Sacchi's Football Revolution: Part Two - Small Beginnings and Big Breaks
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 10 October 2024
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It Was What It Was continues the epic story of arguably the most important manager in modern football history: Arrigo Sacchi.
In this episode, Rob and Jonathan explore Sacchi's rise through the coaching ranks. Sacchi earns his spurs in youth coaching, before his impressive work at Parma turns the head of Italian giants AC Milan, and their enigmatic owner Silvio Berlusconi.
This episode is part of our special series on Sacchi’s extraordinary career and his lasting mark on the sport. It starts with our Sacchi intro episode with Jamie Carragher (please go back and listen if you missed it!).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Without a game idea, though, is improvisation and imprecision. It is not the genius or a talent that creates a team, but is the game built and thought by the coach that makes the team great and values talent on the field. It's difficult to apply in an individualist society like the Italian one, |
| 0:24.6 | which does not have a group social conscience. |
| 0:28.0 | Well, those are the words of Erigo Saki in his autobiography |
| 0:31.6 | outline in his philosophy of football. |
| 0:34.1 | Origo Saki is a man who Jonathan and I think is perhaps the most important in modern |
| 0:38.7 | European football history, which is why we're spending four parts detailing his life. |
| 0:44.3 | And if you've missed the opening episode, it was with the fabulous Jamie Carragher telling us |
| 0:49.9 | why he thinks Rigo Saki is so important. |
| 0:52.9 | Part one of Arigo's life is also there for you to listen to |
| 0:57.4 | with Jonathan explaining how Rigo in his early life has gotten to his early 30s. And really, |
| 1:02.9 | he's done absolutely nothing in football. He is Mr. Nobody, as the Italian newspapers will later |
| 1:07.3 | call him. He's been coaching at a semi-professional level. |
| 1:12.4 | It really sort of very average sides, kind of non-league sides. |
| 1:16.3 | He's not made any particular impact. |
| 1:18.8 | However, he has decided partly because of the death of his brother |
| 1:22.2 | that he's got to go for it and he's got to really commit to his passion. |
| 1:26.3 | But Jonathan, there's absolutely nothing to suggest not only that he's got to really commit to his passion. But Jonathan, there's absolutely nothing |
| 1:28.3 | to suggest not only that he's going to become a coach of someone like A.C. Milan, but that he'll |
| 1:33.1 | become such an iconic, incredible figure who we all revere. How on earth does he get from |
| 1:39.1 | regional football in Italy to being this kind of guy who everybody references. |
| 1:44.7 | Oh, it's an astonishing story. |
| 1:45.9 | So in 1978, he doesn't even have a licence to coach semi-pro. |
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