Ranieri not missing Mourinho

Roma coach Claudio Ranieri admitted he’s happy to see the back of Jose Mourinho as his side prepared to face the team his nemesis recently left in the Italian Supercup on Saturday.

Ranieri’s Roma finished runners-up to Mourinho’s Inter Milan in both the league and cup last season, while Ranieri was also the Juventus coach for all but the final two games of the previous season, in which the Old Lady of Turin finished second to Inter in Serie A.

Ranieri also preceded Mourinho at Chelsea and the Italian was a frequent recipient of the Portuguese’s jibes over how much more he won in west London than the man he replaced.

“Everyone is asking me this but I think you miss him more than I do,” Ranieri told reporters.

“It’s the teams that play on the pitch, I would say that I don’t miss him.”

Inter are now coached by Rafael Benitez, who moved in after Mourinho left for Real Madrid, and the former Liverpool boss will have the opportunity to clinch a trophy on his debut on the nerazzurri bench.

Ranieri and Benitez know each other well from their days working in Spain, when Benitez took over from Ranieri at Valencia.

“I’ve been up against him only in Spain while he was an emerging, young coach at Extremadura and I was at Valencia; we lost away and drew in Valencia,” said Ranieri.

“We’ve known each other for a long time, I have a lot of respect for him, he has great experience and is a great coach.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s match in Milan, Ranieri admitted his team were the underdogs.

“Inter are always favourites but it’s a one-off game and it’s all to play for, we’ll give our all and play with pride,” he said.

“We respect Inter but we have many fans following us and we’ll try to play our game.”