Gennaro Gattuso looked back at his last 12 months, the collapsed move to Tottenham and the controversy surrounding some old comments he made.
The 44-year-old Italian coach started last summer as the prospective new Fiorentina coach before leaving the club only two weeks later. Following this, he was heavily linked with a move to North London before the fans raised their opposition on social media, pointing to some controversial things said by Gattuso about women and gay marriage.
Speaking to Sky Sports Italia, Gattuso first discussed how difficult the last 12 months have been for him following the failed move to Tottenham.
“I’m wrong for not talking for so long, for not having tools to defend myself, but that’s how I am. I would be hypocritical though if I said I didn’t suffer from the things they said about me, but I did it in silence.
“I have been targeted for things that are not part of me, I am a different person. Things have come out that are not true.
“If we go and take things I said 15 years ago and put them in a certain context the controversy may be there, but I am different from how they have described me.”
Gattuso then continued, looking back at what happened with Spurs and how much better things have been for him with Valencia.
“Last year it hit me, I had left Fiorentina and everyone was convinced I was going to Tottenham. And that was not true. I didn’t go to work at Tottenham because of false accusations.
“And just think if that had happened here, if the president had fallen for it the same way the Tottenham directors fell for it. Hard to defend yourself.
“Fortunately, the management here supported me. Unfortunately, social media can also destroy a person. I have broad shoulders and I resisted, little girls or little boys often don’t have such broad shoulders.
“When you have a supportive family and real friends you get over it, but if you don’t it’s hard. Social media! It would take a lot of talking about it, it would take putting rules in place. Certain things said made me feel bad, because they don’t belong to me.”
After a year on the sidelines, Gattuso returned to the footballing world last month, being appointed Valencia coach on a two-year contract. He is now the third Italian coach to lead the Spanish outfit, following in the footsteps of Claudio Ranieri and Cesare Prandelli.