Hodgson also hugely admires Andrea Pirlo, another player from that 1999 Inter side of which he was caretaker, and a feared adversary up the Amazon on Saturday.
Hodgson did not see the cut-throat gesture by Greg Dyke, the Football Association chairman, when England were drawn against Pirlo’s side in the sweltering jungle (as well as against Uruguay and Costa Rica).
“Should one make a gesture like that?’’ mused Hodgson before training at Urca on Tuesday. “I presume not but it seems such a minor thing.’’
Indeed. The major threat is Pirlo. Again. The elegant conductor of the Azzurri orchestra proved Hodgson’s shoot-out nemesis at Euro 2012. They first crossed paths in 1999 when Hodgson was back at Inter as caretaker, overseeing a team of Bergomi and Pirlo. “Hodgson mispronounced my name,’’ Pirlo wrote in his lively autobiography. “He called me ‘Pirla’ (d—head), perhaps understanding my true nature more than the other managers.”
Mention of his “Pirla” gaffe made Hodgson laugh. “I’ve heard that!’’ the England manager said. “He may have used a bit of poetic licence. I don’t ever remember referring to him as Pirlo – I’m a Christian name person. Maybe Andrea and Pirla sound similar. Certainly he was anything other than a ‘d—head’.
“I felt a bit sorry for him because he hadn’t played much when I came because the squad was full of No 10s, which was how he was regarded at the time. He was a real No 10. Apart from [Roberto] Baggio [who wore No10], there was [Youri] Djorkaeff and then a player called Ze Elias and a couple you won’t remember and so he was in a group all vying with Paulo Sousa for the same position.
“I thought he was very good in training. Inter let him go to Milan, so they obviously didn’t fully believe in him, and Carlo Ancelotti transformed him into a deep-lying midfield player rather than a second centre-forward and that’s when he started to blossom. Carlo showed a stroke of genius with regard to his career – as well as his own wonderful talent.”
Hodgson had no say in Pirlo’s future. “I would never assess him in those terms because Marcello Lippi had signed. When I went back from Blackburn, Lippi had left Juventus and had agreed to take Inter the following three seasons. So I was only ever there as an interim. I worked with the players but I never made judgments.”
During his time at San Siro and Appiano Gentile, Hodgson spoke with the Inter and Azzurri legend Giacinto Facchetti about an emerging coach called Cesare Prandelli. Facchetti tragically passed away of pancreatic cancer in 2006, a grievous loss to his wife and four children and also to his football family. A man of great presence just as he had been a left-back of great class, Facchetti was also a touchstone for Inter and providing wise counsel for their coaches. “Before I even knew Cesare, when Giacinto Facchetti was still alive, he told me he thought Prandelli was a good coach,’’ Hodgson said.
“He would have based that on following his career. That’s always stuck in my mind, that someone whom I respected as much as Facchetti picked him out among the Italian coaches as ‘this is a good Italian coach’.’’
Prandelli was making his way as a young coach, learning the trade at first Atalanta, then Lecce and then Verona when Hodgson and Facchetti spoke. He went on to Venezia, Parma, Roma and, most successfully Fiorentina from 2005 to 2010 when he succeeded Lippi as national coach. “Everything Prandelli has done with Italy and Fiorentina has proven that [Facchetti’s commendation].’’
Prandelli guided Italy to the final of Euro 2012, defeating England with that Pirlo penalty on the way, before losing to Spain. “When I meet him, we have a very pleasant relationship. I certainly respect him. He deserves a lot of credit for the way he has Italy playing and the way he has used his resources. As a result, he’s in the World Cup. And he had a good Confederations Cup [semi-finals].
“He had a good [unbeaten] qualifying competition and I think Italy will be going into the tournament thinking that they can go far – we’ll have to try to make certain that we baulk them, early doors, but it won’t be easy. They are a very good team.”
Some Italian observers believe they are not as powerful as at Euro 2012 despite the emergence of Ciro Immobile, Lorenzo Insigne and Marco Verratti. Hodgson again had too much respect for his adversaries up the Amazon. “They’ve stayed together very well, haven’t they?’’ he said of Italy, although they have lost Riccardo Montolivo. “They have two more years experience of qualifying and there aren’t so many new players that have really emerged. We are still discussing in our pre-match videos the same sort of players we played against.”
England have had an injection of energy since Kiev, including the adrenalin shot of Raheem Sterling, the improvement of Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana, and the threat from the bench of Ross Barkley.
The Italians debate whether Mario Balotelli will start, whether Immobile will be involved. “They are both top players,’’ Hodgson said. “That decision is a headache for Prandelli.’’
Balotelli has proposed to his girlfriend, who said yes, and the Italian players all applauded the striker at training on Tuesday. He has a more pressing match first. “It will be a close game,’’ Hodgson said of Manaus. “I’ve got great respect for the Italian team still. I don’t know enough about their younger ones pushing through. I know a lot about our younger ones pushing through though. Maybe they’ve got some Sterlings, Barkleys and Lallanas [who is 26] up their sleeve as well I don’t really know.
“What we do know is they will be very well-organised and very well-prepared and that the problems they were capable of causing us two years ago they can cause us again. We’ve got to make sure we’re prepared for it and that our defensive organisation covers the threats and that our strengths find out their weaknesses. Most teams have weaknesses. The problem is finding them and exploiting them.’’
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