Francesco Guidolin Once Pointed A Gun At His Players As Part Of A Team Talk

We here at The18 have never really given much thought to Francesco Guidolin. The former Swansea City, Monaco and Palermo manager just never crossed our minds in a way that was interesting. Until now. It has been reported that in 2006, when Guidolin was managing at Palermo, he used a very, um, explosive prop in a team talk.

From FourFourTwo:

"I'll never forget what happened one afternoon in training," Amauri said in quotes attributed to Il Giornale di Sicilia.

"We prepared for the second leg of our UEFA Cup tie with West Ham and Guidolin came into the dressing room with a big bag.

"He then pulled out a rifle and aimed it at all my team-mates and I, exclaiming, 'we've hurt them, now let's go on the pitch and finish them off…'

"I remember that with [Fabio] Simplicio, we managed to hold back the laughter, but it's a nice memory, which I still remember with pleasure."

I have some thoughts on this.

I'm not sure if I believe Guidolin was using the gun to symbolize finishing the other team off. I think maybe, just maybe, he might have been implying that he was going to shoot his players if they lost. I'm just speculating, though, I wasn't there. Surely there are better ways to symbolize finishing them off, but whatever.

Also, if someone pointed a gun at me, I would not be holding back laughter. I would be yelling at the person for pointing a gun at me. You are not supposed to point guns at people. That is one of the rules of gun safety.