Chelsea And Roma Boss’ Go Head-To-Head Early?

 Luis Felipe Scolari and Luciano Spalletti will go head-to-head next month when Chelsea face Roma in the Champions League although have had time to practice some verbal pin-pong ahead of that recently.

During the EUFA Champions League manager’s forum recently, the two managers weighed each other up – although sadly for the press, gave them very little to go on. Not that it started like that though, because whilst Spalletti wished Chelsea “Good luck”, the Chelsea manager returned the compliment by stating “Arrivederci Roma.”

However, Scolari was of course joking, and actually went on to say “Roma are a team to be feared and Spalletti is an excellent coach. I know Spalletti well and we are good friends. I like talking with him because he has humility amongst many other qualities. I have seen Roma play and you can tell the coach has interesting ideas and I believe they will go far.”

I for one, would have to agree with Scolari. Spalletti is an up-and-coming manager who would certainly have been a choice I’d have been happy with to take over our own hotseat in the wake of Grant’s departure. If a club needs taking by the balls and shaking up a little, Spalletti’s the man. He has an impressive record to date and since taking over at Roma, has favoured a much more attacking style of football. 

Anyway, back to the verbal exchange and Spalletti’s response gave the press even less to get their teeth into as the niceties continued. Of the Chelsea boss, Spalletti says “Scolari is a great man. He has won everything and when you speak to him about football you always learn something new.Chelsea are a great team and we have to work hard from now until October 22nd in order to go there and face them. Scolari’s team can be intimidating but we will go there with courage and the will to do well.”