Fabio Liverani: ‘Managing Leyton Orient is an important project’
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Version 0 of 1. Fabio Liverani does not have to decide who he will be supporting in this weekend’s derby della capitale. Instead of watching events unfold at the Stadio Olimpico this boyhood Roma fan who won the Coppa Italia with Lazio will be ingratiating himself into English footballing culture, a transition he has been attempting to hasten since his appointment as Leyton Orient manager in December. Liverani will be watching Arsenal play Stoke on Sunday instead of Serie A’s Rome derby. Far more important, though, is his side’s home fixture against Fleetwood Town on Saturday afternoon, a fifth League One match at the helm and an opportunity for a third successive victory after a difficult start. Even before replacing Mauro Milanese as Orient manager, Liverani’s journey has been a remarkable one. The 38-year-old, who stopped playing only three and a half years ago, grew up in 1970s Rome the son of a Somalian mother and Italian father. After signing for Lazio in 2001 racist graffiti was scrawled across the entrance to the club’s training ground, as it had been for Aron Winter’s arrival in the 90s. That same year he became the first black player to represent Italy, selected by Giovanni Trapattoni for a friendly against South Africa. His first foray into management at Genoa was cut short after six games, sacked after a poor run despite overcoming rivals Sampdoria 3-0. Now his job is to steer Orient away from the bottom four and resurrect a campaign that began with a play-off hangover, tasked by the club’s new owner, Francesco Becchetti, with developing a side capable of promotion to the Championship. “Leyton Orient,” he grins when asked which side his heart would follow amid a giallorossi-biancocelesti battle in the Italian capital. A diplomatic response but one which reflects his mindset; for all Liverani’s history, immediate ambitions at Brisbane Road are clearly dominating his thoughts. Since Becchetti bought a 90% controlling stake in the club from Barry Hearn last year there have been significant changes. The players have different food after training, the matchday transport has been upgraded and four different managers have occupied the dugout this season. Yet for a man who has lived in Florence and Sicily as well as Rome, Liverani is remarkably upbeat having spent the majority of a bleak winter morning on a sodden training field in east London, at the club’s Chigwell base where he makes the daily commute from Mayfair. He is a serious man, one who appears keen to prove himself as a tactician the same way he did as a midfielder, the same way he did on the streets of Rome as a kid with Somalian heritage. Liverani often mentions the “project” at Leyton Orient, an overused word in football parlance but a legitimate one in this case, as owner and manager feel their way into the English game during a debut campaign. “At the moment it is beautiful for me, it’s going very, very well, the city of London is beautiful,” Liverani says, sitting in his office after a morning on the training field with his squad and coaching staff. “To have the experience to manage in England is important, in London, which I love for the quality of life and multiculturalism. I wanted this experience. It’s an important project and there is the prospect of at least getting Leyton Orient into the Championship. “Unfortunately I played my whole career in Italy and did not have a foreign adventure. However, I have always followed English football and the Premiership with great enthusiasm, I have always been interested in the passion and culture of football here. The start wasn’t positive, we had two defeats. Not everything was rosy for sure, we had a great number of injuries. But then we won twice. I am lucky that when I arrived as manager I inherited a good group of lads.” Liverani’s debut for Italy was a landmark moment in the team’s history, the first time a black man had played for the Azzurri. He was also the first black first-team coach in Serie A, succeeded by Clarence Seedorf’s appointment at Milan last year. However, he is reluctant to be perceived as a trailblazer in his country. For Liverani, his elevation to the national side was the pinnacle of a career that included spells at Perugia, Lazio, Fiorentina and Palermo, a long road to the top and one that he is proud of. When reflecting on his appearance against South Africa – one of three caps – he considers it as such. Though the significance of his debut may have been a talking point for others, it was not a matter of race for Liverani. “When this happened I was extremely happy, but not because I was a black player,” he says. “Putting on the national shirt is a dream for any player when they start out. The final achievement for any player is to wear the national jersey. For me, I had great pride after the path I started as a player, after all the sacrifices and efforts I made. I remember that I was so happy to play for my country and I did a few times. “Maybe I opened the discussion about the racism, but I didn’t see the difference. Maybe it was more important for other, external people. For me , personally, it was very simple, it was normal and something that made me proud –, proud I got there a good player not because I was a different colour.” Football in Italy has been blighted by a series of racist incidents in recent years. Not least the comments made by Carlo Tavecchio, the president of the nation’s football federation, during his election campaign in July last year, when he referred to a fictional player as “eating bananas” during a discussion about the influx of foreigners to the Italian leagues. “I don’t say that there are no problems,” Liverani says when discussing racism in his homeland. “I say that the problems are not different to those in other countries. More than enough has been said about Tavecchio. He was the first to understand he made an own goal. He has said sorry and he will pay. Everyone in the world can make mistakes. Let’s give him another chance. He has apologised. The mistake is made, he said sorry, he will pay because Uefa has suspended him [for six months from October].” Liverani insists he should be regarded as Orient’s first long-term coach under Becchetti. Russell Slade resigned following Cardiff City’s interest earlier this season, the former interim manager Kevin Nugent remains on the coaching staff and Milanese has returned to his previous role as sporting director. Time is a commodity Liverani did not receive at Genoa, although he believes the experience made him stronger. A notable victory over Sampdoria was not enough, a match preceded by the remarkable incident when the Genoa youth-team coach, Luca De Pra, was caught spying on a Samp training session, “like Rambo hidden among the branches on the hill” according to a statement. “He went on his own,” insists Liverani, who had no involvement in the controversial espionage. “He went there to look for secrets. But in Italy, like here, secrets don’t exist these days. It’s impossible, everything is open. You don’t win by spying on others.” On his learning curve at Genoa, Liverani adds: “In Italy the managerial jobs are shorter, there is a lot of pressure. It is a bit different to here, it can be too important to get certain results. I was unfortunately the manager during a rebuilding period for the team, and we met difficult opponents quickly – Napoli, Inter, Fiorentina and the derby. Unfortunately there were one or two results that weren’t good, but it was an excellent experience for me and it helped me a lot. “In Italy there is a lot of fear of bad results very quickly. When you make decisions you sometimes need more patience; in Italy this is more difficult. The football here is not like in Italy. The tempo of the game is different, in Italy it is a lot softer, in England it is more physical and fast. There are many breaks in the games in Italy because of the referees. For a spectacle it is better here.” Such are the nuances between English and Italian football that Liverani is embracing. He is surrounded by a coterie of compatriots at Orient, and has family in nearby Tottenham. Like before, though, this is very much a personal journey, the latest step on the road out of the eternal city. |