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Sporting Director reveals exclusively Saponara and Tonelli's future
Calciomercato.com talked exclusively to Empoli’s Sporting Director Marcello Carli with only a few more days to go before Fiorentina and Empoli will face each other in a Serie A clash.
Before talking about football, let’s focus on last week’s Paris attacks which will have repercussions on Italian sports too. In order to avoid scaremongering, security controls will be increased, while firecrackers will be avoided.
“I don’t want to use a cliché, but what just happened in France can’t lead us to live in fear, otherwise terrorists will win. People should be free to do whatever they want, but in this moment the decision to rule out firecrackers is right.”
Coming back to football issues, how do you evaluate Giampaolo’s work in charge of the club?
“Three points more or three points less at this stage can make a huge difference for a club like Empoli. Giampaolo is having an impact here. We like the way he is working with the lads, but good results can’t influence our next performances.”
Empoli have one of the best Italian Academies as you are following the Spanish and the English model. But Empoli still represent an exception in the Italian football panorama. Why?
“The development of our Academy started long time ago, when Melis, Galante and Montella were still not professional football players. If we had to change our philosophy now, we would end up playing in non-professional leagues within a few years. By the way, U-21 Italy national team can rely on very good players such as Bernardeschi, Cataldi, Berardi, Romagnoli and Rugani. In Holland they’re famous for the amazing work that they do with young players, but at the same time they have failed to qualify for EURO 2016. It really depends on individuals and how fast each player can develop. I am sure that Italian teams will be back to top of world football in a few years.”
It seems that U-21 Italy national team have more quality than the senior squad right now. Do you agree?
“I do, but that’s not the first time that this happens and it not necessarily a bad thing. It means that we are building some solid basis for a bright future. This year, Serie A is amazing. Fiorentina and Napoli are playing some quality football and I reckon we are coming back to the same levels of some years ago. By the way, Italian football still need to improve its infrastructures. Fiorentina are trying hard to build a new stadium in Florence, while we have the problem of the running track inside the stadium. You can’t enjoy watching Italian football games because games are played in obsolete stadiums.”
Today supporters made lot of noise, derby day is edging closer…
“It was amazing. I doesn’t happy very frequently at Empoli, but our fans are great. They support us also if the team is having hard times. We’ll do our best against Fiorentina. It won’t be any easy as they are one of the best teams out there at the moment, but we’ll try to win like we did against Juve. We lost our last game against them but we didn’t deserve it. We proved that we are a competitive team. I can ensure we’ll do our best till the end against Fiorentina.”
Giampaolo and Sousa have lot in common as they both took over from two winning managers who snatched great results with Empoli and Fiorentina respectively. What do you think about it?
“That’s a right analysis. Even if Montella and Sarri’s results were outstanding, Sousa and Giampaolo are doing a great job too. They’ve been able to add their touch to what their predecessors did. Fiorentina were considered worst than last year, but Sousa maintained the same mentality than under Montella, while Giampaolo dealt with the losses of 5-6 regulars, confirming Sarri’s system to valorize Saponara.”
Tonelli and Saponara have been linked with a Fiorentina move. Is there anything you can say about it?
“We are in god terms with Fiorentina especially with Daniele Pradé and Andrea Rogg (Fiorentina’s Sporting Director and CEO respectively), but it doesn’t necessarily means that they’ll purchase our best players. We have 2-3 players that will make a breakthrough from next season and if they’ll chose Fiorentina, they’d definitely play. We’ll see what will happened in the future but none will leave in January, that’s for sure.”
