“I wanted to be captain, I deserved it. Pioli disappointed me. Even though there were plenty of people who had arrived before me, I thought I deserved the armband. They chose Biglia, however. I don’t want to cause controversy, maybe the Coach thought of making the right decision for the squad as a whole, and that the squad took it well. Pioli didn’t explain anything to me, and it was then that I told him that I wasn’t ready to be vice-captain. I took it badly, it probably wasn’t the Coach’s choice, I don’t know…”
Good job these words were spoken by a Lazio player around a month ago, right? Wrong!
It was Antonio Candreva, who has since moved to Inter… where Pioli is set to take over from Frank De Boer, who is rapidly circling the drain at the San Siro.
In this piece, we trace the highs and lows of this duo’s history, which spans from Piolis’ motivating of a budget Lazio squad to third place in the 2014-2015 season… to his being sacked last season. In the former campaign, Candreva had his best Serie A season to date, netting 11 goals in 38 games.
Problem is, the above quote references the moment which probably broke the camel’s back, in a relationship which often had Pioli and Candreva at loggerheads anyway.
And to think that the 14-15 season had the whole Lazio squad buying in to Pioli’s ideas, singing the club’s anthem in midfield and making a dash for third place. In the summer, however, something went wrong with the team’s senators.
This is due to arguments over the captaincuy, in which Sea Lulic and Stefan Radu wanted the armband… as well as Candreva, with former captain Stefano Mauri more out than into Mauri’s strategy.
Now that Candreva and Pioli meet up again, and with the former Lazio winger one of Inter’s undroppables, how will these two coexist?
Gianluca Minchiotti (@GianluMin), Luca Capriotti, adapted by @EdoDalmonte
