Nottingham Forest sporting director Filippo Giraldi has addressed the possibility of returning to Italy in a recent interview.
The 49-year-old became the Reds sporting director last October, shortly before head of recruitment George Syrianos and head of scouting Andy Scott were sacked by the club. He was previously Watford's technical director and also worked behind the scenes at Italian clubs AC Prato and Brescia Calcio.
Giraldi says he is open to one day making a return to his native country to work in Serie A, but has given no indication that he will walk away from Forest in the near future. “It will happen sooner or later, but only under certain conditions. I hate the word ‘project’ but I don’t want improvisations either,” he told Tuttosport (via Football Italia).
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It would appear that a lot would need to change in Italian football before he would consider moving back, with Giraldi complaining about poor training standards and the substandard marketing of the league. “The starting points are infrastructure and the training of coaches,” he said.
“We have good tacticians who have been filled with tactical dogmas, not to mention how young players train. We are far behind. Too many times during the Italian crisis I heard people saying: ‘Everyone envies Coverciano.’ Who? Where? Maybe that was true 20 years ago, but many things have changed and we haven’t noticed. Not only in England.
“I see guys who train using just one half of a football pitch, with training sessions suspended because it rains. There are differences on a mental level, but other things too."
He continued: “The truth is that we are not selling the product in the right way. The launch day match on Sunday is often a disarming spectacle, with stadiums half empty.
“Why should it have an international appeal when even Italians are not watching it? If the sport becomes an own goal, it’s useless.”
Serie A was once the leading league in world football, but no Italian team has won the Uefa Champions League since Inter Milan in 2010. And although Italy won the Euros at Wembley in 2021, the Azzurri have failed to qualify for the last two Fifa men's World Cups. Their women's team, meanwhile, finished bottom of their group at Euro 2022, although they have qualified for this year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
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