Gigi Del Neri went over his career highlights, including the miracle Chievo, Roma and Juventus regrets and bringing a Friuli work ethic to Udinese.

The tactician truly shot to fame when taking Chievo to their first ever Serie A season in 2000, the so-called ‘Chievo of Miracles.’

“Their director of sport Giovanni Sartori was my teammate at Sampdoria,” Del Neri told Il Messaggero Veneto newspaper.

Gigi Del Neri went over his career highlights, including the miracle Chievo, Roma and Juventus regrets and bringing a Friuli work ethic to Udinese.

The tactician truly shot to fame when taking Chievo to their first ever Serie A season in 2000, the so-called ‘Chievo of Miracles.’

“Their director of sport Giovanni Sartori was my teammate at Sampdoria,” Del Neri told Il Messaggero Veneto newspaper.

“In January he started sending me tapes of their games and I said he didn’t need a new Coach, but at the end of the season I met with him and President Luca Campedelli.

“Together we built a team that was aiming for safety in Serie B, signing figures we knew like Bernardo Corradi, Simone Barone and Luciano. We created this alchemy of football that took us to promotion into Serie A.

“A Coach must be credible in the eyes of his players and give them a sense of security. Similarly, he must tell the truth to his players in a fair way, otherwise it’s not right to leave them in limbo.

“Chievo getting into Europe in the first season was unique and can never be repeated. It was a genuine fairy-tale. We are talking about a neighbourhood in Verona whose club was top of the Serie A table for three months. Not one round, but three whole months.”

Since leaving the Flying Donkeys, Del Neri’s career has taken some odd turns, such as leaving Porto before the season had even started.

“Most of the squad arrived towards the end of pre-season training because it was after the Euros. In my view, a generational shift was needed. I did not adapt quickly enough, but then that season Porto finished sixth and went through quite a few Coaches.

“At Roma I fielded Francesco Totti, Antonio Cassano, Vincenzo Montella and Amantino Mancini in attack. They scored 60 goals and I can only thank them. The problems were in defence.

“I resigned in March when we were sixth, so it’s not as if we were bottom of the table. That was a mistake and going back I wouldn’t do it again.”

However, Del Neri does not regret his brief stint at Palermo or the return to Chievo, which saw them relegated.

“Palermo President Maurizio Zamparini does understand football, but sport isn’t a mathematical equation and there will always be errors. It’s the performance that matters, not the result. In any case, I’d still go to dinner with him.

“I don’t regret the Chievo return because I took over in Week 7 and they had one point. We finished on 39 points. The only game we really got wrong was at home to Messina.”

The high point of Del Neri’s career was taking Sampdoria to fourth place and the Champions League play-offs, but he left that summer for Juventus.

“We could’ve even challenged for the title that year if we hadn’t suffered a slight dip before the midway stage. I dropped Antonio Cassano for five games and we won all of them. If I’d lost, I probably would’ve been fired, but the team gained confidence and Cassano started doing the right things too. A Coach has to live and die by his own decisions, not based on what other people tell him to do.

“Looking back, Juventus was a mistake, seeing as that was a transitional year, but you can’t say no to Juve. In January we were third and on track with our objectives, then both Fabio Quagliarella and Vincenzo Iaquinta got injured.”

Now Del Neri is at Udinese, a fitting position for the man from the Friuli region.

“The other day I went out on to the pitch and took a photo with the team. I hadn’t done that here in 30 years, since I was a player at Udinese. It was a great feeling.

“People say you can’t have success in your home town, but I try to tell the squad about the values of this land: sacrifice, hard work. Those are the qualities we must put into our performances.”

He even won over the supporters by accidentally using a local slang term to urge clawing the opposition: ‘Andiamo a sgarfare.’

“It just came out spontaneously. It was the truth and I was absolutely true to myself.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tickets Kit Collector