Claudo Ranieri has gone nuclear.
The Roma director has escalated his war of words with head coach Gian Piero Gasperini to the point where the Friedkin owners will have to get involved.
Roma beat Pisa 3-0 on Saturday, but still remain Champions League outsiders, a long-held objective for the American owners.
Gasperini has regularly tried to stimulate more of a winning ambition at the club by calling for more transfers despite over €1billion being spent in five years.
Gasperini calls out Ranieri
Before the match Gasperini made a number of criticisms over the running of the club, first saying ‘thirty players have arrived in the last two years but only four or five men’.
He went on to say that signing young players shows a lack of ambition, and commented that re-signing both Donyell Malen and Wesley should be the club’s main ambition before the transfer window begins.
Such comments clearly didn’t please Ranieri, who went in two-footed after the win over Pisa.
Ranieri responds in brutal fashion
“He and I chose the players, there wasn’t one he didn’t approve of or didn’t know would come,” the Premier League legend said.
“All we tried to do was give the coach a team that last year came within one point of the Champions League, with many young players to develop.”
Ranieri then may have taken things a little too far, adding: “We looked at five or six coaches in the summer, but three didn’t come. And in the end, the club decided.”
Gasperini has since tried to play things down, responding: “I left him free to choose the players I didn’t know.
“I asked for two important players, and one arrived.
“We were losing Shomurodov, and I didn’t know we were losing Saelemaekers too.
“For me, it was crucial to work on the attack. I always insisted on the need to invest up front. Unfortunately, it didn’t go that way. Ranieri agreed with me.”
Admitting crisis talks are on the way, he finished: “We’ll see each other next week; there have never been any disagreements with him.”
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