<
>

Francesco Guidolin: I did not expect Swansea players to know who I am

New Swansea City manager Francesco Guidolin says Ashley Williams did the right thing by searching his name on Google as he admits it is a "dream come true" to work in the Premier League.

Williams admitted that he had needed to perform an Internet search to find out who his club had just appointed as their new manager, with few aware of who the former Palermo and Udinese coach is.

Guidolin guided Udinese to their best ever Serie A finish and almost into the Champions League group stage twice, although his reputation had not reached England before he was named Swansea's new coach.

But Guidolin is not concerned, saying: "I'm definitely not the most famous manager around, but I wanted to realise this dream that I had; I wanted this opportunity.

"I had thought about it and hoped it would happen, but it was never going to be easy -- it's the best league in the world and there are only 20 clubs, so 20 benches to sit on, and now it has arrived and here I am.

"I never want to have regrets in the future, when I'm no longer coaching, and I hope that when that time comes, I will be able to say that I did a good job even here.

"[Williams] was just being honest and I like it when people are sincere. But this is what I expected. I am sure that when all of the team heard that a certain Francesco Guidolin was coming from Italy, they all said 'who?', but that's normal."

Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, Guidolin said that plenty of clubs had approached him since he stepped down as Udinese coach in 2014 and took on a role as technical supervisor of the Italian club and the other two clubs owned by the Pozzo family -- Granada and Watford.

Contrary to reports, AC Milan "were not one of them," according to Guidolin, who was waiting for the right offer to come along, and that came from Swansea.