How much will Chelsea throw away over Maurizio Sarri’s dependencies?

Chelsea have at least seven players who could be part of a strong Premier League XI, and 15 players who could round out the 23-man squad. Yet they are willing to throw away this core of the team and the character of the club for a man unwilling to sign on any terms but his own and who has won… nothing.

Juventus’ £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo sets in motion a series of events that will likely impact Chelsea directly. Even with Fiat’s help, Juventus will need to sell several players to afford Ronaldo while staying compliant with Financial Fair Play and covering any other purchases in 2018/19. Daniele Rugani is poised over the chopping block, with Chelsea a possible destination.

Rugani would end Kurt Zouma’s time at Chelsea, and would strangle Andreas Christensen’s development. Think about it: Andreas Christensen, the first Academy player to become a first-team regular since John Terry. He even plays the same position as JT. The player who was the sole payoff for the dozens (hundreds?) of seemingly haphazard loans Michael Emenalo executed for developing players. A young man fresh off a vital role for his nation in the World Cup despite being the second-youngest player on the team. This is who Chelsea are willing to squeeze out over their pursuit of Maurizio Sarri.

Farcically, cynically, incredulously, the other player in a similar position is Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Loftus-Cheek’s association with Chelsea runs even deeper than Christensen’s. He was the next John Terry before Christensen. Until last season, his promise was such that he avoided the loan army. But if Sarri is successful in convincing his prospective employer to do his precise bidding as a precondition of signing, Jorginho will squeeze out Loftus-Cheek.

The only saving grace in the whole matter is Jean-Michael Seri transferring to Fulham. Had Chelsea “succeeded” in the early plan of signing both Seri and Jorginho, Loftus-Cheek would be with Zouma in the “no hope, you’re gone” category.

If Maurizio Sarri needs these players simply to get started, and Chelsea are willing to make these concessions, where will this end if Sarri ever actually takes the job? What else will Chelsea do to mollify a man with a trophy case as empty as the one at Tottenham Hotspur? Are captains Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta next out the door? Will the Blues take a loss on Alvaro Morata in favour of Gonzalo Higuain? Could he demand a box-to-box midfielder who “gets forward better” (as the banter goes) than N’Golo Kante?

Chelsea are operating without a limiting principle on meeting Sarri’s demands. They are certainly not protecting their interests in their players. Two academy players took premature moves to lower-level teams already this summer. Good for them. If going the way of Loftus-Cheek and Christensen is their future, better they set their own way. But that only means the Panzo and St. Clair way will be in many more youngsters’ futures.

The club are operating without any principles at all. Their only motivation is single-track pragmatism: What do we have to do to hire this one person?

And yet this one person has so little to offer in return. Chelsea are caving to these demands because Maurizio Sarri is unable to coach a team that is not build around the core of Empoli circa 2014. He is dependent on these players, as his time at Napoli confirmed. And yet even with them he has not won a domestic title, a domestic cup nor made significant progress in the Champions League or Europa League.

Jose Mourinho has his favourites, and is jeered and resented for it. But he at least leaves a trail of trophies along his trail of destruction. Sarri, on the other hand, has his security blankets. Whatever they offer him, they do not produce what Chelsea wants most. Yet Chelsea are willing to sacrifice their past and their future for him.

Chelsea are doing for Sarri what Manchester City did for Pep Guardiola and Liverpool did for Jurgen Klopp. But Chelsea are doing it on a much-compressed time scale, and Sarri is certainly no Guardiola. He is not even a Klopp. City laid the groundwork for one of the greatest coaches in football history. Guardiola brought everything he accomplished at Barcelona and Bayern Munich to Manchester. Klopp came to Liverpool with two Bundesliga titles, three domestic cups and a Champions League final.

It can hardly be said enough: Sarri has no such CV.

If not for the acrimony between Sarri and Napoli chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis, you would think Sarri was de Laurentiis’ sock puppet. Only the Napoli chief can manipulate Chelsea so thoroughly, so humiliatingly, with so little pushback or reciprocation.

For all we know, Sarri could go on to be the greatest coach in Chelsea history. That is not the point. Chelsea are giving him everything on spec, offering him the greatest advance on promised performance one could imagine.

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If he achieves anything less than his predecessors, he will leave Chelsea in a worse condition than those predecessors did. They at least left the team in pieces. Few pieces could remain for the club to put back together at this rate. Trust and identity? If there are any now, Chelsea are working hard to erase them.

Hope it’s worth it.