Roberto Santilli: One of the 50 million

Read this great interview which you can see also on volleycountry.com! For coaches working conditions are 10 times more difficult, they have to find good relationships with the players and management - said Roberto Santilli about the adventure in Russia. He also told about the plans for next season, the phenomenon of Serie A and the Italian school of coaching.

You've spent three years in Russia. What did you learn there?

Roberto Santilli: First of all I've learned that life can be really different! Second, that Russians have their own way to live, and to live the sport too. You have to understand it and then organize yourself to find the way to mix what you want with what you can change.

Are working conditions in Russia such demanding and stressful for foreigners as it is said? Was the acclimatization for you a challenge?

- Sure, Russia is difficult for foreign players. For coaches is ten times more difficult because the key is to find the good and cooperative relationship with players and with the club management. To involve them in the work-project - this is the real challenge for all managers who are working in Russia, not just in volleyball.

How do you assess the level of Superliga? What does it mark out from the other leagues?

- The level of the club’s budgets and the level of competition are very high. Amazing number of talented players compensate the low percentage of foreigners. The level of organization is struggling with the new modern model of sport, but we have to consider the problems coming from the difficulties of managing such a big country like Russia.

Last season was really tough, but do you see any positives? How did it look like from your perspective?

- Yes, last season was very tough, everything coming from the beginning when we started the season with no budget covering. This produced a lot of misunderstandings between the club and the workers. It was difficult to manage a volleyball team, talking all the year with lawyers and managers that complain about salary not payed.

You've brought to Odinstvo Tomaso Totolo and after all he replaced you as the first coach. It's like reversed situation from Jastrzębie-Zdrój. Don't you blame him that he stayed in Odinstvo without you?

- I don t want comment the Tomaso’s behavior. I just want to say that in my life I had several difficult situations but I never low my head, I always watch people in face and I’m proud of it. I don’t think all the people that worked in Odintsovo last year can be proud of their own behavior.

After three years in Poland and three years in Russia to come back to Italy was a priority to you?

- Exactly, it was a priority to my family. Children are growing up fast, now they are teenagers and it's not the right time to move them every 2 or 3 years. In the future, I will live in Rome.

You're going to work in Latina for a second time. Why did you chose this club, did you have any others proposals?

- That’s the 3rd time in Latina! First time, after promotion from A2, I had to leave team for National Team. I was keeping a great relationship during this time with management, fans, journalists there. For me it's like coming back home. We reached the agreement after 5 minutes, shaking hands even if I had other possibilities. This time I followed what my heart said.

Let's talk about transfers. There are a lot of young, unknown players in your team. Why did you choose such method of building the team? Aren't you a little afraid that it may affect the results?

- At this moment in Italy, for a club like ours, it's difficult to compete against the biggest team like Trento, Macerata, Cuneo, etc. Plus when we discover good players, the powerful teams take them from us, like Rauwerdink to Cuneo and Rossini to Trento this year. So we decided to change the policy: first we're looking forward building a new group of young players (age 21-23) making with them long contracts. Second, respecting our budget, take few experienced players like Sottile and Farina and try to compose a balanced team.

What are the club, your aims in Serie A?

- The goal of the team is to be competitive in a short time respecting the criteria of the programming that pass between technical work and respect of the budget.

Why have you decided to participate in Challenge Cup? It's very expensive game, aren't you afraid that you'll have to pay extra to it? What are the team's aims in Challenge Cup?

- Because I have in my memory the lost tie-break of the Challenge Cup final - we lost with Jastrzębski Węgiel against Arkas Izmir (smile) - that’s the only one painful memory I have about Jastrzębski Węgiel. Plus, play in the European Cups, for club like ours, is always an honor.

How about „Italian school of coaching” - many Italians work in the top teams. Is it still the best one? What does it make better than the others?

- There are two components to explain this phenomenon: first the big job that did Italian Federation in the last 20 years building two generations of coaches with a very important path of vocational training with conferences and updates. We should also say that in Italy the updates are obligatory. Second, it is the attitude of the Italians to be coaches. I tell you a story: when it’s time for world football championship, 50 millions of Italians transform in 50 millions of football coaches and in the bar you can hear only people talking about football strategies and which line up is the best one. That’s very funny. Fortunately it happens just once in four years.

Italian clubs have many financial problems and that's the reason why many players leave Italy. Is Serie A still attractive to players, is it still one of the best leagues?

- That’s another point of view to explain our policy. Until few years ago the dream of every volleyball players from all world was to come and to play in Italy. In the last five years best players started to leave from here. Now also the Italians are on the way to go. The question I made to our management was: how we can make Italy attractive for players? The answer was to take young players who want to make a step forward in their skills. For this Italy is still a good campus. Motivation is the basic for this process. Top players are already gone.

How would you assess Serie A in comparison with other leagues? A strong competition for Italian league is Turkish league – where is the phenomenon?

- From the inside, Italian League A1 is already divided into 3 parts. High level teams with big budgets compete for European cups, good clubs with solid technical and financial stability and the clubs that are struggling to survive. From outside, Polish PlusLiga is already number one for the organization, sponsors, television, number of spectators and atmosphere you can fell in volleyball games but not only at the top with club results in Europe. Russian League has the biggest potential. Sponsors and federation are so strong that they really can do a step to become the first league in the world. Turkish are investing a lot of money in volleyball but the level of the Turkish national players is not comparable to the best countries. They are doing a big job with female team but for men they need to put attention on developing a new generation of Turkish players.

source: www.volleycountry.com

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