Spezia coach Luca Gotti was Maurizio Sarri’s assistant manager at Chelsea and reveals Jose Mourinho ‘wanted to batter down the door’ of the locker room during that touchline row with Manchester United staff.
Gotti is now a coach in his own right at Serie A side Spezia, but for many years he was assistant manager to various figures, including Sarri at Stamford Bridge in the 2018-19 campaign.
“We had some highs and lows in the Premier League, but also won the Europa League. In the locker room, Pedro was celebrating his 25th trophy or something and I was looking at my first medal, as happy as a child,” Gotti told Sky Sport Italia.
It was also the first piece of silverware earned by Sarri, who would go on to win the Scudetto with Juventus a year later.
“If I had to compare the referees in England and Italy, I would say they were frankly worse in terms of quality in England, but they are able to work in a context that allows them to make the game move more smoothly than in Italy, both for those on the field and for the spectators.
“It goes without saying, you need to have a certain pace and stamina to play in that league.”
There was a famous touchline clash during the match between Chelsea and Manchester United, when Sarri’s collaborator ran straight past Mourinho’s bench to celebrate in his face.
The Special One was absolutely furious and had to be restrained by stewards from physically attacking the Chelsea staff, but Gotti reveals just how bad things got away from the cameras.
“I saw Marco Ianni had this idea to run right in front of Mourinho the first time, it didn’t have an effect, so he went back and did it a second time. I read the situation better than anyone, because I saw it.
“I was the first when we got back into the locker room to stop Marco and prepare him for what was about to happen, because I saw it and asked what was that about.
“Mourinho was extremely angry, he wanted to batter down the door and stood outside our locker room for several minutes banging on the door.
“We managed to get everyone sat down and calmed down, Marco quite rightly apologised. It was helped by the fact there were some mutual friends, as Mourinho had worked at Chelsea for a long time.”
Marco Ianni continues to work with Sarri, as he is currently an assistant at Lazio and had also followed him to Juventus in 2019-20.
The rivalry carries on too, because Mourinho is the coach of Lazio’s city rivals Roma.