In a wide-ranging interview with Radio Sportiva, sporting director Walter Sabatini discussed several topics, including the likely departure of Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal in the Premier League. The 22-year-old defender looks set to join the Gunners, with recent reports suggesting that a move was very close to being completed. Speaking about the potential transfer, Sabatini didn’t mince his words:
“It’s a disaster when strong young players like him leave our league. 45 million euros as a valuation is a huge sum, but defenders have been paid even more. I believe it’s the minimum for someone like him: left-footed, physically imposing, authoritative and with personality in his play. Let’s remember what he did in the 96th minute against Croatia: he came out with the ball at his feet, covered forty meters, challenged the defense and released the ball. These are plays you only make if you have quality and courage, and the courage to take risks and drive the action forward is something only great players have.”
On the state of Italian football, Sabatini commented:
“We won’t be in an indeterminate or irreversible crisis. The national team’s defeats shouldn’t be seen as evidence of a football crisis, they’re the result of a match and a score. We arrived in poor psycho-physical condition. There are players who, due to attitude and characteristics, I’m thinking for example of Barella and Di Lorenzo, arrived on their knees. And I don’t know what it depends on, not on the number of games played, since others have played as much as and more than us.”
Regarding young Italian talents leaving for foreign clubs, he said:
“We promised Scamacca the first team and he decided to go to PSV Eindhoven. For me it was a defeat that still makes me suffer today. Sometimes players and families make different choices and take different paths. Fortunately, Gianluca then resurfaced by going to Sassuolo. It’s a disaster when young players leave.”
On the topic of foreign players in Italy:
“Too many foreigners is nonsense. It’s censurable when they’re poor quality. Rivera and Mazzola grew up with Schiaffino… Great foreign players are welcome, young players benefit from them. The problem is the quantity, when poor quality ones arrive.”
Sabatini also shared his thoughts on the Growth Decree, Nicolò Zaniolo’s return to Italy with Atalanta, and his own readiness to return to football:
“Football is my life, my work. Now I’m out, I have to wait. I’m following players I had neglected.”
