Crawley Town to Udinese isn't the most well-trodden path in football.
But as Gabriele Cioffi readily admits, he isn't the most conventional coach when it comes to taking job opportunities. The Italian was a shock arrival as boss of League Two Crawley back in September 2018. His only previous experience of English football was working as Gianfranco Zola's assistant at Birmingham City.
He spent 15 months in charge of the West Sussex side, helping them avoid relegation and sealing a famous EFL Cup win over Norwich - but not many could have predicted his next role. After landing the plum job of assistant to Luca Gotti at Udinese, the 46-year-old was promoted to caretaker boss in December when Gotti was axed.
It is a remarkable change in fortunes from being boss of a fourth tier English side to leading a team in Serie A. In a revealing interview with the Observer, Cioffi reacts honestly when quizzed on how he made such a transition: “By luck!” he says. “This is my answer. But I’m convinced that luck is essentially the result of a piece of addition: opportunity plus preparation.”
Cioffi has enjoyed a nomadic coaching life, working in his native Italy as well as Australia and the United Arab Emirates. His willingness to take on new challenges led to him accepting the challenge as Crawley's new boss.
Picking up the story, he says: “I received a phone call from Erdem Konyar, who was the CEO at Crawley. He offered me the challenge to manage the club. In the moment I was saying: ‘No, come on, League Two?’ And then I met him, he has a strong personality, he has clear ideas, he has got a clear identity of what he wants from the club. And I said: ‘OK, let’s take a chance.’
“Here, at Udinese, I work with 200 people. There (At Crawley) we were working with seven, eight. But the passion and the enthusiasm that these people have is amazing. It was an honour for me to work with them. To know them not just in terms of a secretary or CEO. But as people. As human beings.
"When I received the phone call from the CEO telling me that we have to break up, I was really sad. I had a feeling of shock. I didn’t fly back from the UK to Italy immediately. I waited two weeks, saying: ‘Maybe there is a misunderstanding, something wrong. It’s not impossible.’”
Cioffi's impact with Udinese has been solid if not spectacular, winning four of his 14 games in charge, drawing another six, and he has been confirmed as being in the post until the end of the season at least, with the club currently in 14th place. His next ambition is to become a permanent manager in his native top flight. He adds: “My next ambition is to be a real coach in Serie A. Because so far I just had, 13, 15, I don’t know how many games! My goal is to win games until I decide to keep going with this career."
