THIS STORY WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 27TH NOVEMBER, 2017
On Monday morning, AC Milan decided to sack Vincenzo Montella and appoint former midfielder Gennaro Gattuso in a quite frankly remarkable turn of events.
Gattuso will try and bring back the glory days of old, and he certainly knows how it feels to be a winner. He won the Champions League, Serie A and Copa Italia titles during his 13 year spell at the San Siro. becoming a club legend in the process.
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WATCH: How do some of these two footers measure up to Gattuso's most violent moments?
He was certainly a talented, technical player, but the tenacious midfielder was known more for his aggressive nature on the pitch or as former teammate Andrea Pirlo would put it, 'the red mist' would come down and he just wouldn't be able to control it.
Image: PA
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In an extract of Pirlo's book 'I Think Therefore I Play', the Italian spoke about Gattuso in detail, citing the 'red mist' while talking about the Italy national team and the time he tried to kill Andrea with a fork.
"Before Italy games, Daniele De Rossi would hide under Rino's bed and wait. He'd be there for anything up to half an hour. Gattuso would come in, brush his teeth, stick on his leopard-print pyjamas, get into bed, take out a book and look at the pictures. Just as he was about to fall asleep, Daniele would reach up from under the bed and grab his sides, while I'd burst out of the wardrobe like the worst kind of lover, making horrendous noises.
Rino took it really well, despite risking a massive heart attack. First he'd beat up Daniele and then he'd do the same to me. Just to prove he was even handed.
Another time we gave him a soaking with a fire extinguisher. A draw away to the Republic of Ireland had been enough to secure our qualification for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and so the last group game, against Cyprus in Parma four days later, had become almost like a friendly. Pretty much meaningless, and that's exactly how we treated it.
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Lippi gave us a night off in Florence, and almost all of us went out for dinner. Gattuso didn't - he stayed at the team hotel. When we got back, we were quite drunk, actually very drunk, and we ended up chatting in the lounge. We weren't tired, so we needed to find something to pass the time. Everyone had the same idea: "Let's go and p*** off Gattuso."
Image: PA
Now here's the story of the infamous fork. Take it away, Andrea...
"Rino's always been my favourite target, top of the table by some distance. This despite the fact that on several occasions he's tried to kill me with a fork. During meal times at Milanello, we'd invent all sorts to torment him and put him on the spot. When he got his verbs wrong (pretty much the whole time), we'd jump on him immediately. And then when he actually got them right, we'd make out that it was still wrong just to wind him up even more. Me, Ambrosini, Nesta, Inzaghi, Abbiati, Oddo: that was the group of bast***s right there.
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You could see the red mist coming down and he just wasn't able to hide it. We could tell what was coming and so we'd commandeer all the knives. Gattuso would grab a fork and try to stick it in us. On more than one occasion, he struck his intended target and the fork sank into our skin. We were as soft as tuna; the kind you can cut with a breadstick. Some of us ended up missing games because of one of Rino's fork attacks, even if the official explanation from the club was one of 'muscle fatigue'.
We'd get out of his way when he got mad but once he'd calmed down and gone to his room, we'd come back out, pile up the sofas in front of the door and block his exit."
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Never change, Gennaro.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Football, Serie A, Andrea Pirlo, AC Milan, Gennaro Gattuso, Italy