Fabio Capello believes Carlo Ancelotti is the right man to lead Italy, rules himself out, and criticises the Azzurri performance against Sweden.
Giampiero Ventura is believed to be at risk of the sack even if the Azzurri qualify for the 2018 World Cup in tomorrow’s play-off with Sweden, but former England and Russia manager Capello is ruling himself out.
“I’ve done my duty with international teams,” he told Quotidiano Sportivo.
Fabio Capello believes Carlo Ancelotti is the right man to lead Italy, rules himself out, and criticises the Azzurri performance against Sweden.
Giampiero Ventura is believed to be at risk of the sack even if the Azzurri qualify for the 2018 World Cup in tomorrow’s play-off with Sweden, but former England and Russia manager Capello is ruling himself out.
“I’ve done my duty with international teams,” he told Quotidiano Sportivo.
“Ancelotti is the right age, has great experience and is only missing a job like this to be complete.”
The former Bayern Munich boss is a free agent after he was fired by Bayern Munich, but also linked with the Milan bench, has said he wants to take the rest of the season off.
Italy lost the first leg 1-0 in Solna with a deflected Jakob Johansson strike, but above all struggled with the physicality of the Scandinavian players.
“It seemed almost as if we weren’t accustomed to an aggressive opponent. The Swedes have always been like this and we signed Swedish players in Italy for their physical strength, but Nils Liedholm and co also showed great technique. I was surprised by the Italy players.
“We are famous for our defending, but in order to defend, you have to study who is in front of you. If you are organised, you can stop Sergio Ramos or Cristiano Ronaldo, not succumbing to set plays.
“It would be a tragedy if Italy failed to make the World Cup. I can’t even remember the only time Italy didn’t qualify, in 1958, as I was 12 years old. I can say from China I’ve been getting up at 3am to watch the Nazionale play recently.
“The problem with Italian football is we are always able to find excuses when things go badly. If the whole football movement, starting from the youth academy, can’t produce strong foundations, then how did the Germans do it? Instead, we keep importing more and more players from abroad. It’s just a business to us.”
However, Capello is impressed with one Serie A side and they are top of the table.
“I was in Brazil with Marcelo Bielsa, Tite and Paneira, who were discussing it and saying the only new ideas are coming from Napoli. I must add, though, that it’s too easy to win when you are playing well, the really difficult moments are winning through adversity.
“Juventus are always up there, Inter have an intelligent Coach like Luciano Spalletti who worked well with the players he already had, Milan have revamped the squad, though perhaps should’ve just signed three who would make the difference.
“I want to add that I admire Crotone: it’s a tough life for them, but they’ve already proved it can be done.”
As for Capello, he has just returned from a strong spell at Jiangsu Suning in China.
“I wanted to take a team in the relegation zone and steer it to safety, just to spite all those who said I was only capable of working with already-successful sides. It was immensely satisfying.
“I learned what it meant to continually glance at the table, not to see myself at the top, but near the bottom, where you think you’ll never be able to get out and yet… securing safety was more exciting than winning a trophy.”