Walter Mazzarri noted that he had ‘no shortage of offers’ recently as he looks to return to football and opened up about his spells with Napoli and Inter.
The 62-year-old Italian coach has been out of work for over a year after leaving Cagliari at the start of May in 2022. He found a modicum of stability during his two-year spell with Torino but has failed to replicate the potential he showed during his four-year run at Napoli from 2009 to 2013.
One of Italian footballs more entertaining characters, Mazzarri is now looking to return to the world of Serie A, having taken a break to evolve and reinvent his tactics after a difficult few years.
Speaking in a long interview with Corriere dello Sport via Calciomercato.com, Mazzarri first opened up about life after leaving Cagliari and his next steps.
“After a long time, I’m back to talking, I’m giving an interview. I disappeared because that was my will. If I had wanted to coach, I could’ve done so, there was no shortage of offers. I’m no longer as stressed and obsessive as I used to be.
“When you’re in a world like ours you don’t just have to think about being a coach, it’s not enough to make players perform and then neglect relationships. At 62 I realize that those are right who, perhaps not knowing me, consider me unpleasant.
“Well, I think I paid a little too much for my attitudes, my reluctance. What do they say now? Lack of empathy. My career speaks for me. That’s why, not having remained so pleasant, unfortunately, even with some journalists, I didn’t get what I deserved.
“I started from less than nothing. I thought exclusively about the pitch, I considered everything else useless rather than accessory. I thought the pitch should be enough and I was wrong.
“Age and the desired or forced stops have helped me, I’ve changed, a natural change. During this period, I became aware of the changes in football, and I studied them further.”
The 62-year-old Italian coach reflected on his successful four-year spell at Napoli, his favourite memories and why he ultimately left after 182 games in 2013.
“Since De Laurentiis became president, I have been the one who has been there the longest. I just want to say that I had a wonderful relationship with him. And if it had been for De Laurentiis I would have stayed for many more years, as is the custom in England.
“But, I also said at the time, after four years if you don’t change all the players or don’t change many of them, you become too predictable. It’s also a question of language. I thought that was the time to leave.
“I’m a workaholic, when I work I’m a hammer, which is also why I gave myself breaks. He called me, at least at first, at 6 in the morning, 6.30 at the latest, and he did me a Favor. At 9 I was already at the pitch for training and the discussion had been full, complete.
“I had a direct relationship with him, I explained to him what I would do, in short we found an important synergy. It is possible that in Naples I felt a particular stress, after all I came from minor experiences, I had been with Acireale, Pistoiese, Livorno, Reggina, Sampdoria.
“I didn’t have a 20-year career that could support me. I wasn’t used to the pressure of a place like that. Fantastic years, though. I arrived and immediately broke Bigon’s record. If I’m not mistaken, 16 useful results with a team that had finished in sixth last time.
“An incredible ride, the first year, then the second, then the third, then the fourth, we always grew and arrived in the Champions League. Maggio missed the goal to make it 5-1 in the last minute and then lost in extra time, missing many goals after an incredible match.
“That Chelsea won the Champions League. In the first year of the Champions League, when we faced Mancini’s Manchester City, we were all rookies, including me. One nil for us, Kolarov equalised, in the end City did not qualify. It was the Napoli of Grava, Paolo Cannavaro and Aronica.
“They were all kids without a high-level CV, but they gave their all. We had a precise organisation, everyone made it their own. Zuniga came from Siena, he became a great player when I put him on the left. Growth and results can be combined.
“Cavani came from Palermo, he was 22 years old, he hadn’t exploded at all, he often played out wide, rarely in the centre, they said he didn’t see the goal. I made him grow, he became a champion.
“Hamsik had been signed by Brescia two years earlier, he hadn’t yet scored 12 goals, he hadn’t yet exploded in Serie A, he was a young boy to train. And Lavezzi, the same. Lavezzi was a blessing and a blessing, plus a little overweight.
“Thanks to the work done on Cavani and Lavezzi, they were able to get Higuain at Napoli. In short, in those four years I did a lot of good things. A special feeling with everyone in Naples, it stands the test of time, I can still notice it, in short they love me.
“The Napoli that I liked so much last year with Spalletti, I studied it by heart. I know all the movements they did, this is part of me. But it ends here. I haven’t heard from anyone from Napoli. It’s bullsh*t.
“Everyone would like to return to Napoli because they’re a strong team, the club have become important. Naples is a fascinating place. If I were to have, as I had, the chance to return, I would like to find people willing to understand the football I intend to play.
“I like teaching, improving players, setting up serious work. Am I asking too much?”
Mazzarri then discussed his disappointing 18-month spell with Inter. During that time, he averaged 1.66 points per match across 58 games.
“I paid for the dislike of people who couldn’t wait to attack me and eliminate me. That year, Inter only had the Nerazzurri shirt, you just need to take a look at the formation to realize that they weren’t competitive, not up to the name they bore.
“With the experience I have today, I probably wouldn’t have accepted, even if Inter are a prestigious place. When you coach a club of that importance you have to be able to have a potentially top team three places, otherwise be prepared to be criticised every three days.
“A big misunderstanding, that experience. Even if, compared to those who arrived later and those who preceded me, I did better. I was fifth, they were eighth. Sometimes I hear from coaches of important teams that make many more excuses than the ones I made.
“When you lose you can’t say ‘the team isn’t up to the standard of the club, of their coat of arms’. If you think about Napoli, where I made history and little was lost, the quota of excuses was practically zero.
“Certain labels are stuck on you when you are forced to lie, to defend the group. In football you lose very few times if you have the champions, but if you are forced to make do to bring it home, the sign of the cross is not enough.
“A system succeeds better if those who execute it have quality, don’t miss the stop, respect the playing times, don’t break the synchronisms. This is the ABC.
“If you do all things well and the moment the ball arrives where you want it to arrive, it bounces, that is, falls on an uneducated foot, goodbye good ideas. And what does the coach have to do with it?
“When evaluating coaches, you need to consider the value of the group. Technique can and must be improved, but there is a limit to everything.
“It is useless for the coach to have a thousand ideas, prepare schemes left and right, if one wrong stop is enough to nullify every effort. There’s nothing to be done, the playing times are dictated by the technique.”