Now in charge of Serie B Modena, Sottil was reacting to Italy's third consecutive World Cup qualifying failure.
Sottil sees a weakness in the quality of local coaching, explaining this morning: "Coaches need to update themselves, modernize, because football evolves, even if some principles never change: like fashion, everything comes back.
"Everyone interprets football as they want, but clearly now, for Italian football, we need to move on to action. Because we've asked ourselves a lot of questions, but, without sounding like a professorr, I say that now is the time to rethink our football a bit. We're built on counterattacks and goals, but we've been copying others, distorting our nature.
"And as for young players, I say that there are plenty of good ones, but talent needs to be trained well.
"The saying 'if they're roses they'll bloom' doesn't work for football, and not even for roses, because if you don't water them, if you don't add soil, they won't grow. Let's start with the youth sectors, by having more Italian players play in all categories.
"We're out of the World Cup, almost out of all European competitions...let's think about it. And it's not Andrea Sottil who says this, but the facts."