Prandelli unfazed by anti-Italy chants

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has said he is not worried about the possibility of being jeered by his former Fiorentina fans when he leads the national team out against the Faroe Islands next Tuesday.

Prandelli is just beginning his career as Italy coach following five successful years with the Florence club.

And following Friday’s Group C opener away to Estonia in Tallinn, Italy will tackle the Faroes in Florence.

During Sunday’s Serie A match between Fiorentina and Napoli, some home fans at the Stadio Artemio Franchi took part in anti-Italy chants, showing their displeasure at losing their popular coach to the national team at the end of last season.

However, Prandelli insisted that such actions won’t be repeated next Tuesday.

“Those will be the last, as of now everyone will be supporting Italy. I am sure that against the Faroe Islands the Florentine response will be excellent,” he said.

Prandelli was also at pains to play down the animosity that developed between himself and the Della Valle family that owns Fiorentina over the manner of his departure.

Club president Diego Della Valle had accused him of a lack of respect when he left.

“I had an extraordinary relationship with the Della Valles over the past few years,” said Prandelli.

“Over the last few months there have been some misunderstandings due to things said by third parties.

“Soon we’ll be able to have a couple of chats face-to-face while looking each other in the eyes.”

Prandelli also had a word to say about the imfamous ‘ultra’ fans that are the scourge of Italian football.

England coach Fabio Capello recently claimed Italy was being held hostage by just such fans, and Prandelli agrees.

“The majority of fans are against violence in any form, when something happens it’s embarrassing to continue talking about the same things for the last 40 years,” he said.

“When Capello said that football was in the ultras hands he wasn’t entirely wrong.

“There’s a type of psychological violence that can affect everyone within the game.”

Looking ahead to the two matches against Estonia and Faroe Islands, Prandelli insisted he would be taking neither team for granted.

While on paper they are the two weakest teams in the group, ranked respectively 94 and 118 in the world, Prandelli said this is not the time to start trying out players.

He has picked a relatively young and untested squad at international level but he will be sticking to those who’ve produced the goods before.

“We want to be prepared for the next game, we have new players who I hope will have a future (with Italy),” he said.

“We’re playing for points so we won’t be experimenting.

“We’re at the beginning of a cycle and we want to win points right away.

“But our idea is to look to play well to get the result. We’ll start by trying to find the right tactical balance, order and most of all get results.

“Having had more days to prepare we want to do better than we did against Ivory Coast (a 1-0 friendly defeat).

“It won’t be a stroll in the park against Estonia, they’re a tight outfit, we’ll have to be careful.”