Football Daily | Italy’s search for a manager turns into a shemozzle of epic proportions

5 hours ago 12

BLUE TUESDAY

What’s the Italian for omnishambles? According to Google Translate, it’s disastro totale. According to most fans, it’s Azzurri. Italy are one of the OGs of world football, a team with which a young Football Daily was obsessed as it swanned around suburbia’s meanest streets in a shimmering Diadora shirt, and we still can’t believe they have become the comedy country of world football.

Italy have failed to qualify for the last three men’s World Cups. Since winning it in 2006, the only team they’ve beaten at a World Cup is Roy Hodgson’s England. Now their search for a new manager has turned into a shemozzle of increasingly epic proportions. Pep Guardiola was offered the keys to the kingdom before confirming his decision to take at least a year off. Then Andrea Pirlo’s potential appointment fell through, reportedly because of the public backlash against his second autobiography, I Think Therefore I Shill For a Russian Betting Company. Pirlo’s hiring was reportedly vetoed by the president of the Italian football federation, which led to the technical director Paolo Maldini and his adviser Leonardo resigning from jobs that they only started three weeks ago.

The favourites for the job are now two former managers: Roberto Mancini, who won Euro 2020 with the Azzurri, and Antonio Conte, who took them to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016. Italian media are already leaning towards the former, but both have to wrestle with a bit of the old cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, the Little Book of Football says you should never go back; on the other, this is the perfect time to take the job. Italian football may be a disastro totale right now – but the only way is up. If nothing else, Italy are sure to qualify for the 2030 tournament when Gianni Infantino makes it a 256-team jamboree.

Right now, the antonym of Azzurri is Les Bleus. Since their farcical World Cup in 2010, France have been the most stable team in world football. It helped that they had the same manager, Didier Deschamps, for 14 of those 16 years. The announcement of Zinedine Zidane as his replacement was the most predictable appointment of the year. In their playing days, with France and Juventus, Deschamps carried water so that Zidane could walk on it. Now he’s allowed him access to one a squad of eye-watering quality. Given Zidane’s deft management of Real Madrid’s galacticos – he won three Big Cups in a row! – it’s hard to see anything other than a smooth transition. “For me it’s a continuity, a dream,” cheered Zidane. “I had some offers during the five years I was away to take charge of a club but I turned them all down for the France team. It was the only thing I wanted to do.” If only someone, anyone, felt that way about Italy.

Zinedine Zidane poses for selfies with fans

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“No! This is wrong, everyone gets this wrong! It was my oldest brother. In Serbia it is normal for the younger brothers to take the bride to the church. That’s what I did and now everyone thinks I got married. It was Rade, not me. There are three of us – Rade is the oldest, I’m the youngest and Marko is the middle one. I keep having to explain to people that I never got married. I was going around the club when we started back and people were congratulating me. I’m like: ‘No, I’m not ready for this yet!’” – Liverpool’s Milos Kerkez reveals his lively summer break has involved correcting well-wishers who saw snaps of him escorting a bride into a church back in his hometown of Vrbas.

RECOMMENDED FOLLOWING

Big Website: now on BlueSpace, TikBook, Instachat, you name it.

How refreshing to read from Gianni Infantino that those of us who fear for the furture of the game should go and chill (yesterday’s Quote of the Day). No mention in his missive of the inflated ticket prices; the difficulty of using over-priced public transport to reach some of the stadiums; nor the massive profits made by Fifa from its very own re-selling site … and that’s before we hear how much total profit Fifa made to distribute to its member nations” – John Scent.

Jermain Defoe quitting/mutually consenting/getting sacked (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). There’s such a lack of clarity over what went on. You might say it’s utter Woking nonsense (insert Sean Dyche meme)” – Derek McGee.

If you have any, please send letters to [email protected]. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day goes to … Derek McGee. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.