Paolo Di Canio has thrown his weight behind a move for Sandro Tonali to Inter Milan, declaring the Newcastle United midfielder Italy’s best player of movement by some distance and questioning why he is playing for a mid-table Premier League club.
Speaking to Corriere della Sera in a characteristically forthright interview, Di Canio covered the Scudetto race, the Bastoni controversy and the Italian football transfer market, pulling no punches throughout.
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“Tonali in Italy, where would I see him? At Inter, who already have a true regista,” he said, via FCInterNews.
“He is our best player of movement by a distance. But where is he playing? In the tenth team in the English league. The Premier League is the NBA and we are Italian basketball.”
He went further with a pointed observation about Roma’s Donyell Malen.
“At Aston Villa he was the third reserve, at Roma he looks like a Martian.”
Di Canio Defends Inter Star Bastoni & Urges Him To Show Mental Strength As He Claims Tonali Is ‘Italy’s Best Midfielder’
On Bastoni, Di Canio was equally direct, defending the defender while urging him to rise above the noise rather than engage with it.
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“Hysteria on one side and the other. He simulated once, not a hundred times. There is so much hypocrisy, those who accused him look the other way if the same thing happens in Lecce vs Sassuolo instead of Inter vs Juventus.”
He then drew on his own experience of controversy.
“They whistle you as they did with me in England when I received eleven games for pushing a referee. In those cases you don’t care, you show you have the nerve and you keep playing. And if you complain about social media, you are stupid twice over.”
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On the Scudetto, Di Canio was bracingly candid about Inter’s squandered opportunities in recent years.
“Already Inter’s title? Well, they have already shot themselves in the foot twice. For five years they should have done what Juventus did for nine seasons. They are the only club that has built consistently well. They have the best players, their rivals have changed coaches and players every year, often getting worse.”
