Maurizio Sarri has held his first Chelsea press conference. The key takeaway is that F stands for fun and it is at the heart of everything.
Maurizio Sarri just wants to have fun. At least, that seems to be the main takeaway from his press conference. Just as Antonio Conte leaned on “work” and “suffer”, Sarri leans on fun.
It is at the heart of nearly everything. Sarri wants to have fun in training. He wants to have fun on the pitch. Sarri wants to see the player have fun in training and the pitch as well. If everyone is having fun the rest will follow.
The rest of his first press conference was mostly done through that window. What he is promising the Chelsea faithful is an entertaining style of football. He hopes that the fun that breeds can lead to something special.
Sarri’s attitude is admirable. And he is on a particularly interesting train of thought. Reality is a bit different though, especially at Chelsea.
Do not forget, Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte were once fun. The first half of the 2014/2015 season and the winning streak in 2016/2017 were two of Chelsea’s most entertaining periods. They crushed all in their path and fans loved it.
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But that good will fell apart after those moments. Mourinho shut up shop after a loss to Tottenham Hotspur and then the next season it all fell apart. Conte’s side had to rely on individuals at the end of the season and then wilted in 2017/2018 when faced with adversity.
Sarri’s entertaining brand of football will likely not collapse in the same way. Attacking football like Sarri advocates gifts a longer leash when things turn sour. But eventually, something has to come of it.
That is why it is nice that Sarri is aware of his lack of trophies. He stressed that by March or April, Chelsea should still be in contention for all competitions. And, he recognized that despite setting records yearly at Napoli, he did not win anything. At Chelsea, he hopes to close the gap between entertainment and victory.
On less fun subjects, Sarri held himself well. He did not shy away from his past controversies and openly confronted them. His actions, as he said, will need to show the same, but it was nice to see him address them all the shame.
And one controversy he is set to avoid is the one Conte fell into time and time again; the transfer market. Sarri acknowledged that the club lacks “a pinch of quality” in some areas, but stressed that it was his job as a coach to make players better. Not to dip into the market to make the squad better. That could bode well for some of the fringe and youth players at Chelsea who feel as though they have to constantly overcome new road blocks to the first team.
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Sarri’s first press conference was never going to offer any shocks. All it was ever going to do was reintroduce concepts he had already had in Italy. What should be refreshing to Chelsea fans is that Sarri is eager to please and ready to face the daunting challenge ahead of him. He is well aware of the realities surrounding the club and he is ready to reach great heights with Chelsea. Patience will be required, of course, and it may not always be winning football. But Sarri can at least promise it will be fun.