Juventus Coach Max Allegri reveals his relationship with Milan President Silvio Berlusconi and looks back on his 'mistakes'.
The tactician is currently dominating Serie A with Juventus, but in an interview with GQ Italia he discussed the rocky path that led him where he is.
“I listened to advice, but then I did as I believed was right,” Allegri said. “I'm not always correct and I don't always say the right things, but it would be really boring if I were like that.
Juventus Coach Max Allegri reveals his relationship with Milan President Silvio Berlusconi and looks back on his 'mistakes'.
The tactician is currently dominating Serie A with Juventus, but in an interview with GQ Italia he discussed the rocky path that led him where he is.
“I listened to advice, but then I did as I believed was right,” Allegri said. “I'm not always correct and I don't always say the right things, but it would be really boring if I were like that.
“I made a lot of mistakes in life and nobody would have bet their money on me. 'You'd do best to bet on horses instead, he's the type of guy that abandoned his wife on the altar', they said of me.
“But they know I come from Livorno, so I am what they call a 'reef', in the sense that I'm really hard. I'm happy to have made some mistakes. I paid for them, but they allowed me to mature.
“I always had a good relationship with Berlusconi. People told a lot of stories and made up ploys. He's a nice guy, but of course we had to part ways when results were poor.
“When they sacked me, it was [joint CEO Adriano] Galliani who told me. The President called me the next day.
“I'm not superstitious but I do believe in positivity. An example of a very superstitious man is [former Cagliari owner Massimo] Cellino. His favourite number was 23, so he used to go crazy over the Argentine [Joaquin] Larrivey.
“He made the player wear that number, and when Larrivey scored in a game alongside [Alessandro] Matri, whose number was the mirror opposite '23', Cellino was ecstatic.”
Allegri then discussed Napoli-Juventus, one of the most crucial games of the season, won by the Bianconeri by 1-0.
“Everybody was preparing my funeral, but they had to rethink that. I told myself, 'now I'll start having fun'.
“I bear no grudges. In football everybody is a professor and talks about tactics and formations. But in this sport there have been no novelties ever since they outlawed the pass back to the goalkeeper. Everything else is just talk.”