All is not well at Lazio Rome—especially for coach Maurizio Sarri. The man who made a special return to the Biancocelesti has given free rein to his frustration and surprised everyone with a statement about a newly signed player.
At the beginning of March 2024, Maurizio Sarri had already left Lazio once – at that time after being eliminated from the Champions League by FC Bayern Munich (0-3 after 1-0 in the round of 16).
Then, in the summer of 2025, came the turnaround: Sarri signed with the Romans for the second time. The goal: to lead the proud capital club back into international competition. At the end of the first half of the season on Wednesday evening, the Biancocelesti are a long way from achieving this goal after a 2-2 draw against bottom-of-the-table Fiorentina – 9th place with only 25 points means they are eight points behind 6th place (Como).
Sarri is “pretty annoyed”
Sarri took this as an opportunity to vent his frustration in the middle of the winter transfer window. He took issue with various things, starting with the refereeing team, including VAR and referee Simone Sozza.
The coach was not at all happy with various decisions against a penalty that was not given and in favor of a Fiorentina penalty shortly before the end of regular time. He finally explained this to DAZN: “To be honest, the boys are a little frustrated—and I’m also pretty annoyed. I thought I had seen everything in soccer at my age.” But he hasn’t, and there’s nothing that can be done about it.
His conclusion on the matter: “We can only exert limited influence, so there’s no point wasting our energy on it.”
The 66-year-old, who recently underwent heart surgery, wasn’t done with his topics yet, though. Next in line: his employer’s transfer policy.
Castellanos and Guendouzi gone – and Ratkov, unknown to Sarri, in
The latter had finally sold attacking artist Valentin “Taty” Castellanos to West Ham United for almost €30 million and, as expected, had now also let Matteo Guendouzi move to Fenerbahce. Domenico Tedesco’s team is paying at least €25 million for the former Hertha player.
“To be honest, I really thought that Guendouzi would be one of the seven or eight players with whom we could shape the future of Lazio,” Sarri said on the matter. “We are a club that cannot offer the same salaries as other clubs, so I understand the difficulties.” However, he finds it difficult to do his job under such circumstances. The Neapolitan, who has been working as a coach for many decades, is not (yet) thinking of giving up and leaving Lazio again: “I said at the start of the season that I would stay here under any circumstances and accept everything. Well, I’ve had to endure more than I expected so far.”
Sarri continued: “The only thing that really hurts me is that we have such great fans. I think it will be very difficult to make them happy—and that weighs heavily on me. But I gave them my word—and who knows…the transfer window is still open.”
In addition, the Romans have already reached an agreement with striker Petar Ratkov from RB Salzburg, even though the deal has not yet been officially announced. Sarri, at any rate, knows nothing about the 22-year-old from Belgrade, who has long been in Rome, even though the club bosses signed him for €13 million (nine goals in 17 league games) and presented him as a winter transfer with a club scarf in his hands (“Petar is here”).
The Lazio coach said: “I don’t know this player. Probably the other people who work at this club know him better than I do. But to be honest, I don’t know what to say about him. I haven’t watched Austrian soccer, I don’t have time for that.” However, he will make the effort to “explore his strengths and weaknesses and find out how we can best integrate him.”