Walter Mazzarri is among the names rumoured to replace Garry Monk on Swansea's bench.
The Italian manager is in competition with Marcelo Bielsa and Unai Emery; more far away Gus Poyet, who until two days ago seemed to be one of the favorites, but AEK's ownership doesn't want to let him go in the middle of the season.
Mazzarri, born in 1961, has worked, in the last seasons, with Sampdoria for two years, leading the blucerchiati to the qualification of the Europa League, with Napoli for four seasons, winning one Coppa Italia, the first trophy since Diego Maradona's era. In the season 2013-14 he was the manager of Inter, succeeding Andrea Stramaccioni, and ending in 5th place. In 2014-15 he was fired after 11 matches.
Now he's living in England, in Manchester with a family, as a lot of Italian guys and students do, in order to improve his English: this could be more than a clue what his intention is, one way or another, to work himself into the Premier League.
And maybe Swansea could be his aspired chance. But is his English good enough or does he need to study more, before approaching the Premier League? I was joking, of course.
I asked Walter to comment on the rumors about his name linked to Swansea: "Thank you for your interest, but I have nothing to say about it".
That in football could sound like an admission of something going on...
RANIERI ALREADY WRITING HISTORY FOR FOXES
I, Claudius. A romance by Robert Graves, published in 1934, could be the more suitable title of what's happening in the Premier League: because, apart from the unexpected explosion of Jamie Vardy, apart from Riyad Mahrez and his incredible performances, the main inspiration of what's happening with Leicester is, without any doubt, the Italian manager Claudio Ranieri.
As the emperor eponymous, he is ruling his troops, battle after battle, to conquer the land of the Vallum: I don't know if Ranieri will be able to lead his guys to the prestigious title; but I'm sure that he is writing one of the most wonderful pages of football, one of those pages that nowadays are, sadly, less and less easy to write.
COLE CLOSER TO ASTON VILLA
Last word about Ashley Cole and what I wrote about him last week: he is closer and closer to becoming a Villan. Will he be able to become a professional football player again?
