Ex-Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi defends Luciano Spalletti, saying he’s ‘a victim’ and blaming foreign players in Serie A.
Spalletti is under fire after Italy’s elimination from the EURO 2024 Round of 16 against Switzerland.
Former strikers Fabrizio Ravanelli and Alessandro Altobelli have strongly criticised the ex-Napoli boss, but Sacchi has a different view.
“Spalletti is a victim, and he has the courage to step in,” Sacchi told Rai TV program ‘Notti Europee,” as quoted by Tuttojuve.
“He is an excellent coach, but unfortunately, Italy have never had a well-defined playing style. The Netherlands, England, Brazil and Argentina had it. We’ve always tried to trick the opponents. Spalletti didn’t have enough time.
“There are too many foreign players,” continued Sacchi.
“When many foreign players joined [Serie A] in the past, the national team immediately had a drop.”
Unbelievable! It seems only Italy has foreign players playing in their league! What a stupid comment! Spain are full of foreign players yet they seem to come from a different planet! I blame the coach for choosing mediocre players and you for defending him. He shouldn’t remain there!
Spot on Pierre.
This guy Sacchi only defends what he believes to be attacking football, he is biased on everything about the coaches like Spalletti, Guardialla etc. If this italy had played like that with a coach like Allegri or Mourinho, Sacchi would have been the first person to criticize them…
Some truth in this however he can not be seen as a victim.
According to Sacchi, I guess Spaletti needed more time to teach courage, grit, and determination. Utter nonsense. No push back. These are dark days…
Whether I agree or not the one thing that cannot happen is further indecisiveness that would risk Italy not being in the mix for the next World Cup. We have time to regroup bring through the clearly talented youngsters without crushing them and set up a team capable of winning with identity. To do that we need a settled leader, if it’s not Spaletti then the decision needs to be made quickly to appoint a successor.
He is a villain like you.
Dum comment!! Montella had little time ans look what he did with Turkey.
Dan you’re absolutely correct!
Sacchi must be hitting the Vino and San Pellegrino pretty hard these days.
What may be getting lost in the wording, which sounds like victim mentality, is the link between too many foreign players in the league and the poor showings by the Natl team. Italy has great youth academies, tacticians and a strong football culture. The league used to be among the best. Why shouldn’t priority be given to our homegrown players in regards to these resources? The answer is money. It is more profitable to buy a player cheap from Eastern Europe , develop them and sell for a profit down the road. This has to change or the Natl team will continue to suffer.
Where are the play makers and strikers we had in the past.We cannot compete at national level with strikers that are average.We need strikers that lead leagues no matter where they play.Yes all countries have foreign players in their leagues but they still produce their own strikers and play-makers.
If it’s possible to watch a serie A game where not a single Italian is on the pitch how can anyone say this isn’t a problem?
When the National team has to pick from a pool of players who are not first team regulars how is this not a problem?
The problem here is not the good foreign players, its the average ones, to which there is plenty. Our youngsters could and should fill those positions.
If Serie A started using foreign referees, there wouldn’t be a single italian on the pitch.
The coach was terrible at the Euro and I am sure a better coach like Conte would have done MUCH better – having said that Mancini did leave with the team struggling which was nice of him!
Serie A is cheap
Winning the Scudetto
Only gets you 20 – 30 million euros
So not enough to invest back in youth development
Look at Bundesliga, La Liga, the Premier League even the French Ligue 1 gets at least 100 million euros for PSG
ITALIAN FOOTBALL risk getting left behind if there’s not enough investment in the league