Italy repechage to World Cup, Bobo Vieri harsh: "Unacceptable"

Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup, its third in a row, has inevitably shaken the soccer world, and Gabriele Gravina and Gennaro Gattuso have left their roles as FIGC president and technical commissioner, respectively. According to Bobo Vieri, however, the problem is far more deep-rooted.

“Is it possible that Spalletti was no good, Mancini neither and Gattuso neither? Maybe it’s not the ct’s fault: you can put in whoever you want, but without real changes no one would succeed – he told Gazzetta dello Sport -. Solutions are needed to make Italian players emerge, to change by taking an example from other countries that have been able to do it instead. If you don’t solve them, the problems remain. Young prospects are there: Pio Esposito is one of them, you need clubs that will throw you in and protect you. Bravo to Inter for doing that.”

On the failure to qualify Vieri was harsh: “We are not a country that has to be happy to participate. We have a tradition, a history. We don’t rejoice for qualification, we should be there to aim to win: the opposite is unacceptable. In Italy for a while you talk, you offend a little bit everyone who is in and then stop, you don’t look for the real reasons. You put coach and president in the dock, forced to step back, but for me they remain the least guilty. It is the system that does not work, we need rules, reforms.”

The former center forward then spoke about ‘his’ Inter: “He could have done more in the Champions League but Chivu was still very good. He picked up a team that was mentally shattered by the 5-0 loss in the Champions final and restored tranquility to the group. In addition, he did a very good turnover, he made young people like Pio, Sucic, Bonny play. He managed with great intelligence. And in all of this he also won.”

All other judgments, clearly, for Milan: “Allegri was second for most of the season with a team that had finished eighth the year before and against opponents ahead of them. The truth is one: if you don’t have a great center forward, you don’t win. I’m talking about a great center forward, not just any center forward, one of the top 10 in the world. I cannot expect goals every Sunday from Leao and Pulisic, but from a great striker, yes.”