SPAL President Joe Tacopina says he’d rather hire Alessio Dionisi than José Mourinho and provides updates on Giuseppe Rossi.
The former Fiorentina striker joined the Serie B side in November but has been on the treatment table since the end April with a minor knee injury.
“He had a minor knee injury, not a ligament but meniscus. He’ll be able to start training again in July when the pre-season training camp begins,” Tacopina told The Italian Football Podcast.
“It is really a decision that Giuseppe has to make. He came here in November and it took him a while to get back to speed, he had a few minor injuries then he got COVID. Poor guy, he is so unlucky.
“But I thank God that I brought him here. If I had not brought him here, we would not be having this conversation right now about congratulations for us staying up.
“Because in his limited time, he scored three important goals. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have accumulated as many points as we did.
“With Giuseppe, it was like having a professor on the pitch and you could see how the players referred back to him. I hope to have him back. When he was out there, you could feel the presence of a champion.”
Tacopina is a former Roma vice president and the ex-owner of Venezia and Bologna. Despite the Giallorossi’s qualification to the Conference League Final, he doesn’t seem to be a fan of Mourinho.
“I don’t like him. I’ll take my coach at Venezia Dionisi, who is at Sassuolo now, any day of the week,” he admitted.
“I know he’s a good coach but not one I appreciate. When things go badly, then the team is not good enough, the club didn’t buy him enough players, the referees are always against Roma… it’s never a reflection in the mirror. It’s never ‘I have to change.’
“Mourinho considers himself to be at a different level and everyone else has to come up to his level and he shouldn’t come down.
“I don’t know him as a person. Maybe he’s a great guy, I don’t like what I see and I don’t like how he’s constantly blaming everyone else. To me, that is a sign of weakness,” he continued.
“Give me Max Allegri any day. There are coaches out there, like Paolo Zanetti the Venezia coach who was shockingly fired last week. I think he will be one of the best coaches in Italy. There’s Dionisi, who I had at Venezia and I think he is a terrific coach.
“There are a lot of great coaches out there. I had Pippo as a coach, but his brother Simone has put himself out there as one of the top coaches. I don’t see any of those guys doing what Mourinho does and that is what sets them apart for me.”