On Monday afternoon I found myself sitting in a beautiful Italian restaurant while the sun was blazing outside, surrounded by the smell of fresh, real Italian cooking. If I didn’t know better I would have thought I was back in the Italian Peninsula.
Unfortunately for me I was still in England – the smell of Italian cuisine was in fact coming from former Atalanta Primavera player Richard Hughes’ Italian restaurant Mele e Pere based in Brewer Street, Soho, London.
Mele e Pere was an idyllic setting for my exclusive interview with the Glasgow-born former Portsmouth player. Richard kindly gave up his afternoon to talk calcio with me. Within two minutes of being in Richard’s company it became very clear that he was very passionate about all things involving Italian football.
Richard openly spoke to me about anything, Starting with how an eleven year old Scottish boy became involved with one of the most prestigious youth systems in Italian football, playing under current Azzuri coach Cesare Prandelli: “the best coach I ever played under.” We continued to talk about his progress through the ranks at Atalanta and the players he played with, like “marking Inzaghi in training” and some of the players that impressed him before returning to the UK.
Growing up in Milan he regularly watched AC Milan at the San Siro with his brothers. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva’s recent move away from the club is a matter Richard had his own opinion on along with Serie A’s stature among the top leagues in the world and the English media’s attitude towards Italian football.
Also Richard expressed how he feels about Juventus’s chances next season, given that they will now be fighting on two fronts.
Conversation quickly moved on to more pressing subjects like racism in football and whether Italy have a larger problem with racist behavior than elsewhere.
Richard had an impressed view on the betting scandals that seem to plague the beautiful game in Italy.
Listen to all this and lots more.
Excellent interview; very intelligent player answering some good questions! Really enjoyed it.
Who needs Jonathan Ross when you have Clark Stupple….!!!
A natural….
Cheers mate not to sure if being compared to Jonathan Ross is a complement or not but ill take it all the same 🙂