Rino Gattuso has slammed the "keyboard hatred" which saw his move to Tottenham fall through.
After leaving Fiorentina just a month into his appointment, Gattuso was all set to take the Spurs job only for the offer to be withdrawn following an online backlash.
The Italy and AC Milan great told La Repubblica: "I find it hard to believe that this was the reason, at least the image of mine may have remained in their mind, the fight in 2011 with (Joe) Jordan, then assistant coach of Tottenham.
"I am certainly neither racist, nor sexist, nor homophobic: old statements of mine have been misrepresented. Why don't you ask my former teammates and the players I coached about my relationship with them?
"I have taken a southerner in all stadiums: as a racist I would not be very credible. As for the rest, I don't waste time on nonsense.
"Rather, my story teaches one thing: that keyboard hatred is very dangerous and very underestimated. I am a public figure and I have the strength to react to slander, but not everyone can handle it.
"There are those who may throw themselves out of the window out of weakness. It is a very serious problem: who can we expect to intervene?"
