Maurizio Sarri’s devotion to Gonzalo Higuain could cost Chelsea Olivier Giroud

Olivier Giroud leads the Europa League in goals, and in the Europa League he shall remain. Maurizio Sarri has Chelsea’s most potent striker looking at a return to France.

Olivier Giroud has better hair, a World Cup trophy, better facial hair, as many goals in nine Europa League appearances as Gonzalo Higuain has in 22 league appearances, a better physique, 25% fewer minutes per goal in all competitions and a better face than Higuain. But because Giroud spent 2015/16 scoring 24 goals en route to winning nothing with Arsenal instead of scoring 38 goals en route to winning nothing with Napoli, Giroud is consigned to the Premier League bench with no possibility of winning the starting spot.

Unsurprisingly, this has Olivier Giroud planning his exit from Chelsea, unless of course (he did not need to say it) Sarri leaves first.

Thirteen years separate Giroud from the last Chelsea player to inflict a bout of honesty upon the club. Last week 19-year old Juan Familia-Castillo spoke about how he, too, has no realistic future at the club. As an academy player, he is being groomed for loan and sale, not the first team.

Giroud is just the sort of late-career player who takes a spot from rising academy prospects like Familia-Castillo, so theirs are competing observations. However, both speak to the complete lack of progress and development Chelsea offer their players at any level, a void that has spread into the upper ranks of the first team under Maurizio Sarri.

"Of course it’s frustrating. Today, I have the impression there is clearly no competition (for places in attack) since January. It’s like that, I know that I will only play in the Europa League. – via The Independent"

If Maurizio Sarri is so puzzled about how to motivate his players, this would be a start.

Olivier Giroud, like any player outside of Sarri’s favourite 14, has little reason to give his all other than professional pride and maintaining their transfer value. But that is simply the football version of working just hard enough not to get fired, which is what we have seen from many of the starters at various points throughout the season. The reason there is no way up for players like Giroud is because there is no way down for players like Jorginho, David Luiz, Willian and – most recently – Gonzalo Higuain.

Sarri’s meritless preference for Higuain over Giroud is just another manifestation of the faulty thought process that brought Higuain to Chelsea, and that underlies the overall failure of Sarriball at Chelsea.

The main arguments – the only arguments – for signing Gonzalo Higuain were his success under Maurizio Sarri three years ago at Napoli and, therefore, his residual familiarity with Sarri’s system.

However, by the time the winter transfer window opened, the incompatibility of Sarriball with the Premier League was almost beyond doubt. Sarriball flourished (in Spurs terms) in Serie A because of factors the Premier League does not share. The Premier League had already rejected Sarri’s attempt to graft Sarriball onto the English game. Sarri responded by demanding another infusion of Serie A.

Had Sarri recognized that he could not recreate Napoli’s Spur-ious success at Stamford Bridge, and why that is so, he would have recognized that he needed more Premier League – not less – in his team. Spurning Olivier Giroud is spurning his 300+ games and 100+ goals for English sides.

Even if he still requested Gonzalo Higuain for his experience and leadership Sarri could have prioritized the player who knew the team and the league over the player who knew nothing about the either but had a dated knowledge of the increasingly inapplicable tactics. At the very least, Sarri could have placed the two strikers on equal footing and let them battle it out.

And that is all Olivier Giroud is looking for: the chance to compete for his place on the squad and get what he deserves. Ligue 1 would not give him the level of weekly competition he can get in the Premier League, but Giroud seems resigned to returning to France if that is what it takes to play regularly.

Giroud’s contract is up at the end of this season. The Blues can scarcely afford to lose a striker with the transfer ban in place. If Giroud leaves, Michy Batshuayi could be the most experienced striker on the roster.

But Maurizio Sarri is giving Giroud no reason to stay. The club should read this as one more instance of Sarri giving them no reason for him  to stay.