Maurizio Sarri is gambling his future by cozying up to Chelsea’s fickle stars

Maurizio Sarri may hope he can buy himself some time by wooing his players’ loyalties and affection. He will eventually learn that for some Chelsea players, loyalty is never owned – only leased.

Aurelio de Laurentiis sounds like a pretty unpleasant person to work for. But he at least keeps the rule of survival simple: look out for number one. Things are much more complicated at Chelsea, where Maurizio Sarri’s predecessors had to look out for No. 1, 19, 22, 30 and a few others.

Sarri blundered in several respects by naming Willian the captain against PAOK. Promoting Willian within the team structure is not a Blue version of the Prodigal Son. It is a white-washing of everything that has happened over the last six months, a nod of fealty to player power and a poor message about priorities within the team.

Willian’s only claim to the armband was longevity. He has been at Chelsea longer than any other player in Thursday’s starting XI. N’Golo Kante, though, is a far more diligent professional and ideal representative of the club, the Premier League, the sport of football, hell, all of humanity. Jorginho is Sarri’s most trusted lieutenant, the de facto leader on the pitch and practically an assistant coach from his spot in front of the centre-backs. Pedro is slightly older than Willian and has a more impressive CV given his time at Barcelona before coming to London. Any of those three would have been a more appropriate and more effective captain.

In addition to his obligations to his players, Sarri also has an obligation to his peers in the coaching and managerial profession. Willian disrespected and contributed to the sacking of the man who until recently held Sarri’s job. That should bother Sarri, not just out of professional identification with Antonio Conte but also out of a self-preservative sense of “there but for the grace of God or Willian or Roman Abramovich go I.”

We have a name for managers who are dismissive to the plight of the predecessors and peers. That name is Jose Mourinho.

If Sarri’s intent was to reinforce Willian’s return from the cold, he is going too far and making the road too easy. The same goes for David Luiz.

Gary Cahill opened up to the Mirror about his future, all but laying down his sword in his battle for a place at Stamford Bridge. Gary Cahill, like his mentor, is the consummate servant of Chelsea FC. Whatever negative thoughts or misgivings he has had about any of his previous coaches, he kept them private. Even facing the difficult decision of having to leave Chelsea, he did not say a single word with even a whiff of disrespect towards Maurizio Sarri.

Luiz, on the other hand, eggs on Willian and contributes some snottiness of his own. They form the most powerful clique in Chelsea’s locker room, one that wields control divorced from contributions to the club on or off the pitch. The Blues probably do not need two 30-something centre-backs. They may not even need one. But if they are to have one, Maurizio Sarri is choosing poorly, and he will eventually pay the price for it.

Times are good at Stamford Bridge, with six wins out of six. Maurizio Sarri’s kinder-gentler-warmer approach to man-management is earning him some early friends among players who recently had their bags packed and one foot out the door. Sarri should learn, though, that more often than not it’s the coach who leaves, not the players. Good times never last long, and many of those six wins gave strong clues about how more effective opposition will start adding to Chelsea’s loss column.

When that happens Sarri will have to make some important decisions. He may have to bench some players to make room for new tactics and new ideas. He may have to confront head on the short-comings of his current XI. Sarri may have to spend more time in training working on defensive discipline than fun passing scenarios. He may have to ask players to play out of position. And after all that, the Blues could still find themselves struggling in quicksand.

Maurizio Sarri will then find out he never really took ownership of his players. He simply leased their loyalty and affection, and they wrote the terms of the lease and have no qualms about immediately retracting all their good tidings. He will then have to wonder if he should have looked past short-term alliances to build real relationships with players who know the value of a club and the meaning of a team.

The players who will turn on him would have turned on him eventually, and the players who stand by him will stand by him anyway. He will have simply put on display how little he learned from his predecessors’ plights, and denied leadership and footballing opportunities to the players who deserved them most. And the Chelsea cycle will go on and on and on again.