Gennaro Gattuso showed he is still one of the scariest men in football during Valencia vs Osasuna

Gennaro Gattuso is still one of the scariest men in football, as he showed during Valencia’s La Liga clash against Osasuna on Friday night. 

As a player, Gattuso was famed for his no-nonsense style of play, his crunching tackles and his work rate. 

Many players’ eyes were filled with fear when they had to line up against AC Milan when Gattuso was in the prime of his career. 

Now as a manager, he is still one of the most intimidating characters around, as shown during his Valencia side’s match against Osasuna. 

Valencia player Mouctar Diakhaby scored in the 54th minute but was later replaced in the 86th minute as he was already on a booking. 

However, with just a few minutes left, Diakhaby was shown a red card and according to Goal, it was because he sued inappropriate language towards the referee. 

To no surprise, this incident infuriated his manager. 

Gattuso at first was smiling as he pleaded with the referee to show some leniency, however, after the red card was handed out, the Italian showed his frustration. 

As he approached Diakhaby on the bench, Gattuso kicked out at a drinks bucket as you can see in the footage below. 

Spanish football expert Guillen Balague later explained the situation whilst speaking on Optus Sport. 

He said: “He [Gattuso] does, first, his job, which is trying to intimidate the referee so he [Diakhaby] doesn’t get a second yellow. 

“But he knows he’s going to get a second yellow, his player Diakhaby, who he just replaced because he got a yellow five minutes earlier and he thinks: ‘Oh, let’s get him out of there,’ to get away from any possibility of getting sent off and he goes and gets sent off.

“The frustration is huge because Diakhaby has shown to be a very important player to Valencia this season in the way that he defends, good attitude et cetera, but yeah, I guess he [Gattuso] could have just left this kind of pep talk to later.”

Luckily for Diakhaby, his team managed to hold on for a vital 2-1 win and Valencia now sit fifth in the La Liga table. Six points behind leaders Barcelona.