Big Interview: Vialli regrets never joining Rangers

As the only player to hold both winners and runners-up medals in the three main European club competitions, Gianluca Vialli is well aware happy memories often sit side by side with regrets.

So while he credits his move to Chelsea as kicking off his love affair with the English Premier League, he also still wishes he could have taken up the signing offer from Rangers he had to reject to get there.

It was in the summer of 1996 four years on from his world record £12.5-million switch from Sampdoria to Juventus that the prolific Italian found himself forced to choose between the Light Blues of Glasgow and the Blues of London.

Ruud Gullit, a former team-mate at Sampdoria, wanted to build the Chelsea team around him. Rangers manager Walter Smith was prepared to make him the highest-paid player in Britain.

“With Rangers, there was a moment that we were really close to signing,” reflects Vialli, who later wrote to Sir David Murray to apologise for not being able to move to Glasgow.

“Sometimes in football, though, you have to make these decisions and I cannot have too many regrets. It was in London I met Cathryn, the woman who would become my wife. It was in London that my two daughters were born. And it was there, too, that I fell in love with the English Premier League.

“It would have been impossible not to. It’s a competition which takes your breath away. For those who love football, it is paradise. But then I think of Scotland. Of the fans, of the incredible atmosphere there can be in the stadiums, and the heart and the passion with which the game is played in that country. And, yes, I do regret not having been able to be a part of it.

“Although there was talk of Celtic at the time, I myself did not hear anything. A couple of years later when I was still at Chelsea, there was some contact from them but never a real negotiation.”

By then, Vialli had been appointed player-manager at Stamford Bridge, a promotion which, he confesses, led to a near obsession with the work of Sir Alex Ferguson.

“Whenever I could, I would watch Manchester United,” says the 50-year-old. “I have boundless admiration for Ferguson, so when I started my coaching career he became my reference point. My goal was to learn as much about his management as possible, to understand and note every detail that was decisive.

“Of course, even armed with that knowledge, it is impossible to duplicate his success. As a manager, Ferguson was perfection. He was truly great. Somehow he always knew when to keep things the same, and when to change them. He rebuilt Manchester United’s team so many times and got the very best out of so many players. I consider a highlight of my life that I was able to beat him while I was Chelsea manager.”

And another is that he got the chance to played alongside Graeme Souness.

“At that time at Sampdoria, our team was almost all very young, 22 or 23 years old,” recalls Vialli. “Our president, Paolo Mantovani, rightly thought that the team needed a man of experience and great quality. He chose Graeme, who had just captained Liverpool to victory in the European Cup Final over Roma in the Olympic Stadium. We thought it was a brilliant signing, and we were right because he turned out to be an exceptional player. He always knew what to do on the football pitch, and he had the technical ability to do it all. Long-range crossfield passes, clever back-heelers or scoring from outside the box he could do it all. He was a true champion.”

Should Vialli need any information about the current generation of Scottish players and his job as a pundit for SKY Sports Italia means that can happen he turns to his former Chelsea youth coach, Jim Duffy (left), who’s now manager of Morton in League One .

“Jim is a great friend of mine, who did a great job with the young Chelsea players, John Terry among them,” says Vialli. “It is a crucial for these kids to get the right instruction if they are to develop the right way, and Jim was able to give them that because he has great skills as a coach. I think, like myself, he maybe did a get a little distracted from the management side of things by the opportunities that came his way to be a commentator for TV and radio. But, then, often making a career in a particular line of work is also a matter of luck, of being in the right place at the right time. Now that I’m a TV commentator myself, I can call Jim to chat. He is also one of the worst golfers I know yet he beat me which I am ashamed to admit!”

The former Italy and Juventus star retains ambitions to get back in the game in a Director of Football role, and says he would love to go back to England.

“I don’t want to rule out being a coach again, but I would like to be involved in managing in the communication and marketing areas,” says Vialli. “It would be great to do that in the Premier League, which is such a strong product. Everyone there is on the same page players, fans in the stands and the TV viewers. You can’t fail to be swept along by the enthusiasm. There is more seriousness and more discipline in the Premier League than in Serie A, and I have no doubt when I played at Chelsea, I became a better player.

“In England and in Scotland there are no simulations, hysteria in the field is not tolerated. This is a real asset, which fortunately is safeguarded and protected.

“Combined with the great atmosphere, it is the reason clubs such as Chelsea and Rangers too are attractive to many players from other countries.”