Genoa chief Andres Blazquez admits Andriy Shevchenko took some persuading to take the coaching job.

The AC Milan great took charge after the dismissal of Davide Ballardini.

"We will take the necessary steps to make the team competitive," Blazquez said.

“We will help Shevchenko in this regard. We are preparing a new management structure that will integrate with the current one.

“We really want to do well at Genoa. It was not easy to convince Shevchenko that he had done so well with Ukraine, he is very integrated with our vision of football.

“We appreciate that Genoa have remained in Serie A for 15 years, but the work in recent years was based on budget limitations that we want to remove."