The 2018 World Cup was the highlight of the summer for many football fans, but one man who surprisingly didn't catch any of the action in Russia was Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri.
Sarri revealed that he didn't watch a single match of the tournament, and expressed a general dislike for international football on the whole:
I didn’t see anything in the World Cup.
I didn’t see a match in the World Cup. I don’t like the national team because there isn’t anything to learn. It is a usual position, every coach thinks like me. It is unusual to say it.
It is impossible to organise very well a team in 30 days. Every team in the World Cup will lose against the top level club teams in every match.
The Italian summed up that it is 'very difficult' to have a very organised team in the Euros or World Cup, which is obviously a big sticking point for the tactically minded coach, and even went as far to say that his Chelsea team is at a higher level than the England side that got to the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Not a particularly hot take from the former Napoli coach, but from his quotes it almost feels like he actually has contempt for international football.
The 60-year-old also divulged an interesting superstition pertaining to when he gets his haircut, stating that he will only get his mop chopped after his team lose:
When I lose a match I cut my hair, usually.
Five years I have been doing that. In the last three years in Naples we lost 12 matches in three seasons.
Sarri then joked that he hopes to be able to grow his hair long, like his translator Simonetta, who sometimes accompanies him to press engagements.
He should be so lucky.
