How Rino Gattuso is taking over Lazio after Italy disaster

"With pain in my heart, having failed to achieve the target we set ourselves, I am bringing an end to my experience". Those were the words of Gennaro Gattuso on the day he resigned as coach of the Italian national team.

Under his charge, the Azzurri had failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row. By all accounts, the reign was a disaster.

And, if we are honest with ourselves, we thought it'd be the same at Lazio, especially when his side crashed out to Mantova in the Coppa Italia. The odds, it seemed, were stacked against him.

From Greece to Spain, France to Croatia, Gattuso's time in the dugout has been sketchy at best. He usually comes in, expels a lot of hot air, and leaves.

What's more, he joined a club that was seemingly in the doldrums. Maurizio Sarri huffed and puffed his way out of Rome last season; what more could he have done with a squad so limited, a transfer budget so non-existent?

Quite a bit, as Gattuso is now proving. Had Piotr Zielinski not lashed in a last minute winner against Fiorentina on Sunday, the Biancocelesti would be sitting top of the table.

Even with that, they still sit level on points with the league leaders. They have the best defence in the league, and that's after they've sold Mario Gila.

But the real question, the one they're slowly starting to ask at the Olimpico, is how far can they go? Very, if the likes of Nuno Tavares, Kenneth Taylor and Josip Šutalo can keep it up.

All three have been tremendous, linchpins of a revival that has every chance of snaring their side a Champions League place. Tavares in particular has no ceiling.