The first phase of Italy head coach Gian Piero Ventura’s tour of Serie A clubs came to a close today with a trip to AS Roma’s Trigoria training ground. The tour is part of a work schedule distributed to managers and their clubs. Ventura has recently been to Juventus, Atalanta, Genoa and Napoli and he met Giallorossi coach Luciano Spalletti and Roma’s Italy players before watching a training session.

Ventura spoke to Roma TV about Italy and his relationship with Spalletti. “The first meet-up will be on 29th,” he said, “to then play the France friendly on 1st September which means that we don’t have a lot of time available. This is one of the reasons why I’m doing a tour of the training camps where there are players who took part in the Euros. We want to establish a rapport, get a few things going and make the best use of our time.”

Regarding his relationship with Spalletti, the coach explained that, “It goes beyond a relationship between colleagues; I’ve seen him grow. He’s always generous and friendly; he’s done a lot here at Roma and achieved notable results. This season is set to be fantastic: I hope for him, as I hope for everyone, that it will be the greatest for Roma. Making predictions is a waste of time. Everyone says that Juve are on another planet but I would tread carefully. There will definitely be some surprises and the league will be close.”

Over the weekend, Ventura went to Naples. He visited the Castelvolturno training centre where he met Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri. After a pleasant discussion with the coach, Ventura said hello to El Kaddouri who played under him at Torino, met Napoli’s Italy players and watched the beginning of a training session before heading back up North.

Photo by Fabio Rossi (asroma.com)

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Italy National Team Tickets and International friendly games

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