Roberto Mancini claims he ‘forced’ some Italy players to leave the training retreat at Coverciano, explaining why Jorginho, Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile returned to their clubs.
The Azzurri will visit Turkey tomorrow in a third-place play-off which, in sporting terms, is quite useless as both countries already know that they won’t play at Qatar 2022.
Seven players have left the team. Among them, there are Jorginho, Lorenzo Insigne, Ciro Immobile.
“I want to clarify this. The players left and I obliged them to do so,” said Mancini.
“If we can do something for them and for the clubs, we are happy to do it. They would have gone in the stands against Turkey. Some of them had physical problems, so they wouldn’t play anyway. We did it already. Some of them didn’t want to leave, but I told them to go.
“Chelsea didn’t play Jorginho in the FA Cup so we thought it was fair to send him back. Some others had physical issues,” he continued. “This morning we have problems with Florenzi and Politano. It was useless to bring them with us.
“Lorenzo [Insigne] had a physical issue, which he also had at Napoli. Ciro wouldn’t have played. Mancini and Verratti had problems.”
Ten days ago, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said that he had rested Jorginho against Middlesbrough to help the Azzurri ahead of their World Cup play-offs. Italy missed out on a second World Cup in a row for the first time in history after a 1-0 loss against North Macedonia. During his press conference today, Mancini confirmed that he would not step down as Italy coach, probably remaining in charge until the end of his contract in 2026.
Mancini confirms Italy stay and insists ‘we could have won the World Cup’
a chance to blood some hungrier players l would say.
This guy is so determined to make Clownginho the center piece of the team. What a joke
Drop Jorginho for good. He sucks.