“I just resigned and took full responsibility for the decision. I didn’t hide. I had spoken to President Gravina and tried to explain my reasons to him. I have never allowed myself to accuse anyone and I find myself accused ». They are the words of Robert Manciniwho in an interview with Repubblica explains the reasons that led him, two days ago, to resign as coach of the national football team. “I tried several times to talk to Gravina and explain my reasons to him,” explains the coach from Jesi. «I explained to him that in recent months he had to give me peace of mind, he didn’t and I resigned».
Again: «Should I have done it before? Maybe. But I left the national team 25 days before the next match, not three. And I think I’ve always been correct over the years.” Speaking of the appointments made by the federal president, who also involved ex-azzurri Buffon and Barzagli in the national team staff, Mancini commented: «Have you ever seen a federal president change the staff of a coach? Gravina has been wanting to revolutionize it for a year, I made him understand that he couldn’t, that at most he could insert a couple more figures, but that he couldn’t deprive me of two people in a working group that worked, that works and that won the European Championship. If anything, I was the one who could replace a member of staff ». The truth, adds the now former coach of the national team, is that «for some time he had been thinking opposite things to mine. But then why does he intervene on the staff? What does it has to do with it? At that point he had to send me away. Instead he took the opportunity because some of my collaborators were due and he played on this. I could have been tougher, of course, but I thought he figured it out on his own ».
«I did nothing to be slaughtered like this. I just resigned and said it was my choice». «When I arrived in blue I gave up on more profitable opportunities, I made a choice and it was the most important job of my life. I won a European Championship, it won’t be much but in the meantime we won it. If Gravina had wanted, she would have kept me. She didn’t do it.’ «A signal would have been enough for me, she didn’t give it to me. The truth is that she didn’t want me to stay, and that this situation had been going on for months. But Gravina will be remembered as the president who won the European Championship, not for the mistakes he made ».