Mancini and the Azzurri's Champions League: "Don't talk about the rebirth of our football. Napoli, Milan and Inter, together, field 7 or 8 Italians..."

Mancini and the Azzurri's Champions League: "Don't talk about the rebirth of our football. Napoli, Milan and Inter, together, field 7 or 8 Italians..."


FLORENCE. Italy is back and on the pitch the obstacle is always the same: finding players who can wear the blue shirt. Coach Roberto Mancini is preparing for yet another duel with England - on Thursday in Naples with the first group points up for Euro 2024 - making an effort to look at the glass half full, but the mission seems impossible. «We don't have forwards and we don't have many choices beyond the players who have already been called up or under the magnifying glass: here - he says - young people don't play and young people with an Italian passport don't play. Why did Gnonto have to go to Leeds in the Premier League where he is the owner? Couldn't we have taken him from Sampdoria or Fiorentina, just to give an example?».

Gnonto is one of the three strikers who can play as first striker: the other two at work in Coverciano are Scamacca of West Ham and Mateo Retegui, the last native called up by the coach and already in the running for a starting position against the English.

Italy is mirrored in a Champions League that has never been so rich since 2006: Napoli, Inter and Milan are waiting for the quarter-finals in April to dream. «I read of the rebirth of Italian football, of a leap forward towards other realities: it is not like that, go and see how many potential Azzurri or Azzurri are present in the three teams, seven or eight in all, no more. Rather - continues Mancini - I would speak of the rebirth of our clubs, not of the system in general». How to get out of a stalemate that has lasted for some time is not easy also because there are no immediate recipes. "I don't know if the coaches at the youth level think too much about tactics, I know - said the coach - that I, as a kid, played on the street, free from schemes: now it's different". The road taken, inevitably, by our football is also different: to remedy the problem, there is also the call of guys like Retegui, 23 years old, tip of the Tigre in Argentina, ignored by the world champion coach Scaloni and, for a few hours, with Italy in Coverciano. «I used to say that it was only right for the national team to play only players born in Italy, but the world has changed: the others call up players who grow up in our youth teams, but then choose other countries. Now we try to do it too ». England in Naples on Thursday, Malta's challenge on Sunday: the reigning European champions get back on track with enthusiasm and few alternatives.



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