Former Juventus midfielder Simone Padoin has shared his belief that his former managers Antonio Conte, now in charge at Inter and Massimiliano ‘Max’ Allegri, who is currently jobless, are two very different managers and the fact they have been able to win despite this is what makes football beautiful.
“They are very different in terms of their approach and way of dealing with the players and carrying out their ideas, but this is a demonstration that football is beautiful,” he explained in an interview with Italian radio station TMW Radio, which took place earlier on today.
“You can win in many different ways, and they are the most striking example of this. Both have great intelligence, they manage to make the players perform at their best.”
Padoin, who retired at the end of last season which he spent at Serie B club Ascoli, then went on to speak further about Conte and what he is like today.
“At Juventus he had the support of the results, at Inter he still doesn’t have this 100%. Many have criticised him, telling him that he seemed to have lost his proverbial anger, but I know him and determination is part of his character, and he is putting it into Inter.”
The former Italian under 21 national team player who won five Serie A titles with Juventus then went on to sing the praises of Inter central midfielder Nicolo Barella who he played alongside at Cagliari for a few years.
“With Lukaku he is by far the best Inter player in the last 16-18 months. I’m not ashamed to say that in my opinion right now he is the best young Italian player along with Donnarumma.
“I could name the various Chiesa and Zaniolo, but in my opinion nobody has Barella’s consistency. When I was at Cagliari I watched him grow steadily, without the typical ups and downs of exploding young people.
“Every two or three months he improved, and just look at the minutes he plays. For Conte he is the truly irreplaceable, and this says it all about the qualities of a player who is surprising also in terms of quality.
“When he was with me he had an incredible amount of interceptions, now maybe he doesn’t score a lot but I see him providing exceptional assists and having exceptional matches both at Inter and in the national team.”
Padoin came through the ranks at Atalanta and joined Juventus in 2012. The 36-year-old made 534 senior appearances in his career in which he scored 23 goals and tallied 17 assists.
