Football Italia has four copies of Arrigo Sacchi’s book The Immortals to give away in association with BackPage Press.
The book – written with Luigi Garlando and translated into English for the first time by Mark Palmer – tells the story of how Sacchi took Milan to the European Cup in 1989 with a revolutionary high-pressing, attacking approach.
Relying on detailed notes Sacchi made at the time, The Immortals offers a rare insight into the making of one of Italy’s greatest teams.
Football Italia also has an interview with Luigi Garlando on the writing of the book, and an exclusive extract from it too: Colombo’s butler, in which Sacchi explains why Angelo Colombo was a crucial part of his Milan team despite not being as big a name as some of his teammates, but also why he was ultimately sold in 1990.
To be in with a chance of winning, tell us which three players are missing from the XI that started the 1989 European Cup Final against Steaua Bucharest.
Entries should be sent to info@tiromedia.co.uk with the subject line Sacchi book competition by 23:59 GMT on Sunday November 7.
The winners will be selected at random and contacted via email on Monday November 8.
The Immortals by Arrigo Sacchi is out now in paperback and ebook, published by BackPage
RB- tassotti
LW- donadoni
FW- gulit
Tassotti, Donadoni and Gullit 🙂
I won’t be reading one word of what that man has to say!
@Tony.
haha. I’m sure he really cares.
@Rosario
Of course he doesn’t care, lol.
I tend to judge him on his performance as the national coach, as I do Alex Ferguson.
RB – Tassotti, LM – Donadoni, FW-Gullit
@Tony.
Sacchi took Italy to a world cup final. A final only lost on penalties.
@Rosario
Anyone who watched WC 94′ USA, would know very well that if they followed Italy’s journey in the tournament, it was the Baggio duo who brought Italy to the Final, especially Robi, to whom Sacchi should be grateful for giving a final for Italy.
Italy’s game was very bad in the group stage, and not very good after, except for Robi Baggio’s performance.
He didn’t call up some of Italy’s best players at the time like Mancini and Vialli, in the final he didn’t play Signori, whilst Robi was unfited and injured.
Evidently afterwards, at Euro 96′ England, Italy’s Sacchi failed miserably!
I agree with Romano. Sacchi’s Italy finished 3rd in their groups of 94 & 96. It was only the format of the 94 World Cup that Italy progressed. Sacchi has no place in the annals of great Italian coaches. The real top coaches (and players) are the ones who perform at the very top level, and that’s international football.
Yes Toni, you are very right
Luckily at that time the World Cup was still followed by 24 teams, so Italy could qualify for the preliminary round as the best third place, think about how Italy could be defeated in the opening match by the R. Ireland, even though the Italy squad was filled by the best players in their era , this is all because of the failure of Sacchi, he became coach of Italy only because of his relationship with Berlusconi.
Sacchi failed at WC 94, was completely destroyed at Euro 96, in an era where Italy was the mecca of world football, and Italy had the best players in the world on every position, but Italy didn’t win a single trophy.
I hope Mancini can win the 2022 world cup and defend the European title at Euro 2024, so that Italy can match Spain’s International Treble. Italy has quality players who are still under 26 years old, so they can still play at the top of their game for the next four years.
@Romano.
Going by the same logic, Donnarumma won the euro’s for Italy and Mancio is a nobody.
@Rosario – No, you are completely incorrect. Donnarumma did not single handedly win the Euros for Italy. How can a supposedly good coach have the best at his disposal and finished 3rd in two consecutive tournaments? There is a chasm of difference between being an International coach and a club coach. At Euro 96, in the second game he made about six changes to a winning team! Need I say more?
@Romano – Excellently put.
Exactly Romano et al, Italy had the creme of players back then. We loved baggio but he got kicked by bulgaria that’s why he had that patch he was not fit! And not only did he miss but gentile too who got injured in that wc 94 final, why did this guy not put signori as a super sub we would have won that, brazil had bebeto and romario and they were cancelled out not a pip squeak out of the duo and brazil even complained about this as they held the cup, sacchi is a disgrace for not playing signori and then black listing him shame on you! Donna’s agent said you should have won that cup and he is correct, people talk trash about this agent but he stands up for the players look what he did defending balotelli he hit it right on that he should have won that cup for us the fans but he didn’t care about us the fans
I just back back from youtube watching reels of lethal road runner signori, now i’m really upset,