Max Allegri broke his silence, insisting his future has not been decided and the problem with Italian football is ‘players become instruments to show a coach is good or to create value.’
The former Juventus coach was a guest on Sky Sport Italia this evening, effectively one of his first real interviews since he was fired almost two years ago.
When he was dismissed, he’d won five consecutive Serie A titles and reached the Final of the Champions League twice.
Max Allegri broke his silence, insisting his future has not been decided and the problem with Italian football is ‘players become instruments to show a coach is good or to create value.’
The former Juventus coach was a guest on Sky Sport Italia this evening, effectively one of his first real interviews since he was fired almost two years ago.
When he was dismissed, he’d won five consecutive Serie A titles and reached the Final of the Champions League twice.
Maurizio Sarri took the Scudetto, but Andrea Pirlo is failing at domestic level as well as in Europe, falling to a shock 1-0 home defeat against Benevento this afternoon.
“I haven’t spoken for two years, I hope not to talk too much rubbish!” was his first comment.
Allegri has been linked to numerous top clubs, including Napoli, Roma, Manchester United, Tottenham and PSG.
“I don’t know anything yet, honestly. I don’t get to watch many games when I’m working, but after a year of not watching them, I have started to get back into it.”
The debate over the early exit of all the Italian clubs from the Champions League in the Round of 16, above all Juventus to FC Porto, brought back the old discussion over Allegri’s defensive approach compared to the search for more beautiful football.
“I think in Italian football now, having heard all the comments about European elimination, we need to reflect. People used to see me as some sort of antidote to those who love beautiful football, but there needs to be a balance in all things. Not all of it is to be thrown in the bin.
“I hear all this criticism of playing out from the back, but we need to learn from that too, just as we do from defending.
“What I think is we need to put players back in the centre of the game. A coach organises a team, but then we complain when we face teams in Europe who pass the ball at 100 km/h. We need to ask ourselves questions here.
“It saddens me, but in Italy it’s almost as if players have become an instrument to prove the coach is good. Or even just players are instruments we mould in order to create value. That’s not what it should be.
“Juventus were unlucky against Porto over the two legs and they perhaps deserved to go through, but this is more of an overall discussion. It’s a pleasure to see players who are technically gifted and we should encourage that in our youth academies.
“Arrigo Sacchi and I disagree on a lot of things. We agree it’s a team sport, but in a team sport you need 10 players who are good at passing the ball to each other quickly, otherwise you run into trouble.”