The Italy captain, Leonardo Bonucci, is looking to England’s example as his team try to rebuild in the wake of their failure to qualify for the World Cup in Russia this summer.
Bonucci, who will captain the Azzurri on Tuesday night when they face Gareth Southgate’s side in the friendly at Wembley, is one of the few elder statement in a young Italy side in a period of transition. And he thinks that the road back to the top of the international game will be a long one.
“We all need to understand Italy starts – not from zero, but not very far from zero,” Bonucci said. We need to let these young players grow and hopefully they’ll take us back to the Italy we’re used to.”
The team who will appear at Wembley will likely be filled with youngsters, much as England’s will be, but Bonucci said they have the benefit of greater experience. “England have managed to go through transition while still qualifying,” he said. “England have a group of young players with lots of experience. Our young players don’t have that experience.
“There’s no point looking back. We should look forward. We have a team with not much international experience. You can’t compare our younger players to the English ones.”
That sense of transition is no more obvious than in the coach. Luigi Di Biagio, who was promoted from his role as under-21 coach after Gian Piero Ventura was sacked in November, will take charge of his second and possibly last game as senior manager. Higher profile candidates including Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Mancini and even Antonio Conte are reportedly being sounded out for the job, but Di Biagio insisted that was not in his thoughts.
“Nobody has told me anything either way, and it’s not on my mind,” he said. “When the time comes, I will take one path or another. Until then I’m not really thinking about it.”
Di Biagio confirmed that one of Italy’s next generation, Gigi Donnarumma, will start in goal ahead of Gigi Buffon, and also said that he will make “three or four” changes from the team who lost to Argentina on Friday.
Bonucci said watching the World Cup on TV will be when the reality of their failure to qualify hits home, but that their recovery starts here. “We have to work hard to get Italy back to where we deserve to be,” he said.
