To the microphones of Radio TV Serie Athe Lecce coach Marco Giampaolo he spoke about many topics, also focusing on his nickname, ‘Maestro’:
“It depends on what meaning you give to the term, whether a master in the sense of respect, or a master because they make fun of you (laughs, ed.). Probably due to my characteristics, but I don’t feel like a master, I’m an organizer of teams, of collective, which is not limited to the 11, but I broaden the sphere to all the footballers that I have always trained so that each one recognizes himself in a task, in a role and I have never thought of an individual football or organization, like the one today in Italy thinking of playing in a collective way and still having to transfer messages probably led to this definition, but I never recognized myself in it at the time, I stopped playing very early, I was perhaps not even 30 years old and I started going around, watching the coaches of the time, I was very fascinated by Sacchi’s great Milan, but I had never had the chance to go and see him but I kept some VHS tapes and so I watched Spalletti, Del Neri – the first to be bold for some principles and concepts, – and they were the go-to coaches in 96/97/98/2000.”
Talk to the players. “I’m open to discussion, it’s stimulating when a footballer asks me why he’s interesting and wants to understand, my job is to clarify a problem, I don’t want footballers to do that with their heads (nods, ed.) and then not understand anything. I am open to dialogue and conversation, my door is always open. Compared to the past, it is subjective who wants to ask and understand and who doesn’t.”