Walter Sabatini has been in professional football long enough to know that the most revealing judgements are always the patient ones. From the offices of Pro Sesto — the Serie D club he is currently running, in a late-career chapter that speaks to a genuine and unconditional love for the game at every level — he speaks to Tuttosport with the directness and the warm authority of a man who has been closely associated with Luciano Spalletti for much of his own best work, at Roma and then at Inter.
“Spalletti’s Teams Always Take Off — but They Need a Long Runway”
The Juventus assessment is the one that will carry most weight, coming from a director who has worked alongside the manager and knows his methods from the inside. “The initial difficulties of Juventus depend on the fact that they have lost some important players and on the fact that perhaps the squad needs to be slightly revisited and reinforced — with a maximum of two players, presumably midfielders. But there is no need to go further than that. The path Juventus are on seems entirely normal to me. Spalletti’s teams all take off — but they need a long taxiing run on the runway. It seems to me that the team has already left the ground and is ready to reach cruising altitude and find its deep, creative, and productive football.”
The metaphor of the taxiing aircraft is precise and entirely consistent with the historical record. Napoli under Spalletti did not win the Scudetto in the first season but in the third. Inter’s development took time too. The opening phase is always one of collective calibration, of players learning the system, of the manager learning his players. What follows is the flight itself.
“Roma Are Genuine Scudetto Candidates — Koné Is Fundamental for Them”
On Gasperini’s Roma — beginning the season as the division’s most visually exciting side — Sabatini was warm and specific. “It seems to me that Roma are a genuinely serene candidate to fight to the very end for the Scudetto — the way they are playing. There is formidable cohesion between the players and an unexpected physical condition from others, like Dybala. When Manu Koné is on the pitch, he is a fundamental player for them — a central barrier who stops all possible opposition counterattacks and immediately reproposes Roma going forward, because he wins many balls. And now I see him beginning to look for goal and score — which was a limitation he had. He never used to look for the goal.”
On Rodrigo Mora — one of the season’s early revelation stories: “I think Rodrigo is certainly a talented boy, but not yet a proven talent. He has a very consistent technical repertoire of his own. But now he must measure himself against a tactically very difficult championship — they control him, they look after him, they mark him. He must put himself in a position not to be swallowed up by the pitch.”
“Como Is Lighter — The Society Permits Fàbregas His Sfrontata Football”
The Como comparison with Roma was delivered with characteristic analytical precision. “Roma have more urgency of result. Como are a club that enjoys a cultural movement that Fàbregas has imposed — spectacular, cheeky, and I would say even joyful football, because the society permits it. The society is a propositional one — they want to do and they build many other things around Como. Roma have more urgency.”
“Chivu Is Already a Great Manager — He Never Loses His Intellectual Clarity”
On Inter’s early-season difficulties and their manager’s handling of them, Sabatini — who worked alongside Chivu as a player during his own Roma years — delivered the most generous and considered assessment of the new Inter manager yet offered by any figure of institutional authority in Italian football. “Chivu is a strong manager, very strong, because he never loses his intellectual starting point. He is always very calm in relation to the match, in relation to the problems — he faces them and resolves them. By now he can be considered a great manager.” On Inter’s difficulties: “They are encountering some contingent difficulties right now, but these are adjustments they must find with the manager — and they will find them, because Inter’s squad is complete, competitive, and in fact the deepest in Serie A. They just need to adjust some things from a purely tactical standpoint, and they will — because it is in their genetic code.”
