Italy head coach Luciano Spalletti insists that Italian fans are yet to see the best of what he can offer after it was confirmed he would continue in his current capacity, Soccernet.football reports.
The former Napoli boss vowed to continue revitalizing Italy’s squad, noting that the selection he made for Euro 2024 has not provided the answers he was seeking.
The Azzurri crashed out of the tournament after an abysmal display against Switzerland resulted in a 2-0 defeat which wrapped up a disappointing campaign where they won just one out of four games in Germany.
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However, on Sunday, FIGC president Gabriele Gravina reaffirmed the organization’s support for Spalletti, who replaced Roberto Mancini last year.
“We have nothing to hide, but we must continue to take responsibility,” Gravina said, as quoted by Football Italia.
“There was a long chat with the coach yesterday and I think that it is unthinkable to solve the problems by abandoning a multi-year project after eight to nine months.
“Central to our project is a coach who has been here for nine to 10 months, who has not always had all the players available.”
Spalletti’s task is to lead Italy to the 2026 World Cup, after the Azzurri failed to qualify for the last two tournaments and the 65-year-old aims to achieve this by “rejuvenating” the squad.
“Yesterday’s match took us back down to zero and we’ll start again from there,” he said.
“I will rejuvenate this squad and try to create a group. I wasn’t given the answers I was looking for regarding leadership. The future will be younger with new energy and strength.”
“You haven’t seen [the best of me] over these 10 months,” Spalletti added.
“I was told that I raised the intensity in training too much, that I told fairytales to motivate the players, but that’s my life. You always need examples to follow otherwise there is no path to follow.
“I came in when there was an immediate urgency for results and given what was required, we were looking good up to a certain point.
“We were unable to grow in this mini-journey we took yesterday, we took a significant step backwards and that cannot be accepted. But we will start again from there. I know what to do and I will put it into practice.”
