Will Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri actually want to stay this summer?

ALAN SMITH COLUMN
Uncertain future: Maurizio Sarri
REUTERS
Alan Smith12 April 2019

There has been so much talk lately about Maurizio Sarri’s future, about whether he’ll still be the Chelsea manager come the start of next season. The fans, after all, haven’t always been convinced. And if the club fail to make the top four, or qualify for the Champions League by winning the Europa League, the Stamford Bridge powerbrokers could easily opt for change.

But there is one other point to consider, one that hasn’t received much of an airing. Never mind getting the sack, will Sarri actually want to stay for another campaign given the challenges in his way?

For a start, it looks fairly certain that Eden Hazard will be off. With Real Madrid poised to make a huge offer, the Belgian would appear to have made up his mind. With a couple of Premier League titles to his name, Hazard has done more than his bit for the club.

At 28, he understandably fancies a move to the Spanish capital, knowing this kind of opportunity might not come around again. So if that transfer does go through, Sarri has somehow got to find a way of moving forward. No one’s indispensable and that has been proved on many occasions. But you look at Chelsea’s attacking threat in recent times and the heavy reliance on Hazard is there for all to see.

In seeking replacements, it would be unfair to expect Callum Hudson-Odoi to step up next season. As talented as he is, the teenager will experience ups and downs as he learns the ropes at the highest level. As for Christian Pulisic, signed in January but immediately loaned back to Borussia Dortmund, who knows how he will adapt to the Premier League.

Chelsea must hope the United States international hits the ground running, seeing as they cannot make any signings in the next two transfer windows. Unless, that is, their appeal proves successful.

But Sarri cannot be hanging his hat on that outcome. Assuming he stays, he has got to plan for a season with the existing squad minus his star man in all likelihood. That’s quite a task if the remit from the top is to get back with the big boys.

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That’s why I wonder about Sarri’s mindset. Yes, he’s getting paid extremely well but if another job came up, back in Italy perhaps, it isn’t out of the question that he’d try to engineer his exit from a club that for the next couple of years might find themselves swimming against the tide.

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