Successful former Italian coach Fabio Capello is surprised by the appointment of Patrick Vieira as Genoa coach. He said the timing of sacking Alberto Gilardino and replacing him with the Frenchman baffled him.
“There is nothing more that surprises me,” Capello told Gazzetta. “ Gila did great last year and seemed to bounce back from a rough start amid heavy sales and injuries. The timing, in particular, perplexes me.”
Capello compares Vieira to Wenger
As for Vieira, the transalpine technician admitted to seeing parallels between him and his former manager Arsène Wenger:
“I met Vieira when he was on the bench at Crystal Palace. He did well the first season. He comes from the school of Arsène Wenger and Arsenal. It’s his idea of football.”
Regarding potential tensions between Vieira and Mario Balotelli, Capello added: “Balotelli always liked to move with the ball at his feet, but not much when he had to do the same collectively. But, at this level, there is always time to make peace.”
Note that Fabio Capello managed Vieira twice when the latter was still a player. The first time was at AC Milan in the mid-90s and the second was at Juventus between 2004 and 2006. “He’s a guy I knew very young at Milan and whom we saw again at Juventus when he was a recognized champion. He was always intelligent and polite. I requested his signature in 2005 to create a big midfield duo with Emerson.”
