He said: "It's a good thing that the best Italian players are returning to Italy. This is vital to develop the youngsters, to make the franchises more competitive and given that we play more often together, it can make the national team a lot more used to playing together.
"At Aironi last year we took several months to understand what level was needed to be competitive. But now we can go and get the results we missed out on last year."
Meanwhile Aironi president Daniele Silvano Melegari admits his team over-estimated their ambitions last year - picking up a solitary victory over Connacht.
He said: "Last year we were a bit presumptuous to say we wanted to win three to four games.
"Our objective this year therefore is to play for 80 minutes, to be in the game until the end and to put all our competitors under pressure."
Guinness PRO12 Aironi News
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