Esteghlal manager Andrea Stramaccioni hits back at Persepolis head coach Gabriel Calderon before Tehran heated derby.
Esteghlal will take on Persepolis in Iran pro league match week 4 and Stramaccioni is searching his first win in the competition.
Calderon has criticized Esteghlal lofty expenditure in the summer and former Inter Milan manager reacted to that.
“First of all I respect Mr Calderon because he is older than me and is famous. But really I don’t understand why he continues to talk about any team except his team.” Italian manager said to reporters.
“Maybe because Persepolis, for sure, are the best team of the league so far with the best value of the players and highest salaries in the league. So I think this is not professional and I don’t know why he spoke about [Cheike] Diabate because I think Calderon was not Persepolis coach when we were trying to buy Diabate. And maybe he should be happy because Diabate will not play tomorrow for sure.”