Claudio Ranieri

“All the time, I said to my players, 'I don't care about the name on the badge or the name of the opponents.'”

“Thinking of the dismissal by Leicester, the first thing that comes to mind is a sense of surprise even more than of bitterness.”

“When we won the title, I received gifts and cards, bottles of wine, and Champagne. When I was sacked, my house was full.”

“If I am angry, I am angry. If I am angry, then I have to be calm, and to be calm, I have to tell you to your face what I think about you. If we don't agree, then okay, 'Bye!' It's no problem...”

“With Chelsea, the job was this: move up to the top, get into Europe. And I did that - fourth place in the Premier League and then into the Champions League, the season before Abramovich and...”

“When you play in the Champions League, you are switched on - very, very smart and focused on every situation.”

“You use up a lot of mental energy in the Champions League.”

“Wherever I go, the club is never to stay on the same square on the board: they have to move up. I don't know if it's coincidence, some calling, or destiny - but whatever it is, it's the stor...”

“I love the English spirit because when I was a player, I was an Englishman: I was fighting, and you had to kill me if you wanted to win.”

“I am a lucky man because when I was young, I wanted to be a footballer. Suddenly, around 30 years old, I thought, 'I want to try to be a manager because it's different.'”

“I try to forget the past.”

“If you are a gladiator, a fighter in this sport, in life you can be the same.”

“My wife is the expert, but I like art particularly. I like Van Gogh.”

“Over the years I've learned that, to be a good manager, you need to have passion, and you need to have a strong character. Without those things, the job is very, very difficult.”

“It is with passion that I love my job. But it is with character that I am able to keep looking forward. Not just beyond criticism or bad results, but also beyond the good moments, too. Every...”

“I'll admit I was curious about coaching a national team, but my experience with Greece was sufficient.”

“I never hitched my wagon to anyone, so what I achieved over the years was done with only my results on the field.”

“I want to buy pizza, but my players don't want pizza; maybe they don't love pizza. Because I said when we make a clean sheet, I will buy everybody a pizza. Maybe they wait until I say, 'Okay...”

“In London, you can eat your way around the world - Lebanese one night, Indian the next.”

“I started coaching in the Interregionale league in Catanzaro. There were pitches with no grass; at times, we had no water, no training equipment. I had to do it all myself.”