Pippo Inzaghi looked back over his playing career, rapport with brother Simone, Carlo Ancelotti and why Milan should give Vincenzo Montella time.
He is currently pushing for the top of Serie B with Venezia, having just achieved promotion from Lega Pro, while his younger brother is flying high in Serie A and the Europa League at Lazio.
“I’ve always been close with Simone, as we always used to play football at home, every day,” SuperPippo told the Corriere dello Sport.
Pippo Inzaghi looked back over his playing career, rapport with brother Simone, Carlo Ancelotti and why Milan should give Vincenzo Montella time.
He is currently pushing for the top of Serie B with Venezia, having just achieved promotion from Lega Pro, while his younger brother is flying high in Serie A and the Europa League at Lazio.
“I’ve always been close with Simone, as we always used to play football at home, every day,” SuperPippo told the Corriere dello Sport.
“When you have a group of 30 people to look after, you need to be a good psychologist. You have some who don’t play, a staff of seven or eight people who are with you every day. First you were alone, now you are working with a whole team.
“I try to be credible, as if there’s one thing I admired in a Coach, it was frankness and honesty. I try to be very honest with my players.
“All the Coaches I worked with gave me something for the future, but if I have to choose one, it’d be Ancelotti. Everyone knows what a wonderful person he is.
“The best goal of my career was certainly in Athens against Liverpool. Scoring in a Champions League Final and winning it is a dream for a striker. Trust me, I didn’t sleep for 10 nights after that.
“I only played 20 minutes in the 2006 World Cup, but lifting that trophy was the greatest joy of my life. When we returned back to Rome, there were 1.5m people waiting for us…”
Inzaghi’s time as a player at Milan was impeccable, but his one season as Coach did not work out as planned.
“It was a difficult time for everyone, but I must say that those months at Milan really helped me in my career and I learned a great deal. I became convinced I could do this profession, because in a complicated season, we kept the squad united to the end and won the last four games.
“No player ever showed me a lack of respect, despite the fact I was a young Coach. This gave me real belief in myself, so I was just eager to get back to doing what I loved in the right way. That is what’s happening here at Venezia.”
Montella is more experienced as a tactician, but has hit similar stumbling blocks to Inzaghi at Milan. What is going wrong?
“It’s difficult to say from the outside. I can say that in my view Milan had a great transfer strategy and need a little time to gel. Clearly, there’s never much time in Italy for a Coach, but I hope he is given that chance.
“At times, to reboot an era, you need a little patience. That’s what Juventus did at the start and look at what they’ve done over the last few years.”