Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 7y

Gianfranco Zola planning year out of football after Birmingham exit

Gianfranco Zola says he is going to take a year out of football after a disappointing spell as manager of Birmingham City left him feeling "empty."

Zola lasted four months in charge of the Championship club before stepping down with just two wins from 24 matches leaving them battling relegation zone.

It was an experience he told La Gazzetta dello Sport had taken everything out of him, and now he needs time to recover.

"It was a big opportunity at a club with high expectations," the 50-year-old said. "But almost nothing worked, and I put my head on the line right to the very end. With Gigi [Casiraghi], we tried changing everything, from the tactics to the players. The technical and tactical work was good, but it wasn't suited well to the group of players we had.

"It was five really hard months and I came away from it feeling empty. Now I intend to take one year out. I've received three or four interesting offers, but I'm taking a break. I need to catch up on a lot of things which I had neglected for so long."

While things did not work out for Zola at Birmingham, they did for another Italian, with Antonio Conte winning the Premier League title with Chelsea.

"Antonio was phenomenal and courageous," Zola, a former Chelsea player, said. "It started with his tactics, when he went from 4-2-4 to 3-4-3. It was a choice which, knowing the players he had, could have proven to be a difficult one, yet it was a winning one.

"He transformed them physically. Chelsea ran more and better than everybody else, then he invented [Cesar] Azpilicueta as a central defender, and that was genius. Pedro was extraordinary, while [N'Golo] Kante and [Eden] Hazard were exceptional."

Zola also praised Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri, who he says is ready to coach a top European club outside Italy, and Vincenzo Montella for leading AC Milan into the Europa League, but it was Napoli who really caught his eye last season.

"They need very little to aim for the Scudetto," he said. "I would have loved to have played in this Napoli side. [Maurizio] Sarri has some diamonds up front."

One of those is Lorenzo Insigne, who has been linked with a move to Chelsea, despite only recently committing his future to the Azzurri by signing a new contract.

"I'd give him 10 out of 10," Zola said. "He can play in any of the top five teams in the world."

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