It could be a bad Herr day Gareth
MAURIZIO SARRI has hailed Claudio Ranieri as one of his managerial inspirations.
Fulham boss Ranieri was a trailblazer for coaches from his country as one of the Premier League’s first Italian bosses.
And Sarri remembers when he was starting out on his managerial journey and Fiorentina boss Ranieri’s training sessions were part of his education.
Sarri said: “Of course, he was an inspiration. I went to speak to him when he was the coach of Fiorentina, over 20 years ago maybe, and often to see training.
“I lived very near to Florence, very near to the stadium. I was a coach, maybe in Serie D.
“It was easier for me, because I was the coach of a little team near to Florence. Antella in the south part of Florence, very close to the training ground of Fiorentina.”
It shows how far Sarri has come since those days that he and Ranieri (at Fiorentina, above) will now lock horns in the Premier League.
And Sarri was in a position to return the favour recently and welcome his countryman to Chelsea’s training ground.
Sarri said: “I spoke with him for three days around a month or so ago. He came to Cobham to see two, three training sessions. He wanted to speak with me, with Gianfranco Zola.”
Is he worried that Ranieri will now know some of his managerial secrets?
“But I saw his training 20 years ago,” the Blues boss smiled.
And the Chelsea camp should be armed with information on Ranieri. Sarri’s assistant coach
Zola played under Ranieri for the final three years of his Stamford Bridge career. “Yes, of course I watched that Chelsea,” Sarri said. “Not like now, because 20 years ago, it was more difficult to watch the Premier League in Italy. “Now it’s very easy. With television, you can see every match of the Premier League in Italy. Twenty years ago, you were able to see no more than one match a week.”
On what he now expects from Ranieri’s side in tomorrow’s west London derby, Sarri added: “Usually a team of Claudio’s is really very solid. “They usually defend very well, sometimes low, but very well. “Usually he has a team dangerous at counterattacks, like in Leicester, but not only in Leicester.” GARETH SOUTHGATE could get a nightmare clash with relegated Germany in the Euro 2020 qualifying draw this weekend.
Three Lions boss Southgate will be at tomorrow’s draw in Dublin when England will discover their opponents in a fivestrong qualifying group.
They could end up facing Germany, who have been left among the second seeds after a disappointing Nations League campaign that saw them relegated from their group.
A potential group of death for England could be: England, Germany, Serbia, Romania, Macedonia.
That would be the worst possible outcome for England in the new-look qualifying set-up which is designed to run in tandem with next summer’s Nations League finale.
England are one of 55 teams in tomorrow’s draw which will be divided into 10 Groups – five of five teams and five of six.
The four winners of Nations League A – England, Portugal, Holland and Switzerland – will go into groups A-D for qualifying, which guarantees them a five-team group and so an empty week in an international break in which to contest the eagerlyawaited Nations League finals next June.
The draw for those finals in Portugal will be made on Monday morning.
Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Poland
Germany, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, Ukraine*, Denmark*, Sweden*, Russia, Austria, Wales, Czech Republic
Slovakia, Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland*, Norway, Serbia, Finland*, Bulgaria, Israel
Hungary, Romania, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Georgia
FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Belarus, Luxembourg, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Gibraltar, Faroe Islands
POT 6: Latvia, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Malta, San Marino