“Match analysts bother me, I’m not interested.” Francis Grazianiinterviewed by The Truthintervenes in this way on the management and analysis of football in the year 2024: “We are churning out scientists. But why should a coach have eight collaborators, when four are enough? Sometimes in football money is wasted. Let’s take the buses that arrive almost empty at the stadium, or private flights. There is a luxury around the teams that is misleading”.
During the interview, there was also room for the philosophical derby between games and results: “I think – says the former striker – that if you play well it is easier to get the result. It can happen that one time you lose playing well and the other you win playing badly, but in the long run the one who plays the best football wins”.
Among the topics touched upon, also the disappointing Italian expedition to the last European Championships in Germany: “Spalletti is an excellent coach and it’s not me who says it, but his career. At the European Championships, however, he brought confusion rather than serenity, but he admitted it himself. The national team needs starters and reserves: I already knew from the moment I was called up that I would play with Bettega or Rossi”.
It ends with a behind-the-scenes story: Graziani revealed what led him to run for the Senate with the centre-right in 1994: contacted by Braida, he received the request to run directly from Silvio Berlusconi.