Mandorlini, the double ex of the bench: "Italiano's English football can bring Europe back to Bologna"

King of Verona: "My best years on the bench". Supporting actor in Bologna: "Four months in which things didn't go the way I wanted". On the radar of the Ravenna player Andrea Mandorini But Bologna is always there. Even yesterday, when the former defender of Trapattoni's record-breaking Inter (1998-99 season) took on the role of grandfather at the wheel to accompany his grandson Andrea, a fourteen-year-old midfielder for Ravenna, to play a match in the Bologna hinterland.

Mandorlini, Sunday's Verona-Bologna opens up the drawer of memories for her. "In the five years in Verona I gave my best as a coach. It's a place that loved me right from the start and the relationship grew together with the results. In Verona I achieved a double promotion from C1 to A and I was lucky enough to coach the best Italian striker of that period, Luca Toni, plus a certain Jorginho along with many others, including Maietta and Cacia".

Bologna, yes: for her a brief interlude between one Ulivieri and another. "A very bad period on a personal level, because in those months my father passed away. I remember the reinforcements in January, Marazzina and Zauli, and also a few games that went wrong for us. After the defeat in Vicenza the club wanted to recall Ulivieri and my adventure ended. Even today when I think about it I'm very sorry, because I would have liked to have done better in such an important place".

Success today smiles on Italiano. "I like his football. Also because I am an admirer of English football, where intensity, speed, the desire to go and take on high opponents and rapid verticalizations are the rule. Sometimes in Italy we play possession football that is too slow".

And she gets bored. "I get bored if I don't smell the locker room and the field: my life has always been there, ever since I kicked my first ball. Now, as a coach, I hope to be able to get back into the swing of things quickly."

Last waltz in Cluj, Romania. "I was on that bench until last January. But they had the ambition to get first and so, despite a good run, they called Mutu in my place, who only made things worse. A tormented season: Mutu was also sent away and Dan Petrescu, who is a legend there, was called back".

She's no joke around there either: in 2010 with Cluj she won the Treble, the league title, the Romanian Cup and the Romanian Super Cup. "A wonderful experience in a young and lively city, full of university students, that lives football with incredible passion. Despite the dismissal, I have remained on excellent terms with the president and today I go around watching players for them".

Will the Bologna of Italiano return to Europe? "I sincerely hope so: for what the club and team are doing on the field it would be a just reward. Because we rightly talk a lot about Italiano, but in today's football the quality of the players continues to make the difference. And Bologna has the best sporting director around: Sartori. As a coach I have never been lucky enough to have a sports director like him".

In Bologna in 2006 the sports director was Zaccarelli. "Who I had as a teammate at Torino, when I made my debut in Serie A as a kid. Graziani, Pulici, Zaccarelli, Pecci: for me it was immediately a great school".

Does the Mandorlini school of defenders still exist? "Football has changed a lot since then and today a defender must know how to do everything, defend and build. Of course in those years I was lucky enough to challenge the best attackers in the world".

Passion for football runs through the Mandorlini family's veins. "I have two sons, Davide and Matteo, and both are registered with Ravenna. Like them, Andrea, Davide's son. Davide, the eldest, is a sports director. Matteo is a midfielder who is still playing at thirty-six. And I am only pleased, because with the arrival of the Cipriani family, Ravenna has set up a serious and ambitious project. Today it is in Serie D, but the goal is to reach the top. And my years as assistant coach of Ravenna, from '94 to '98, flash before my eyes...".

Who will win the Scudetto? "I'm a little biased and say Inter. But this Napoli can challenge them to the end".