MILAN – Roberto Mancini appeared on Sky Sport Italia’s Mister Condò programme on Friday evening for a tell-all interview on his career as both a player and a coach. During the interview with Condò, who is Italy’s media representative for the Ballon d’Or vote, there was plenty of fascinating conversation about Mancini’s two stints in the Nerazzurri dugout. The full interview is available on Sky On Demand, but you can check out the best bits below…
Do you remember that during your first spell as Inter coach, people starting calling you Mister X [Mister Draw]?
"I think those were Inter’s best matches. Football is incredible. I don’t know how many matches we drew – 12 or 13. That would have been OK when it was two points for a win, but in the three-point era it was a bit trickier."
The win came eventually. I remember that it was in the first league derby that season that the team really made a step up in terms of quality.
"It was an important derby because AC Milan were a really strong side and we dominated them. They got back into the game after Materazzi was sent off for putting his shirt over his head in the aftermath of our fourth goal."
What’s it like as a coach when you can see your side crumbling like Inter seemed to be at the end of that game?
"We were down to ten men and AC Milan were pressing us. You just need to try to give strength to the players – at least the ones closest to the bench, because the players further away can’t hear you."
Had you not started writing your little notes yet?
"Unfortunately not, so you had to hope that they were strong enough to become a united team. In that game all we had to do was defend. There was nothing else we could do – we had taken a 4-1 lead against a great AC Milan side. Beating them was massive for us back then as it gave us belief. What we needed was to win. We already had a strong team and we’d added players like Zlatan, Vieira, Crespo and Maicon – players that brought physical presence, quality and experience. It was a very good side and we went on to win the league."
Speaking of great players, do you have any regrets over Adriano?
"Adriano is one of those players that could have achieved so much but ended up doing very little, for his own fault. It’s a shame because he’s a good guy. His strengths were in his physical characteristics rather than in his technical skill, so he needed to be in good shape at all times and live the life of an athlete. Players like him need to be consummate professionals and unfortunately he made a few mistakes on that front, so it was a massive shame. We all did everything we could to help him out."
Was it a shame Juventus weren’t in the league that year?
"Yes, of course, because Juventus are part of the history of football. Winning with all of the teams there would have been much better, that’s obvious."
The following season you won the Scudetto on the last day of the season at Parma, in what was a really tough situation for you personally. Let’s just say that the club – as we later saw – had already decided to change coach. I remember that when Ibrahimovic scored you controversially directed your celebration towards the stands.
"It wasn’t controversial. We were really under pressure. We had been way ahead in the league, but Roma had made up a lot of points and we’d been without our best forward, Ibrahimovic, for weeks. We were under pressure because we’d dropped all of those points having been top for ages, so we had to play a very important game against Parma on the last day of the season. Parma were going down and had to win to save themselves. Thankfully, we decided to put Zlatan on the bench and use him for the last half an hour."
When you were celebrating the Scudetto win there in Parma, did you believe that you would be the Inter coach the following season too?
"To be honest I wasn’t thinking about that, because we still had to play the Coppa Italia final after the Parma match. But I wasn’t expecting it to end."
Both you and Moratti have always described it as a very civil parting of ways – unhappy, but civil. Can you elaborate on your sacking at all? Because it was in fact a sacking, given that you were still under contract…
"The morning of my meeting with the president I read an article in Il Corriere della Sera by Fabio Monti. He was a good journalist and knew a thing or two about Inter. It was then that I began to suspect things were changing, but to be honest we had done a good job in winning the Scudetto and getting to the Coppa Italia final. Things come to an end, people go their separate ways – but it’s important to be civilised."
After your spells in England and Turkey, you came back to Italy and Inter. And the controversies with the referees began.
"My experience in England helped because the matches are different there. You never know who the referee is and people rarely talk about them - the papers don’t write about the referee, they don’t speak about them on the television and so none of the players are worried about it all. That definitely helps – the referees have a different attitude. It’s not true that players in England never say anything to the referee though."
Do you think that modern football is well represented by a figure like Thohir?
"Yes, I think that if all Italian teams had presidents like Thohir then Italian football would be able to greatly improve and get back to what it once was. Nowadays, it’s difficult for an Italian businessperson to do what Moratti did for years. It’s not easy. There are some clubs that bring in €500m - €600m in TV rights, merchandise and so on, so it’s no simple task for Italian clubs. The Italian league was the best in the world for years and it must be that again."
How much would you like to see a 13-year-old kid turn up at Appiano one day, with the same talent you had when you arrived at Bologna?
"There are lots of kids like that. We have many youngsters at Inter who can be as good as I was, but it’s never easy of course. I would love to hand a player from the Allievi sides their first-team debut without them even going into the Primavera, just like it happened for me. That would bring me great pleasure. I think it’s possible because even if you’re only 16 years old, if you have the quality and the personality then you can do it."
Does it bother you that Mourinho is seen as the hero of Inter’s recent successes and was that one of the reasons you returned to the club?
"Well, he won the Champions League so he certainly did better than I did."
But you were the one that got Inter back to winning ways.
"You also need to be lucky to get the right team at the right time."
Last season, you told me on the phone that you’d seen a great player play against you. It was Dybala. Is that a source of regret for you? Did you want to sign him and did you attempt it?
"We were working on it but sometimes that’s how negotiations go. You can’t sign them all, but Dybala will become a top player."
I’m obviously a big fan of one of the players in your squad who has a pretty similar surname to mine: Kondogbia.
"Yes, he’ll become a top player too."
Is the Italy job in your thoughts at all?
"Taking charge of the national team after managing lots of clubs can be a wonderful thing for a coach. We’ll see what happens, but we’re still young."
