Cairo: ‘I would have chosen Conte for Italy, Malagò decided differently’ | OneFootball

Torino President Urbano Cairo continues to vocally oppose the return of Roberto Mancini as the head coach of the Italy national team and is sticking to his stance that Antonio Conte was the right man for the job: ‘Malagò decided differently’.

Cairo continues to oppose Mancini’s Italy return: ‘I would have chosen Conte’

Mancini has recently been re-appointed as the head coach of the Italy national team after a three-year absence.

Since Mancini was last in the job, the Azzurri have gone through two more head coaches in Luciano Spalletti and Gennaro Gattuso and have been through a major overhaul of the senior leadership structure: Giovanni Malagò replacing Gabriele Gravina as President of the FIGC most notably.

Malagò and Mancini have a long-standing relationship and some feel that this was a key reason that Mancini got the job as CT, particularly given that Paolo Maldini had attempted to appoint three different candidates during his 17-day spell as technical director of the Italian FA.

Cairo is of that stance, and insists that Antonio Conte would have been the correct decision for the Italy head coach role.

FLORENCE, ITALY – MAY 24: Italian national team head coach Antonio Conte speaks to the media during a press conference at Coverciano on May 24, 2016 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)

“I would have chosen (Conte) because it’s important to bring a strong vision and to start well immediately. Conte represents that, he had already done well with the national team that wasn’t particularly exceptional, especially in attack,” said Cairo in a recent interview (via TMW).

“He was motivated, he could have been the right man for the job. It’s true that there was support for Conte from the Lega (Serie A), Malagò decided differently.”