Maurizio Sarri made a passionate plea to his Chelsea paymasters as he confirmed his desire to stay in charge of the club.
The Italian, whose future has been the subject of speculation after a roller-coaster first season at Stamford Bridge, looked emotional when asked if he enjoyed his first 12 months and what he’d learned.
“English football of course is different,” he said. “I don’t want to say better or worse, but different.
“The Premier League is wonderful and I want to remain in the Premier League. I want to remain in Chelsea , because the level is very, very high.
“The atmosphere in the stadiums is really fantastic and so it’s a wonderful championship. I’d like to remain here.”
Manchester United predicted line-up vs Chelsea as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer plots changes
Sarri believes Chelsea need another season, maybe two, to close the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool , the clubs battling for the league title.
And after arriving just 22 days before his side kicked off their season with the Community Shield against City, he knows a full pre-season will make a big difference this summer.
He added: “My late arrival was a problem, because we had only two or three weeks for working.
Maurizio Sarri answers whether Chelsea missing Champions League would be failure
“And then, at the end of August, we started to play every three days. In Naples, I was able to have — in every season — about 60 trainings only for the defensive line.
“Here I had about 11 or 12 on the defensive line, so there is a big difference.”
“Probably I needed time to get used to English football. That’s normal.”
