Disgraced Ventura eager to return to coaching

MILAN: Humiliated former Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura, sacked after the four-time World Cup winners failed to reach the 2018 tournament in Russia, has revealed he wants to return to coaching.

“I’ve just returned from something that was bigger than me and I paid violently,” Ventura, whose qualifying fiasco saw Italy miss a first World Cup since 1958, was quoted as saying in La Repubblica newspaper.

“My father taught me never to give up and three months can not cancel thirty-five years,” he continued. “I have a fierce desire to start again for a simple reason, I need to give answers now and I want to give them.”

Ventura took over the national team when Antonio Conte left to coach Chelsea in 2016. The 70-year-old had never managed a major club, having previously coached Udinese, Cagliari, Napoli, Messina, Verona, Pisa, Bari and Torino.

Italy were forced into the play-offs against Sweden after finishing second behind Spain in qualifying, a campaign which also saw them humbled 3-0 by Spain in Madrid.“My adventure was over a minute after losing in Spain,” he said. “In football there is never a single person who wins, but nor is there a single person who loses.“Now I have to and I want to give answers and from here I’ll start again, without certainties. “I don’t like the past, I live in the future and my coaching job starts now.”