RANIERI’S TRANSLATOR

Gary Staker was originally hired as a tunnel steward at Chelsea back in the mid- 90s, but his Italian language skills soon found him in extremely high demand at Stamford Bridge. The boyhood Blues fan struck up a bond with Gianluca Vialli after acting as the striker’s translator, before memorably doing the same with Claudio Ranieri. During one famous post- game interview, Ranieri delivered a full- hearted reply that Staker translated simply with a shrug as, “It was a game of two halves.” In October 2019, he left Chelsea after more than 20 years there.