Juventus captain Girogio Chiellini says he has much respect for ex-boss Maurizio Sarri and adds that he can’t be compared with Andrea Pirlo.
Chiellini has nothing but complete respect for ex-Juve boss Maurizio Sarri.
The 61-year-old was given his marching orders after Lyon sent the Bianconeri crashing out of the Champions League.
Rather than appoint an experienced manger as his replacement, Juve made the surprise pick of Andrea Pirlo as head coach.
The rise for the Italian manager came less than a week since he was appointed as the club’s B team manager.
Despite how things turned out, Chiellini says the Juve players gave their best under Sarri while he was at the club.
“Everyone hoped to have a different type of championship and growth but I’m sure and convinced we did our best,” he said as quoted by Football-Italia.
“Sarri is a real person, all sorts of things have come out in recent weeks but on my part there’s great respect for him.”
“And I will not add anything else, also because at this moment he can’t speak. I can only say that I have a lot of respect for him.”
Chiellini also added that it would be wrong to compare the veteran manager with ‘rookie’ Andrea Pirlo.
“For us he’s the coach. If until a few weeks ago, Andrea was Andrea, that’s different. Now, he’s the coach. It’s right to have hierarchies.”
“Because of the different paths and age, it’s not right to compare him to Sarri. If I were to become Juventus coach tomorrow, I wouldn’t know all the basics.”
“But I’ll know all the people I have around me and so does Pirlo. The situations can’t be compared.”
Chiellini and Pirlo have played together at club and national level. A new order of things now awaits as the latter finds himself at the helm of affairs in Turin.
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