Roberto Mancini suggested that his choice to step down from the Italy job wasn’t abrupt and was caused by frictions with federal president Gabriele Gravina that were exacerbated by recent events in an interview with La Repubblica.
“I never hid and take all responsibility. I’ve tried to explain to him that he should have given me serenity, but he never did. Perhaps I should have acted sooner, but there’s a month before the next game. I’ve always been correct.”
Mancini didn’t like the recent overhaul of the staff.
“Gravina wanted to do it for years. I alluded he could at most add some people without removing two members of a group that worked well and won the Euro. The reality is that we haven’t been on the same page for a while.”
“It would have made more sense to fire me rather than my collaborators. He exploited the fact that some of them had expiring contracts. I could have been more direct, but I thought he would figure it out on his own. Canceling a clause to dismiss me if we didn’t qualify for the Euro would have been a positive signal too.”
Mancini sidestepped a question about Saudi Arabia and said he would have quit after missing out on the World Cup.
“I would have left, but they asked me to stay. These five years have been incredible.”
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