Italy manager Cesare Prandelli has accepted the blame for his nation’s poor showing at the World Cup 2014. He has offered his resignation from the national team post. Prandelli has been widely acknowledged as one of the best young managers in world football. He was a major reason in helping Italy find new talent in the last five years. Those young talent has been responsible for lowering the age of a squad with dramatically following the inclusion of youngsters like Mario Balotelli, who at just 23 years of age, have a lot of time left in football.

Even though it delivers knockout at the group stages like England, Prandelli was expected to stay on as the boss given his outstanding reputation. There have been links with a return to club football in the last few months and this appears to have been confirmed after the 56-year-old handed his resignation to the Italian football Federation. Italy came with a few minutes of reaching the last 16 of the World Cup. They conceded a set piece goal in the final 10 minutes of the match to be knocked out by Uruguay.

Italy finished the competition third in the group just ahead of England, who managed just one point. Mario Balotelli was a major disappointment at this tournament with just one goal and two very poor performances.

“I talked to the president of the federation and gave my resignation. The technical set-up didn’t work, and I take all responsibility for that. Something has changed since my contract was renewed. I don’t know why. I chose a certain technical plan and that’s why I’m resigning – because it did not work. A second European Championship, third at the Confederations [Cup] and the qualification obtained in advance should not be under-estimated,” said the former Fiorentina manager.