Chiellini says players have to take shower after talking to Sarri cause of smoke

Giorgio Chiellini reveals Juventus players learned they ‘need a shower after talking’ to coach Maurizio Sarri. ‘Otherwise we’d stink of smoke.’

The former Napoli and Chelsea boss is legendary for his chain-smoking habit and it seems that even a bout of pneumonia wasn’t enough to stop him.

“He’s got a very closed-off personality, doesn’t let much slip, even if Juventus managed to whittle down some of his sharper edges,” writes Chiellini in his autobiography.

“The one thing nobody has been able to change is his outlandish attachment to cigarettes. You can only go and talk to him in his office before a shower, still wearing your playing kit, because otherwise we’d stink of smoke.”

Sarri’s tactics haven’t quite taken root at Juventus yet, a far cry from Antonio Conte and Max Allegri approaches.

“He is always seeking perfection, for example 100 per cent possession in the opposition half. It’s utopia, of course, but perhaps that pursuit is what allowed him to work his way up from the bottom to where he is now.”