SPAL President Joe Tacopina has opened up about what he felt were some attitude issues from former Inter midfielder Salvatore Esposito whilst he was playing for the Emilian club.
Speaking to The Italian Football Podcast, Tacopina suggested that, regardless of his quality as a player, the 20-year-old who now plays for Spezia in Serie A, has a lot of maturing to do on and off the pitch.
Like his brothers Sebastiano and Francesco Pio, Salvatore Esposito came up through the youth ranks at Inter, although unlike his two brothers, he decided to leave to further his career elsewhere.
Esposito left to join the youth academy at SPAL, where he then went out on loan to the likes of Ravenna and Chievo Verona before becoming a fixture in the Emilians’ first team.
The 20-year-old was sold to Spezia during the January transfer window.
From the point of view of SPAL President Tacopina, however, the young midfielder still needs to become more mature in his conduct.
“How far he can go in the game depends on himself,” the President said of Esposito.
“Honestly, since he has left we have had an improvement in that position with Matteo Prati.
“I’ll be blunt with you, Salvatore Esposito was not very evaluated in that locker-room,” Tacopina continued.
“He still needs to grow up, he still needs to become more mature.
“He did some things that they deemed to be selfish, the players deemed it not me I’m not a player, but both on and off the pitch.
“I wish him the best, he’s a good kid, but he needs to become more mature,” Tacopina said of Esposito.
“I think when you’re so young having a little bit of humility is not a bad thing even when you’re talented,” he suggested.
“I think Salvatore thinks he’s already an AC Milan level or Real Madrid level player.”
“But for us it was the right move and we got a lot of money for him, more than people said I would but I got into a negotiation and put on my lawyer hat and I called his agent and his agent had to give up some of his dough which was bad for him.”
“Esposito wanted to play in the Serie A at all costs, come hell or high water,” Tacopina explained of the midfielder’s move to Spezia in the top flight, “he’s there now but barely hanging on at Spezia so we’ll see what happens in the future.”
“I’ll reserve judgement on how good he becomes but I hope he can become as good as ha can become because I do like him as a person.”
“A lot of the players came up to me and thanked me after he left and I was shocked by that,” Tacopina noted of Esposito’s departure.
“It’s about having someone who the players respect especially as he was given the captains armband.
“In one regard it [becoming captain] changed him for the better because he took on more responsibility and in another way alienated him from the other guys in the locker room,” Tacopina looked back.
