Maurizio Sarri, the unclaimed armband, and the new culture at Chelsea

Maurizio Sarri was against the trend of Chelsea managers in recent years. But if he was brought in to change the culture, he is already well on his way.

Chelsea has had two cultures so far under Roman Abramovich’s ownership. The first was started with Jose Mourinho. It was an “us against the world” mentality that pushed the Blues over the line time and time again. That culture persisted even into the second culture.

The second culture was a false start with Andre Villas Boas. He was supposed to come in and revive the club. He failed, which is what created a culture of feeling lesser than others. That was mixed with the previous culture to create an underdog mentality. At times, the Blues overcame it. And others, they fed off of it until they slumped to missing the Champions League.

But regardless, the two cultures brought success at the cost of great mental anguish. It is hard to be the bad guy all the time, just as it is hard to always be the underdog looking to upset. Maurizio Sarri’s hiring signaled a new era in style and in culture. The Blues have not had a manager so focused on the aesthetic or enjoyment of the game for years. And so far, the results of the swap have been intriguing.

First of all is the captaincy. When a team is always the bad guy or the underdog, the armband becomes an important rallying point. As the captain goes, so does the team. John Terry excelled at both because he was never the cleanest or most talented player. But he always fought for every blade of grass and the club responded.

Even Gary Cahill, late in the underdog era, fit the bill. Here was a player who came from Bolton to win the Champions League in the same calendar year. A player who time and time again was dropped from the starting XI only to fight his way back in. Antonio Conte’s choice made a lot of sense in hindsight.

But Sarri does not care about the armband. He has kicked the can down the road over and over until it almost went out of sight. Cesar Azpilicueta has said he wants it, and it will probably be him, but it will not matter to Sarri. And looking at his style, that makes sense.

After all, when fun is the name of the game, who wants to be listening to someone in charge? No kid goes to the school yard and likes it when someone declares themselves captain and decrees that everyone must obey them. And that is where Sarri sees himself in the game. To him, it is just that: a game. Taking it more or less seriously than that is outside of his thought process.

Furthermore, Sarri has striven to make the game as enjoyable as possible for fans and players alike. It is well known now that many of Conte’s more disciplinarian rules, needed for a team of underdogs, have been removed under Sarri. The players are trusted to do the right thing and Sarri does what he can to make the training part of it as enjoyable as possible.

Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante seem to have taken note, as both had offers to leave over the summer and both opted to stay. It seems a common occurrence that players will bring up Conte’s more “boring” training sessions, but if Sarri’s relaxed atmosphere helped to keep Hazard and Kante around for even just one season, it is hard to deny that it was a successful decision.

But perhaps most notably living in the fun atmosphere are players of the David Luiz mold. Luiz is and always will be “the fun guy”. Though he succeeded for a year under Antonio Conte, his injury and opposing attitude took him out of contention the next year. But Sarri sees the value in enjoying what one is doing. And though Luiz is not Chelsea’s best defender, his mere attitude of keeping a smile on is enough for Sarri.

Sarri has only been at the club for a very short time, but the effects of what he is doing are already being seen. If this is truly the dawning of a new culture at Stamford Bridge, and not a false dawn like Villas Boas proved to be, then the Blues faithful will be happy with the goings on. Sarri will need to keep producing results with fun, but it is hard to not notice that the atmosphere at Chelsea is markedly different than it ever has been before.