‘Trap’ says his former player will be a great coach in the top flight next campaign.
Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has backed his compatriot Paolo Di Canio to be a success as a coach in the Premier League next season with Sunderland, according to reports in the Daily Mail.
The 44-year-old only took over at the Stadium of Light earlier this year, replacing previous Black Cats boss Martin O’Neill with the north-east outfit struggling at the time for both form and confidence, and heading straight for relegation to the Championship.
But the former Juventus and AC Milan forward brought about an immediate change in the relegation-threatened club’s results, and despite only winning two of his seven Premier League fixtures in charge of the club, he also lost just three contests as well, and that run of results was enough to ultimately keep Sunderland in the top flight come the end of the campaign.
And now his one-time boss at Juventus has predicted a bright future for Di Canio, saying: “Paolo was a fantastic, creative player and as a player he was a little bit strange as I discovered when I was his manager.
“He can be a good manager now because he will have learned how to deal with players. When he went to England to play it gave him more experience.
“I know he was in Rome a long time ago, it is the capital and it is a different place for him and he is very proud to come from there.
“But England was also a different place for him and a new experience in his life and he matured there and he grew. It was a different situation for him and he changed there for sure.
“I wish him well and wish to give him my congratulations that he has become a manager.
“He was abrasive and confrontational as a player and I saw that but that is his character. He can be a good manager, I am sure.”
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