Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE GREEDY RED IN CHARGE OF BLUES
Sarri is a highly-strung communist who loves money, says his ex-boss
MAURIZIO SARRI is “very highly strung” and obsessed with money, despite being a communist, according to his ex-napoli boss.
The Serie A side’s president Aurelio De Laurentiis fell out with Sarri before his summer move to Chelsea.
And he has now launched another personal attack after reports in Italy claimed Sarri had contacted the agent of Napoli defender Elseid Hysaj to discover progress on contract talks.
De Laurentiis (with Sarri, below) said: “I chose Sarri against everyone’s advice, he seemed like a mild man.
“He had a way of making himself adored, even by the most extreme fringes of the fanbase. He’s an individualist, someone who suffered in the lower leagues on pitches with no grass and the odd stone. He’d also suffer because he tended to be fired after six games.
“I came to understand he was so dissatisfied with his past. For a communist to base his profession on the evils of money brought him to suffer from a syndrome of dissatisfaction.
“I found Sarri to be very highly-strung. His wife couldn’t even come to the stadium. I used to say to Sarri, ‘Who shall we buy?’ He didn’t want to know anything about it.”
ADL appointed Carlo Ancelotti in the summer and said: “I’d known Ancelotti for five years but, when we met up, I found a man who was relaxed and content, with a thousand interests you could talk about, without ever having to discuss football all night.”
He also claimed Napoli had turned down an offer of £95million for centre-back
Kalidou Koulibaly – possibly from Manchester United – and the centre-back would not be sold in January.
“He will not leave now,” De Laurentiis insisted. “The time will certainly come when we cannot refuse indecent offers again.”
Napoli finished third in their Champions League group and will now play in the Europa League.
“We believe in it – a semifinal with Chelsea would be interesting,” ADL added.