With current coach Gennaro Gattuso set to leave the Italian national team, several potential replacements are being talked about. Among them, the most popular seem to be Roberto Mancini, Antonio Conte and Massimiliano Allegri, and the latter would be the most suitable.
In the aftermath of the Azzurri's disappointment of a third missed World Cup in a row, the resignation of the FIGC president Gabriele Gravina is awaited, and the entire national football system is wondering what changes need to be made to get back on track, from the use of more Italians on the pitch to a deeper revolution starting in the youth academies.
It will be a long process fraught with obstacles, and whether it is the right road to take will only be clear in several years' time.
In the shorter term though, it will most likely be necessary to look for an heir to Gattuso on the Azzurri bench, given the Calabrian coach - who is probably the least to blame for this disaster - seems inclined to step aside to complete the reset and make way for a new era.
Among those that are being considered, both old and new names are being mentioned, and there is a desire to get someone with an exemplary track record to run as few risks as possible, at least in this transitional phase between a past to be forgotten and a future yet to be written.
The candidates
And so it is that several names are being boiled in the cauldron. Among these is the last architect of Azzurri glory, Mancini, who brings with him a European Championship won in 2020 but also a failed qualification for the 2022 World Cup and a money-driven departure for Saudi Arabia in 2023 that has never been forgiven, neither by the national football political system nor by Azzurri fans.
It's a name, therefore, that is destined to be divisive, and in any case, he's fresh from a failure in Saudi Arabia that has to be reckoned with.
The second candidate is another heavyweight among Italian coaches and another former Azzurri coach, Antonio Conte.
His future in Naples is far from certain, he has already coached the Italian national team from 2014 to 2016 and, even considering the poor quality of the material at his disposal, made it to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals and a penalty shootout against Germany.
What can be said about Antonio is that he is a winner (he proved it at Juve, Inter and Napoli), he is a man of the trenches, and his teams play as if they were going to war.
He would certainly bring character, discipline, and a focus on results, but he too has had his chance.
The third contender is a new name, despite being another sacred monster of the Italian benches.
Massimiliano Allegri, with a coaching life spent between AC Milan and Juventus, has a CV that speaks for itself: he is another winner who would have the right qualities for this role.
Why Allegri is the best option
I think he is the best candidate for the national team for several reasons that make him preferable to the other two.
In addition to never having played the role and therefore not being reheated soup, a choice that is always best avoided, the current Milan coach has the right characteristics for the job.
Unlike others who need to get their schemes and philosophies across to men who come from different footballing backgrounds, the Livorno coach's game is - as he says - 'simple'. Allegri has no clever schemes, nor a sparkling game that needs perfect mechanisms to work and therefore continuous training. This is ideal for men who can only attend sessions a few times a year, which was one of the reasons for Luciano Spalletti's failure.
The job of the Italy coach is indeed different from that of a club coach. His job is to select the right players, field them in a tactically shrewd manner, create a strong group, and get big results, and these are all qualities that have always distinguished the Tuscan coach
He knows how to manage the locker room very well, and on the pitch, he cares about the bottom line, about the result. He may sometimes lose big games, but he never makes life easy, even when the scoreline might suggest otherwise - the Champions League final defeats don't look so bad if you think they came against Real Madrid and Barcelona.
The only defect that the coach has is that of an unspectacular playing style, but that is something that in the national team is today absolutely unimportant. To think that Pep Guardiola could make Italy play like his Barcelona or his Manchester City is closer to a complete fantasy than solid reasoning, since that would require players that we do not have. Great teams are made by great players; we have to find a functional middle ground, a coach capable of giving the best with the material available.
A better fit than Conte
I would pick Allegri over Conte because, although they are both results-oriented, the Napoli coach does his best work in the league. He knows when to push and when to rest. In the cup, on the contrary, he has always shown limitations in his interpretation of a one-off match, mentally and tactically.
Allegri, on the other hand, is different from that point of view. Although he also knows how to manage seasons well, in a knockout game he manages to fire up the team and frustrate the opponent with a game that is always shrewd, tough and pragmatic, a game that makes spectators turn up their noses but often makes fans of his own teams rejoice.
The two are also different in terms of communication, and Allegri's more institutional attitude in front of the cameras works better for a national representative, as does his off-the-pitch crisis management.
There is only one problem: Allegri has a contract with Milan until June 2027 with an option for another season. It will take time and a lot of diplomatic work if Italy want to get him.
pupcmnpyz
0
Never. Ancelotte when he leaves brazil
Wobadklmrz
0
Allegri is a great choice but leave him for us for now. so go for Mancini or Conte.