Maurizio Sarri is invulnerable to criticism and his adversaries aim to flatter. Pep Guardiola and Aurelio de Laurentiis both love having their way with the Chelsea manager in the press.
You’ll have to forgive the Chelsea-web, just this once. They spent so much time the last few years watching Napoli so as to fully understand the role of regista, and so much time this season inquiring about our levels of registasophy, they could not spare much attention to note the regularly manifest personality traits of Napoli chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis. To offer a quick education / refresher, de Laurentiis: abuses any one he feels betrayed him, trolls Chelsea for sport and revels in entendre befitting a man who produced the film “Golden Balls.”
A quick look at Saturday’s headlines would lead you to believe de Laurentiis offered praise and support for Maurizio Sarri in his terminal hours at Chelsea. De Laurentiis did no such thing. He instead combined his passions at trolled Chelsea while undermining Sarri, and swept up the witless praise of Chelsea pundits as a bonus.
Maurizio Sarri was the first person Chelsea were able to pry loose from Napoli. The Blues spent several transfer windows pursuing Kalidou Koulibaly, with de Laurentiis playing the sadistic Lucy to Chelsea’s Charlie Brown (not the academy player). Napoli would set a price, Chelsea would offer it, Napoli would raise it. Over and over and over again.
De Laurentiis consented to Jorginho leaving with Sarri (did he know something the club and the Sarritologists buried their heads in the sand to avoid?), and then spent the beginning of the season excoriating Sarri for his betrayal of him personally and of Napoli as a whole.
Being a film producer, de Laurentiis knows how to manipulate the press as a diversion from flame-spraying those around him. His back-handed savvy in front of a microphone is on par with Jose Mourinho’s, yet people are taking these comments in their most glowing light.
"It would be fun to play Chelsea in the final, assuming of course that Sarri can hang on that long! I hope he does stay there and do very well, because Sarri loves his work to the point of madness. At times this can lead him to lose his temper, but that is to be respected… Some might not always be able to share his vision of football, but we all have our strengths and weaknesses, otherwise we would not be human. – Goal"
Of course Napoli would like to face Chelsea in the final. Not only would de Laurentiis relish the revenge, his side would have the upper hand. They know exactly what to expect and they would know exactly how to prepare. Carlo Ancelotti vs. Maurizio Sarri is a mismatch for the ages. Of the remaining Europa League teams with a reasonable chance of reaching the finals, Chelsea under Sarri would be Napoli’s best chance of winning.
De Laurentiis goes on to putting a thin layer of varnish over what we already know are some of Sarri’s worst tendencies. He’s practically goading Chelsea to admit that Sarri is a mess of a man-manager and leader, but to exclaim in the same breath “I love it!” like Frank Drebin swimming in raw sewage.
Finally, “some might not always be able to share his vision of football.” Chef’s kiss.
Pep Guardiola takes a similar approach with opposing managers, particularly and most recently Maurizio Sarri. Guardiola praises Sarri in his press conferences: how much he likes Sarri’s style of play, respects his accomplishments, sympathizes with his struggle, hopes Sarri will stand firm and never change.
If Guardiola likes what Sarri does so much, how come he does not adopt anything Sarri does? If he is so enamored, why don’t Manchester City use a regista, a traditional 4-3-3, circuit-based play or rigid adherence to a given system? And what are these accomplishments of Sarri’s that Guardiola, with his 22 club trophies, respects so much? And why wouldn’t Guardiola want Sarri to maintain course and speed knowing that a 6-0 loss resulted in exactly zero changes to how Sarri goes about things?
Guardiola employs flattery and de Laurentiis wielded his double-edge sword where they knew it would most hit the mark: Sarri and his legions.
We’re not 100% sure about Sarri. He seems as immune from flattery as he is from criticism, although as we argued last week the unfounded celebrity of Sarriball insulated him from feedback that could have saved his job.
But if there is one person whose praise he will lap up and use to justify to himself – if not the fans and Roman Abramovich – his actions, it is Pep Guardiola. And if there is one person from whom he may want redemption, it is his former chairman from the club where he made his name.
As for Chelsea fans, the response to these comments shows too many have learned nothing from this whole fiasco. Not content to fall back on the fallacy of argument from authority, they take the troll for sincerity and wonder what’s the joke everyone else is laughing at.