Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri joked about smoking when asked about a move to Saudi Arabia and admitted that ‘returning to Italy was a mistake’ after his time in the Premier League.
The 64-year-old Italian coach took over at the Biancocelesti two years ago and has impressed at the club, taking them back to the Champions League with a second-place finish last season. The team are now in a strong position in their fight for Round of 16 qualification.
Sarri was heavily linked with a move to Saudi Arabia in the summer but has reiterated in interviews his desire to close out his career with Lazio. His current contract expires with the club in the summer of 2025.
Speaking to La Repubblica, Sarri first gave his thoughts on the packed schedule in modern football.
“I’ve been talking about it for five years, yet they accuse me of just looking for excuses. These days in Spain the world is coming down over Gavi’s injury, they call it the UEFA Virus. I hope someone has the intellectual honesty to recognize that I’ve been saying certain things all my life.”
He explained why he believes English football is the only sustainable system.
“The only sustainable football is English football, the most traditional, where on Saturday afternoons there is no match on TV because people crowd the stadiums of the minor categories.
“The FA Cup final is the most watched match in the world after the Champions League final, yet for a hundred years it has always had the same rituals and is played at Wembley, not in Arabia. Do you want to say something?”
The Italian coach underlined why emotions are important in football.
“There is an attempt not to make the movement fall into globalization. So, they are all rich, while our rich are the poor of Europe. Football is an emotional sport. if you take away the emotion, for television it is certainly not the best show in the world.
“The child who goes to the stadium keeps the emotions alive, but there is no future if they focus on the highlights audience.”
He provided some suggestions to improve football in Italy and Europe.
“Maximum 50 games. We could at least start with the small things, such as giving up summer tours and bringing the Coppa Italia back to August even for the big teams, making them play on the pitches of the Serie C teams, who would then earn money to survive all year.
“But they would certainly tell us that there is a public order problem why Juve cannot go to Campobasso. The Coppa Italia is a clandestine event tailor-made for the television audience of the final rounds. But that’s not football, it’s Bayern losing to a third-tier side.”
Sarri reflected on his times in charge of Napoli and now Lazio.
“If we refer to the years in Napoli, I cannot and must not necessarily play that type of football, even if people always expect the same way of playing from me. Having playmakers is not like having counter-attackers, I have to adapt, Lazio can never be like Napoli.
“Let’s take Immobile: he must attack depth and not play against his best qualities. The other day he asked me: ‘Mister, what should I do to go back to the way I was before?’
“I replied to him: ‘Do what you’ve always done, don’t come towards the ball, keep digging into the opposing defence, playing on them’.”
The coach reiterated his desire to finish his career with Lazio.
“I would like it to be like this. I don’t set time limits, so it’s not just up to me.”
Sarri was asked if he’d consider taking on a job in Saudi Arabia in the future.
“Can you smoke in Arabia? Yes? Then we’ll see. However, it is not something programmable today. If I think about the future, I would like to be the coach of Lazio at the Stadio Flaminio.
“It’s a project that Lotito believes in, even though he obviously wants guarantees, it’s not like everything can be stopped if an amphora turns up while digging.”
He spoke about his time with Juventus and why he shouldn’t have left the Premier League.
“Everything was owed at Juve, and we just had to win the Champions League, but it was a tainted message. I won the league with a group at the end of a cycle and a club that took me on because they had the desire but not the conviction to change their style.
“At Chelsea, I found it difficult to immerse myself in an atypical club, without a sporting director, where no coach could last two years.
“But then in the last few months I had fun, and I was wrong in wanting to leave, not so much from Chelsea, who would have kept me, but from the Premier League, a context of unique beauty. Returning to Italy was a mistake.”
He explained his limited impact in the transfer market.
“I had some ideas, it could have been the year in which to raise the bar, but mine are technical proposals and that’s it, the economic realization is up to the management.”
Sarri weighed in on the Derby della Capitale.
“The derby crushes me. From the outside it seems like an exaggeration, then when you experience it it’s deadly.
“Everything you breathe becomes derby, there is a warehouse worker in a derby atmosphere, there are cooks in a derby atmosphere. The derby ruins your life, but it’s beautiful.”
The coach revealed who he believes will be his successor in football.
“De Zerbi. Yes, we talk sometimes, even if he has never worked with me. After all, I fell in love with football watching Sacchi’s teams, for the sense of order they gave me and which I had never seen before. I met Arrigo much later, but it was he who inspired me.”
Finally, Sarri looked back at his long coaching career.
“I’m very happy because I’ve come a long way. Sarri’s Napoli will be remembered for 30 years.”