Gennaro Gattuso has settled in pretty well with his squad since arriving at Valencia as their new manager earlier this summer. Ahead of the 2022/23 season, he seems determined to bring glory days back to the dormant Spanish giants.
In a recent interview conducted by Sky Italia, the former Milan and Napoli coach looked back on last year’s struggles off the field. Gattuso also thanked Valencia for showing faith in him amid all the “wrong” allegations. He said:
“I suffered in silence, I have to say that lately I have been targeted on so many things that are not part of my person, things that are not true have come out because sentences said 15 years ago were taken and placed in a context to make controversy. But I’m a totally different person than what they described.
“Last year I chattered my teeth, everyone thought I left Fiorentina because I already agreed with Tottenham, but that didn’t happen. Tottenham came later, then I didn’t go there due to untrue things. Tottenham managers are there. I fell and I paid. When these things happen it becomes difficult to defend yourself, luckily at Valencia, the management supported me.”
Gattuso then explained how social media could impact force negativity these days:
“Social media can destroy a character or a person and there are many examples: I think of the kids who end up on the web, they remain labelled for the rest of their lives because of a small mistake. We need to work on this. When you have family and friends who support you in everyday life, it all goes away.
“But if you don’t have all of this it’s hard. Not all human beings are strong, it’s a world too complicated to understand and I think it would take some rules. I let a lot of things that have been said go by, even if I have been really bad. But that’s okay.”
Since returning to coaching, Gattuso has been flooded with allegations of being racist, sexist, and a negative figure. Though, joining Valencia could lead to a run a turn of events for the former Milan midfielder.
Helping Los Che win silverware could shush all those critics and subsequently make Gattuso an omnipotent persona in the eyes of all Valencia supporters.
GIFN | Jyotirmoy Halder
