“I have the responsibility for what’s happened,” Luciano Spalletti announced after Italy’s European Championship exit. A commendable sentiment, albeit one slightly occluded by the rest of his speech, in which he blamed, in order: the heat, his players’ efforts in training, his lack of preparation time, the lack of physicality in footballers being produced by the Italian system, injuries, the ease of Inter’s Serie A title win, the weight of expectation and a newspaper that gave one of his players a 4/10 rating.
It really was the most extraordinary outpouring of vibes and analysis from the mercurial national coach, and in all fairness to Spalletti most of his observations – which he admitted could be seen as “clutching at straws and looking for excuses” – were not wide of the mark. “The responsibility is always mine,” he reiterated. “There’s no blame to everyone. I want to stress this. I want to thank the players for having brought me here.”
