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Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri opens up on Blues party, Napoli sacking and Antonio Conte
MAURIZIO SARRI says English football is a “total party” and admits he doesn’t know why he was sacked as Napoli manager.
Maurizio Sarri: Bournemouth clash was a ‘difficult game’
Chelsea appointed Sarri this summer after he was left go by Italian side Napoli.
The Blues had to pay Napoli £4.4m to prise him out of the last year of his contract - even though he had been replaced by Carlo Ancelotti in Naples.
Sarri’s Chelsea have won all four of their Premier League matches so far this season, with the boss cutting a notable figure on the Stamford Bridge touchline.
And he admits English football has taken him by surprise after almost two decades in the Italian game.
English football is different from Italian football, and is played in extraordinary stadiums
“It’s totally different here though. It’s a total party, it’s a pleasure to come to the stadium and see fans in different shirts having a beer together,” Sarri told Il Mattino.
“I sign autographs for fans of the opposing team on the touchline, before and after the match.
“The games have so much intensity and physicality.
“English football is different from Italian football, and is played in extraordinary stadiums.
“I know less about the teams I’m facing and the opponents, and at the start it wasn’t that easy to understand the language!
“I learned English 31 years ago, when I was in the bank, but then I stopped for 29 years.”
Sarri has been seen chewing cigarette butts on the Chelsea touchline as he sweats over his side’s approach to games.
He wants the Blues to play a much freer role than former boss Antoni Conte’s rigid, analytical approach.
So far it has proved a success but Sarri is still in the dark about a number of things that went on this summer - in particular his sacking from Napoli after leading them to second in Serie A last term.
“I still don’t know why I was sacked, you’d have to ask the club,” Sarri said.
“Now I have Chelsea though and I’m happy. There were reasons I wanted to stay at Napoli and some reasons why I had doubts.
“The contract the President [Aurelio De Laurentiis] wanted had a release clause up to May 31, and instead they signed Ancelotti on May 21.
“I’m grateful [to De Laurentiis] though because he gave me an opportunity to coach the team I love, and if I’m here at Chelsea it’s because I coached Napoli.
"I have not won anything in Naples. Conte has won (trophies) here and it is difficult to take his place."
Sarri was managed of Napoli for five years, yet the club never came too close to challenging Juventus for the Serie A title.
Ancelotti was brought in supposedly to push Napoli one step further and beat Juve to the Scudetto.
Asked about Serie A, Sarri said: “When we’re far away though there’s always a bit of nostalgia and the feeling that something is missing.
“The food more than anything, but I’m getting used to the meat and salmon here. I still can’t find anyone who makes coffee like Tommaso [Napoli’s coffee maker] though!
“I haven’t really been following the Italian league in the first rounds, I saw a little bit of Napoli, Milan, Inter, and Juventus.”
On Ancelotti, he added: "We exchanged cordial messages of good luck before the start of the season."