Wanted: a second member for the ‘miracle duo’ of Mancini and Ranieri

I still haven’t stopped laughing at the farce that Italian football has made of itself (I was looking for a fitting metaphor; nothing better captures the embarrassing mediocrity you’ve been mired in for years), but I’ll raise a glass to Roberto Mancini and Claudio Ranieri: following Guardiola’s farce – decapitated by Serie A and La Gazzetta before he could even laugh in your faces – Andrea Pirlo’s sacrifice on the altar of far-fetched excuses, and the resignations of Maldini and Leonardo (more predictable than a favourable refereeing decision for Argentina), it will fall to these two to lead the Azzurri – until when, we shall see. Now that the World Cup is over, I have returned to my usual routine, and in my spare time I observe the Machiavellian unfolding of football politics in your country. After pretending to have been caught off guard, Giovanni Malagò executed the move he’d had in mind from the very start, and he did so at just the right moment, when few would have had the strength to challenge him, having wasted all their energy labelling Pirlo a ‘Putinist’. A ‘Gattopardo’-style move, you might say: everything has changed so that nothing changes. Mancini has already been Italy’s manager, Ranieri is approaching 75, and renewal will have to wait for another time.

However, I cannot refuse to raise a toast to the new Italian duo, given that both have an enormous achievement to their name – perhaps the greatest of all: they have managed and won in the Premier League. And not with just any old teams: Mancini kick-started Manchester City’s run of success in recent years, managing to get even Balotelli to play well; Ranieri did what you all know he did at Leicester, and even though the hype really gets on my nerves, that was truly a historic achievement. Mancini won a European Championship thanks to us English shooting ourselves in the foot in the final, and even today I don’t think he can explain how it happened, but it scares me. When he realised the ship was sinking, he went to Saudi Arabia, and now he’s playing the prodigal son – and I fear (for our sake) that he might do well. Of course, the squad is what it is, public opinion is what it is, and the press is what it is. He doesn’t arrive with the same aura as Klopp in Germany or Zidane in France have in recent days, but at least to begin with they should let him get on with his work in peace. It’s certainly surprising that he’s decided to take the Italy job, especially after he fielded the editor of this newspaper in the ‘Partita del Cuore’ just a few weeks ago: champions often retire after reaching the peak of their careers – which was clearly the case for him on that occasion – but Mancini has decided to get back in the game. So, cheers to him.