ROMA (ITALPRESS) – First Christmas holidays as a technical commissioner and it would be too easy to try to guess the gift Rino Gattuso would ask Santa Claus. Gifts will not be there and the World Championship will have to conquer it from the play-offs and certainly also in these days of celebration, for “Snake”, the fixed nail will be next summer in the USA, Canada and Mexico. “Christmas for me are the lights, the atmosphere, the crib. It’s always nice, I like it. I am one who would leave the tree all year round in the house because it brings you serenity, joy and reminds me of childhood, when there was little, but what little coming was always good accept”. Gennaro Gattuso will celebrate on Thursday his first Christmas as a technical commissioner and prepares to greet a 2025 who brought him on the bench of that National so loved by footballer. A deep bond, a passionate relationship that lived its peak on July 9, 2006, when at the Olympiastadion in Berlin he graduated World Champion. At the helm of that Italy was Marcello Lippi, who reiterated on several occasions to see one of his favourite pupils: “I thank him – declares Gattuso in the interview issued to Donatella Scarnati and published on Vivo Azzurro TV – and I do not deny that since I am ct I have done so much copy and paste of what he did.”.
“Being consistent, being true, if you want to create a group there is only one way. Giving that extra confidence to a player when he’s a bit in trouble, when someone thinks he can’t help him try it to the end. Make sense of belonging. He on this was a master,” added Gattuso talking about Lippi. “When I was proposed to become ct I immediately said yes, without wondering what the pros and cons were. I’ve accepted and I don’t regret it. I’m proud to represent my country. I feel like a privileged man, a very lucky man. I have a chance to train the Italian National Team and I think millions of people would like to find themselves in my place. I have so much responsibility, but the responsibility I have also had at the age of twelve: when I went to Perugia, I was in a room and the thought was that I could not go home, otherwise I would fail. It’s been a life I’ve lived with the pressures, I hope to give the most and to give with my boys a joy to Italy all”. Six games, five wins and one defeat. This is the budget of the first six months of Gennaro Gattuso’s ct, which has collected a national wounded by the ruinous fall in Oslo with Norway by raising it in the spirit and restoring it a strong identity and character.
“I knew I was taking great responsibility and that it was not easy, but I must say that in the six games we did, except in the last one where we made the second time wrong, the players gave everything. The team always got ready. I have seen very positive attitudes, positive mentality and great sense of belonging. I found a group of boys trying to give everything he has. I think it is perceived.” The date marked in red on the calendar is that of Thursday 26 March, when in Bergamo Italy will face Northern Ireland in the semifinal of the play-offs. If they were able to overcome the first obstacle, the blue should then pack to play the World Pass Tuesday 31 March in Cardiff or Zenica with the winner of the match between Wales and Bosnia. After President Gravina, however, the ct also invites to take a step at a time: “We must not make the same mistake four years ago with North Macedonia. Modern football says that easy games don’t exist anymore, that a poisoner can always put you in trouble. The important thing is to know how to react, not go down if something negative happens, but give continuity for 90 minutes”. They will serve calm and cold blood: “In three months we will play something important, the whole nation is waiting for us. It takes tranquility, we will have to get there with the right mindset and with love for the country we represent and for this shirt. Let us find ourselves ready for what awaits us.”.
“The fixed nail is going to the World Championship, coming back where we have been for many years, even as protagonists. We must want it at all costs, do not start seeing ghosts at the first difficulty.” It is too early to think about the match with Northern Ireland, better focus on the present: “I have to live the day. I am no longer the Gattuso of once, what he had a goal and prepared only for that. Today I am a different person, I do a totally different job. I am the first to have to give tranquility, I have to make mistakes as little as possible and make the right choices. If I thought about the March game now, I wouldn’t get shiny. The lucidity and energy must be lost today on what we go to see, on what our football proposes and on the choices we have to make. When we get to Coverciano, in those ten days we will be able to prepare the game for the best.” In recent days Gattuso flew to Riad to attend the Italian Super Cup semi-finals, and from here to March, along with his assistants will follow with the utmost attention all the convenables: “I will live these three months working. Turning around and seeing games. And then talking to my boys. I hear them a lot, not just veterans. I like to chat, I am very in touch with them.”.
“We have strong players, although it is a fact that there are few Italians in our championship. In these months I enjoyed the sacrifices made by the boys, there is who was sick and remained all the time with us. In my career, I have arrived many times with crutches in Coverciano. That’s right, a group doesn’t create just three or four days together.” Even the Italians seem to appreciate the character of a national that travels compact towards the goal: “Since I am ct the team has always been followed. On the Rai was seen by 6-7 million viewers. I think it is the testimony that people like to see Italy and that we have been good in these months to rekindle enthusiasm.” An enthusiasm that is certainly not lacking to the leader of the blue, who wants to look forward without turning back: “When I have no more adrenaline, the blood that cleanses, then I will return to what I have done in my past. But now I have more important things to think about.”.
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
