Serie A's youngest coach
Sampdoria hopes Platt can lead them to glory -- again
Posted: Thursday December 17, 1998 05:16 PM
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Platt becomes the youngest bench boss in Serie A John Gichigi/Allsport |
GENOA, Italy (AP) -- Sampdoria of Genoa introduced David Platt as its new coach Thursday, making the former England captain the youngest bench boss in Serie A.
Platt, 32, replaces the fired Luciano Spalletti and inherits a reeling club just one spot out of the relegation zone with little more than half the season remaining.
Technically, Platt will not have the title of "coach" because he does not have the necessary permit from the Italian federation. Giorgio Veneri, a veteran of Italy's lower divisions, will be Platt's assistant.
As a player, Platt was part of Sampdoria's last triumph, the 1994 Italian Cup. He retired in July after helping Arsenal to a rare Premiership and FA Cup double.
The midfielder totaled 209 goals in 500 games with English sides Crewe, Aston Vill and Arsenal, plus Bari, Juventus and Sampdoria in Serie A. He also earned 62 national team caps, scoring 27 times, and captained England in 1993-94.
When he hung up his cleats, Platt made it clear he was interested in managing, and was in Hong Kong with an England youth side when Sampdoria contacted him this week.
He'll have a tough task in Genoa.
Samp's next two games are against second-place AC Milan on Sunday and at league-leading Fiorentina the following week.
In addition to needing to right the club's 3-4-6 record, which has Sampdoria 14th in the 18-team league, Platt will have to determine how and when to bring Argentine World Cup star Ariel Ortega and two other suspended players back into the fold after a drunk driving incident.
Salernitana's Delio Rossi, 38, was the youngest current coach in Serie A.
Italy has not been kind to British coaches of late.
Scotland's Graeme Souness was fired by second-division Torino last year after less than four months on the job, while Englishman Roy Hodgson lined up a job at Premier League club Blackburn midway through his second stormy season, 1996-97, with Internazionale of Milan.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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