Mancini only left for the money and Lukaku… | director’s comment

The last back-heel failed. Now it is clear to everyone what was clear to us at the Gazzetta from the beginning: Mancini left the Italian national team only for money. The misunderstandings with Gravina, the trust he no longer felt, the climate that had changed, the revised and corrected staff, in short, the castle of the grotesque reasons with which he had tried to explain why he was abandoning the blue ship even if it were Schettino, came down of a few days. The weather is brilliant. Immersed as we are in the culture of cynicism, there are even those who have justified it: how can one refuse such a figure? Instead it is done. It happens when you choose the blue shirt, when you choose to represent a country, when the children queue up to put on a shirt with your name on it. It is done, when you are a professional who honors contracts. It is done, when you have overearned in all your luxurious and successful career. It is done, because there is no amount that is worth the trust of millions of Italians. Coaching the national team before a job is a commitment, a responsibility. An honor, I would say, using a word that hasn’t been understood in football for a long time.

In my opinion, the Federation should seriously consider the possibility of retaliating against Mancini. Demand a symbolic sum, a small compensation for the enormous damage caused. Imagine if Spalletti was still in Naples and Conte in the Premier League. On the other hand, the Saudi coach can afford to pay, although we haven’t understood how much the salary is or whether he will pay taxes in Italy. We wouldn’t be surprised otherwise. The day after the announcement of his resignation from the national team, Mancini told all the newspapers his truth. But he did not want to talk to the Gazzetta, guilty, according to him, of having been too severe towards him. I consider it a medal.

On the other summer case, Lukaku, the Gazzetta also held a precise line. Giving your word to a club to the point of pushing it to close a deal for several tens of millions of euros, and then disappearing at the time of signing just for the sake of embarrassing those who paid you like a movie star up to the week before we didn’t like it. We’ll never get over it. If the Italian league had lost it it wouldn’t have been a tragedy. We have enough bad examples. If we look at the story from a sporting point of view, Lukaku will certainly be more useful to Roma than to Juve, because Vlahovic is a center forward with great potential, as we have seen, even if the contract that was generously offered to him by Agnelli weighs heavily on the budget and it will weigh even more in the future. Roma, compared to the Bianconeri, has the advantage of taking Lukaku on loan which, as can be understood by reading the Belgian’s curriculum vitae, is the only form of contract that guarantees a minimum salary. There has been much fiction about the negotiation between Juve and Lukaku. After thousands of written lines and mountains of words, the player who wanted so badly to be coached by Allegri will now instead be in Trigoria, taking orders from Mourinho. Will it be enough for Roma to get on the bandwagon of those who play for the Scudetto? If the team is the one seen in the first two days it seems difficult. But now Mourinho has his center forward, we will soon understand if he will bring the game and the results that the fans and Friedkin expect. The weather, as mentioned, is exceptional.