Sabatini: “The shots of Nainggolan and Massara: I’ll tell you everything”

“I have a neurasthenic desire to return, without football I am a halved man, I lose my identity and I don’t know what to think. Fear of matches, tension, training… Now I feel torn to shreds. It is not a mere professional question, but an existential one. I’m in pieces without a job.” In these sentences there is the whole essence of Walter Sabatini, a manager dominated by passion. Guest of Journal on Twitchretraced many moments of his career and commented on current events.

Radja and the shots

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“I don’t understand how Roma can sell out – he continued – these are things that should happen when a team puts on a show, instead they only happen because people trust Mourinho. I’m fond of all the players I’ve brought to yellow and red, the one that made me most angry is Nainggolan who I love like a son, but he’s a criminal, he’s someone who if you put 7-8 shots in front of him he drinks them all . For him, life is a game, but he has good feelings. He is an exhibitionist, his companions should have helped him more, they shouldn’t have indulged him but marked him tightly. He has always had everything he wanted, on the pitch he is a top-level player. What I saw him do in Rome I haven’t seen in other players.” There is also some for Paredes: “he is disappointing me, every time I see him on the pitch I get a fit of rage, he is having unbearable indolence. But he is a good player, he knows how to verticalize like no one in Europe. The current version looks like he’s on tranquilizers.”

Italians in the Champions League

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The Serie A teams involved in the Champions League are not far from the quarter-finals. “It would be a reason for great revenge for the whole movement, I don’t understand why we are always reviled. Our football is refined, important. Napoli is scary: you have to be blindfolded not to see that they play the most advanced and European football among the teams that play in the round of 16. In Kvaratskhelia I was surprised by the extraordinary impact he has in every game, he doesn’t go on a roller coaster: he gives him the ball and he undertakes it with courage, cheek and I would even say with arrogance. Superlative player, Napoli did an extraordinary operation with him. Naturally Osimhen also falls within this discussion, but we already knew more. Instead the Georgian came out of nowhere, they were good. Operation at Sabatini? Yes. I’m not an envious man, it’s not a feeling that belongs to me, but in the case of Kvaratskhelia, yes, I would have liked to take it myself. I’m jealous in my job, when these things happen I feel a little sick. I’m happy for Napoli and for Spalletti who is a friend, but professionally I didn’t sign him – and I couldn’t either because I was without a team – I’m very sorry”.

Praise to Spalletti

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Many compliments addressed to the Napoli coach. “Spalletti is the absolute best, there are no discussions to make. I don’t just look at his management, look at how Napoli plays: a harmonious, beautiful, broad, deep football. It’s really difficult to find a team that expresses a quality made of geometries and synchronicities, the coach’s hand is seen in a cheeky way and can be found at any time ”he continued. Then, pressed by the fact that he is only now about to win the Scudetto, he expressed himself thus: “He has always been very competitive with Roma, he was immediately competitive with Inter who were coming from a series of unbearable placings, then he arrived and we went to the Champions League: Luciano always brings a result home. A coach is not only good if he wins the Scudetto, but if he follows a virtuous path and from this point of view he cannot be attacked. We can talk about his character, but not too much: he is direct, determined. Friendship conditions me but I can’t think of any negative observations”.

Milan and Inter

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“I thought Inter did better – he said about the Nerazzurri – but I don’t think the problem lies in the relationship between Inzaghi and the players. Simone is a young man, perhaps he is led to a joyful confidence with them, but he does not mean renouncing authority. At Lazio he trained great players of depth and personality. The problem is to be found in the discontinuity, the World Cup has returned players who are not yet ready to return to play in the league. With the exception of Napoli, all of them have had this type of difficulty.” The observations on Milan started from the status of Rafael Leao: “he can become a champion, he has all the stigmata. Maybe he lacks a bit of determination, what Kvaratskhelia has instead: he points the defenses to go and break the goal, not for exhibitionism. But he has all the characteristics to become great. He must be pampered, surrounded by affection, because his talent is best expressed in these conditions. Milan will never miss all of this, Maldini and Massara know perfectly well what emotional commitment to make. Ricky is a former student of mine, I’m not going to tell him what he has to do. For example, Sernicola has the qualities to play for the Rossoneri but I say it here and deny it here, I’m not going to poke my nose into their affairs. Massara was with me for many years, at Rome, Palermo, Lazio even though he was still playing. We had fantastic seasons in Palermo”.

Farewell to Salernitana

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Sabatini recounted the separation from his last team, Salernitana, where he contributed decisively to salvation during the current season. “We clashed over something that could be avoided, it was my mistake and not Iervolino’s. I regret, because I have never been loved as much as in Salerno and it is a love that I have returned. I really feel this feeling for the city and for those people who still write me messages of all kinds today. It’s really very important to me, it keeps me close to reality: today’s football isolates you, the Salernitans nail me to my character and I’m grateful for that. I slept very little, the thought of demotion distressed me in a way that is difficult to describe. I don’t wish that on anyone. Then the 7% mantra emerged which stabilized the mood of the whole square, it became of an entire people. I’m a madman, if I remember my life I think I’m the only professional even for the future who is able to refuse both Inter and Roma in eight months. Is there a moron more moron than me in the world? I do not think so. Football is inscrutable, it is Pirandellian: everything and its opposite happens in the same way ”he concluded.