The new coach of the Italian national team is at work not only on call-ups, but also on defining his staff: here are all the names and all the hypotheses on the table
Buffon with a double assignment. Barzagli towards exclusion, even if the last word is not said. Luciano Spalletti is defining the new Italy with his collaborators. As reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport , everything will have to be ready for 1 September, the official start day of his mandate and of the first squad list.
The matter dealt with fastest was that of the FIFA pre-list . The foreigners were summoned on Monday, the Italians yesterday. An extended list, because Spalletti isn’t officially coach yet and is still making the necessary assessments on the squad. The list that really matters will be the one for the matches against North Macedonia and Ukraine , fundamental for the EURO 2024 qualifiers.
Spalletti Italy staff – The collaborators of the new coach
Spalletti will still have one round of the championship, the second day, to make new reflections. On September 1, the staff will have to be completed. The new coach is talking to federal collaborators and will eventually draw up a project to submit to President Gravina. Naturally, three names are not in question: the deputy Domenichini , the technical assistant Baldini , the athletic trainer Sinatti .
Then other professionals will be needed, but in the meantime there are two names at stake: one is the World Champion Andrea Barzagli , who should have taken care of the defensive phase. The other is the match analyst Gagliardi who would return to the national team with a role on the staff. It is not said that they will stay with Spalletti. Gagliardi could follow Mancini in his new adventure, while Barzagli could not join the new blue staff.
Spalletti Italy staff – The Bollini case and Buffon’s double role
For the staff, Alessandro Pane , another of Spalletti’s historic technical assistants, could come back into play . There is also the question of the goalkeeping coach that has not yet been addressed. The situation relating to Alberto Bollini , the European champion coach with the Under 19 team, who had been promised the role of deputy Mancini on the staff, was more complex. Since Spalletti already has his collaborators, it is a situation that is not easy to solve.
Gravina has asked for a lot of attention for Bollini and the idea is to recover him in every way, in order not to lose his professionalism, with the possibility of including him in the blue staff. In the FIGC, however, they are reflecting on all the hypotheses. Finally, the situation of Gianluigi Buffon appears more defined . Had Mancini remained, the former goalkeeper would have held the position of head of delegation as Vialli had been.
Spalletti has a slightly different vision of his role, he prefers to speak directly with the players without too many intermediaries, and therefore Buffon should cover two roles, that of head of delegation and that of team manager, sharing the tasks with Spalletti, without another collaborator like Oriali, and with the organizational support of the secretary of Club Italia, Vladovich .