Paolo: Italy wrong not to use me more

Meanwhile, Cesare Maldini knows exactly how brutal Italian football can be, having taken Italy to the quarter-finals of the World Cup ... and been sacked straight after it. He said: "When you go out to a World Cup as the national team manager, you have the whole country with you."

"Then, when you come back and it hasn't gone your way, nobody wants to know you."

At 70, you wonder how he could look still so young after his experiences at France '98. He didn't do much wrong, really. They reached the quarter-finals and if Luigi Di Biagio hadn't hit the bar in the penalty shoot-out with France, who knows? Perhaps the Azzurri, uninspiring though they were, still might have gone on to win it rather than Les Bleus. Within a month of their exit, though, he was history.

These days, Italy's World Cup prospects don't consume him as much as Paraguay's. He is taking them to Japan and South Korea because he fancied one last crack, and it all sounds a chaotically different sort of challenge as he directs operations from a golf club hotel in Asuncion.

But only now - arriving wearily here for last night's friendly at QPR against Nigeria after an exhausting 30-hour, three-stop journey - was he starting to really appreciate the logistical nightmare of gathering together a squad scattered between nine different countries.

How tempting, then, it must be for him to think of what might have been, especially when glancing at Italy's side playing in Leeds tonight, studded with the star names he used to direct.

If things had worked out differently, he could have been taking them to another World Cup.

Maldini said: "I know what it'll be like for Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni. It's such a great, emotional honour when you're chosen for the job. He is perfect to handle all the expectation.

"Like my friend Eriksson, who's phoned me to say, 'We're waiting for you' (Paraguay meet England at Anfield on 17 April), he has done a tremendous job leading up to the World Cup."