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Revealed: Italy star texted teammate to criticize Ventura

Revealed: Italy star texted teammate to criticize Ventura

  • Jordan Russell (@JordRuss96)
His departure became official yesterday, but the saga between Giampiero Ventura and the Italian national team had come to a head long before that. The writing was on the wall even before the 0-0 draw against Sweden which confirmed Italy’s failure to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Russia.
 
For several months, at least since the September defeat to Spain, the relationship between the CT and his players has been in a state of disrepair. Corriere della Sera has now published some very interesting background information.
 
One player sent a text message to one of his teammates with words to the effect of: “We would be better off with Gigi (Buffon) as player, captain and coach; now we are an unmanned ship in the midst of a storm.” Another message read: “Would it be any worse with Gigi in charge?” Clear signals of how broken relations within the Azzurri camp were now seem to be emerging, so the next boss will have a tough job on his hands to restore faith in the Nazionale.