Chelsea are letting Maurizio Sarri call the shots regarding the disproportionate fallout from his assistant’s celebrations after Ross Barkley’s equalizer on Saturday, and the head coach is ready to accept the FA’s charges, though he hopes for reasonable punishment — Ianni has until 6pm today to submit his official response to the charge of “improper conduct”.
“For the FA I don’t know, I haven’t experienced that here. I don’t know the consequences, but we were wrong so we have to accept the consequences.”
“If I want to give him another opportunity, the opportunity will be a full opportunity. But I don’t know. I want to respect the decision of the FA and then we will decide [about internal discipline].”
Maurizio Sarri; source: Guardian
Sarri may not know exactly what punishment he may hand down to his assistant, but he certainly knows what it’s like to be in Ianni’s situation.
Sarri let his emotions get the better of him in an incident against Roberto Mancini back in January 2016, and also a year earlier when he took referees into his crosshairs. Just a few months before his Chelsea appointment, he was apologizing again, this time for sexist remarks. He’s vowed to learn from these “mistakes” and has only asked that people in England look at him with an open mind, and let him prove his true nature. In his brief time at Chelsea, his behavior has been nothing short of exemplary, making friends with everyone and creating a fun atmosphere of football around the club. We’ve seen none of his supposed bad temper, at least not in public. He’s the first to shake hands and, as over the weekend, the first to apologize.
Now he’s only asking for a similar second chance to be afford to Ianni as well.
“As I said after the match, we were wrong. I was there when Marco spoke to Jose Mourinho and he said sorry immediately. It was very important that he realised he was wrong. So I want to give him another opportunity because I know that he was really sorry and he realised it was a mistake.
“Everybody can make a mistake but you need to learn from a mistake. I think now as a man I am better than when I was 35. Otherwise I would be stupid. If I am not able to learn from my mistakes, I am stupid. I think he will be able to do it. I know him very well, so I am sure.”
-Maurizio Sarri; source: Telegraph
Mourinho, who’s managed to spin this completely in his favor by effectively steering the conversation away from his own reaction, has already accepted both Sarri’s and Ianni’s apologies. He’s ready to move on and doesn’t think anything too bad should happen to anyone involved, categorically disagreeing with any suggestions that Ianni should be sacked over this bit of silliness.
Maurizio Sarri and Jose Mourinho may not agree on a lot, but that’s one thing they do see eye-to-eye on, Whatever Marco Ianni did on Saturday to provoke the Manchester United manager is over and done with. He should keep his job.
Normally this would be one of those entertaining storm-in-a-teacup moments in a Premier League season, akin to Mourinho flipping Arsene Wenger’s tie in 2014. But when both managers talk about the possibility that a young coach could lose his job over the incident, the stakes get a little higher. Hopefully the reasonable voices of those closest to the incident will prevail in the end, and Ianni gets his mulligan and second chance to continue his career at one of the best clubs in the world.