderland, ‘Ah, Paolo Di Canio – [banned] ketchup! Mayonnaise! Then when it happens with Pep Guardiola, with Conte it’s, ‘Oh, very good, they are very severe people. They bring the culture of diet. They must be very professional’.
“What is the difference? Guardiola and Conte they won at the top level. So why couldn’t Paolo Di Canio change those things? Someone told me that you can’t do this in the Premier League – being too strict. You must be more flexible because in the Premier League they [the players] are selfish people, they have power. Of course, but the power comes from above. If the club is strong, players have less power.
“Conte was capable [of implementing his methods] thanks to his club. They didn’t fall into the trap to pull Conte after a few games. They said, ‘Wait, we believe in this job. Come on lads, Conte is here. Conte belongs to this project and we believe in him’. He went to three at the back, he made a few changes but the discipline, the strictness was there.
“At the end of the season, I asked him, as a manager, what did you change, what was the secret? He said to me, ‘Paolo, I changed a bit on the field obviously because we had problems at the back so we were tougher. But the most important thing was that I didn’t change my ideas – strict, tough. I was sure of these ideas and I knew we could fly. Otherwise I become more weak because they saw me as I was and then suddenly it’s all, ‘Sorry lads’. That proves in the Premier League, the real footballers need and want discipline, there is a meritocracy, it is the same for everybody.”
It is hard to get a word in edgeways when Di Canio is in full flow and one might have pointed out that as a player he had a few disagreements with managers himself. Broadly speaking his argument with Sunderland is that there was too much change too quickly in the summer of 2013-14 – new players signed by the then technical director, that he was never given the time to implement his methods – at a club that habitually started the season badly.
The elephant in the room with Di Canio is the allegation that he has sympathies with fascist ideology, something he was forced to deny at Sunderland although not before a major outcry and resignation of former foreign secretary David Miliband from the board.
I refer Di Canio to the episode last season that saw him suspended from his role as a Premier League pundit with Sky Sports Italia because he filmed a segment
‘Conte at Chelsea is similar to me. He didn’t start well but is a hammer every day and works hard’
where his bicep tattoo of the word “DUX” – the moniker adopted by Benito Mussolini – was visible. There was a minor scandal in Italy and Di Canio wrote to Jewish community leaders to apologise before being reinstated.
Of course, there have been other incidents too, not least the fascist salutes with fans when he was a player at Lazio. At this point the earlier anxiety in the room returns and someone tries to suggest that we should be talking about six-a-side football but Di Canio is in the mood to answer.
“It is clear that I am a good guy, anyone can say what they want – I am a good guy. I have two daughters, they study, I pay tax. I said many times what I think in my life. I didn’t touch one person. I didn’t create any problems for anyone. I still repeat this and my life still speaks for me.
“I am here in London, I am very happy that I can meet many English people who know me, the reunion with my friends, not only with the Italians but also English, Scottish, African, everywhere. I was lucky to play with different people from different countries.”
It might not be a satisfactory answer to a complicated question about Di Canio’s true political beliefs and what has possessed him to say and do the things he has – but it is the only one he is giving. He is adamant that despite the Sunderland controversy he remains highly employable. He says he has had “seven or eight” opportunities since then to manage clubs in England and Italy but turned them down because he felt they did not suit his ambitions.
He loves being a pundit for the Italian coverage of the Premier League and compares himself to high-profile British pundit Gary Neville. Di Canio says he is firm but fair in his analysis and bears no grudges. “Neville is not very soft and everyone loves him. In some ways I am very similar.”
It is 20 years ago that Di Canio arrived in the Premier League at Sheffield Wednesday after one season at Celtic. He came to Scotland with an incredible CV, featuring Lazio, Juventus, Napoli and AC Milan, as well as a reputation for being difficult. It was the same in England with the 11-match ban for shoving referee Paul Alcock and then a couple of great years at West Ham.
Di Canio himself has recently finished sixth in Italy’s over-45s Spartan Race series, which involves middle-aged men using their spare time to run up hills and through mud. He says it makes him proud that of the last eight Premier League titles, four have been won by an Italian manager. At Coverciano, the elite Italian football institute where all the great coaches go to learn, Di Canio says that he finished top in sports psychology. For a moment he pauses to take in my reaction, saying quietly, “You seem surprised”.