Spalletti fired like clockwork. The National team has deflated

In the bizarre world of Italian sports, the only thing missing was this pearl: playing a match that was already decisive for the World Cup qualifiers with a fired coach on the bench . It's not hard to understand what happened in Spalletti's head. He let himself be overwhelmed by his ghosts, those that don't leave him alone when things are going well and imagine how they must torment him now that he feels like the great culprit of the evils of Italian football. He should have held out until the ninetieth minute of the match with Moldova, perhaps after celebrating a great victory, instead he exploded early, surprising even president Gravina who was sitting there among the journalists. He had been fired on time: referee the last match and then on Tuesday morning we'll announce the change. A risky choice, given the subject, perhaps they shouldn't have told him everything so far in advance, but they played on the transparency of the relationship between president and coach. Confident that he would hold out. The bomb exploded at the first question in the conference: “Last night I spent a lot of time with the president. And he told me that I will be relieved of my duties. I would never have left, I am used to staying in my position. But I have to take note of it. I have a very good relationship with Gravina, but I have to take note of some bad results. I interpret the role as a service to the country and I intend to facilitate the Federation. The termination of the contract is the best solution, I will be paid until tomorrow night. Given that the results are these, I have to accept the decision . Even if I am convinced that the team is strong and I would have continued with my line, convinced that I could go to the World Cup”.

If he was convinced of it, the others were no longer. After the defeat against Norway, the first to sack the coach were the haters on social media, then Gravina arrived but asked him to stay on the bench one last time because there was no time to do otherwise . Spalletti, however, could not stand it and announced the sacking before announcing the lineup. We would not want to be in his thoughts. "Strong men, strong destinies, weak men, weak destinies. There is no other way", he often said. He who is not a strong man, but very strong when he has to work with a club, has proven to be too weak for the Azzurri. Incapable of making an impact on the minds of people he sees too rarely, incapable of not letting himself be crushed by the pressure of the most desired job in Italy (maybe today, a little less to be honest). Who knows, maybe he was overwhelmed by another of his historic phrases: “Don't fight pigs because pigs have fun in the mud”.

Italy has just exported one of its best coaches to Brazil, where football is a religion and a display of beauty, but where they are also tired of always seeing someone else win. If the Arabs have to spend money on a coach, they come to us to do the shopping. They started with Mancini and continued with Pioli and Inzaghi. In short, we have plenty of esteemed coaches. It shouldn't be difficult for Gabriele Gravina to find the right one to avoid failing to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row. The favorite seems to be Claudio Ranieri (Pioli still has a contract with the usual Arabs), the one who just can't seem to retire . He has now become the Mr. Wolf of Italian football. After fixing Roma, they will ask him to try with Italy . He is certainly not the new that advances, but in some cases it is better to take safe paths, a bit like what Milan did with Allegri or Inter with Chivu .

The national team needs to be saved and the problem is serious because it resurfaces once every six months . When we think we've found the right line, we put our foot wrong and fall into a ravine even steeper than the one we came out of. We're at the end of a season in which our Serie A was the most fought championship and, why not? Also the most beautiful in Europe . Despite the stadiums that remain old and ugly, we continue to increase spectators with a percentage of occupancy of the facilities that has grown by 11.6 percent reaching 92.4, second only to the Premier League (97.9 percent) and the Bundesliga (97 percent). On TV, between Sky and Dazn, almost 246.7 million watched it, a little less than the year before, but still a lot considering that we are still a country of signal abusers. We also reach the final of the European cups, then we don't win, of course, but we get there with a consistency that has been missing for a few years. The ball, despite the usual problems of facilities and young people, is not deflated. The one to have deflated once again is the National team . Let's work on this and only on this for a while. Then we will think about the rest.

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