Juventus is everything Maurizio Sarri claims to dislike about Chelsea
By George Perry
With the transfer ban nominally in place, Chelsea’s silly season is revolving around managers. Rumours don’t get much sillier than the idea of Maurizio Sarri failing up to Juventus.
The closest thing to a sure-fire way to stop Cristiano Ronaldo from scoring would almost certainly run afoul of a few regulations, if not the Laws of the Game: simply put mirrors around the final third. If forced to choose between scoring a goal and stopping to admire his quads, ripping off his shirt to gaze at his six-pack, flexing one arm up to point the way to the gun show or simply giving his own beauty a flirty wink, Ronaldo may pass up the sure shot. Even if he decides to go for goal, that moment of hesitation may be enough for a defender to poke the ball away or for the defence to recover their positions and clog his shooting lanes. The man is just that self-centered. Selfish, even.
By comparison, Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante are self-effacing altruists. Hazard’s greatest crime at Chelsea this season has been his selfishness, per Maurizio Sarri. Kante landed himself in hot water in November with Sarri for his attempts to take over the game against Tottenham when the Blues were trailing.
The Belgian has great quads, yes. But his love of hamburgers keeps his six-pack somewhat concealed, his upper body is quite slight and he does not have enough hair to coif. Not much to look at, except for when he is doing the one thing he loves to do, and that is dancing with the ball before threading a sly pass or a pinpoint shot. Kante would probably blush with embarrassment if he knew we were even talking about him.
If Maurizio Sarri thinks Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante are too selfish, he does not know what he is in for at Juventus.
One of Sarri’s many struggles at Chelsea this season has been coaching a squad where every player has at least a domestic cup to his name, and most have several league titles and European trophies. Many of those players won the bulk of their trophies at Chelsea under Sarri’s predecessors. At the outset of the season, he had four World Cup winners, the selfish Kante among them.
Juventus is a team of trophies and egos. The club have won the last seven Serie A titles. They are used to winning, they are used to be flattered and resented for their success and they are used to playing their own way, as individuals and a team.
The trophy gap between Sarri and his squad was one of the reasons he could not motivate Chelsea’s players. He was telling them to set aside their proven trophy-winning ways to adopt his methods, which were superficially different and maybe fun but had never produced the one thing Chelsea players expect: trophies.
Even if Chelsea win the Europa League, Sarri will still face a massive achievement gap with his players at Juventus. Since the only thing Juventus want out of life at this point is a Champions League title, they may not even care about a Europa League triumph. They are not interested in winning the junior competition, so they may have little interest in a man who has won only that.
Maurizio Sarri deserves a certain level of respect simply by virtue of his position as head coach. The Chelsea players should have given him that from day one and he should still have it now. But everything above that “certain level of respect” must be earned and exchanged. Sarri has done little to earn it.
Maurizio Sarri’s handling of Gary Cahill, N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard paint an odd picture for what he could do at Juventus.
Imagine Sarri freezing out club captain Giorgio Chiellini over his passing abilities. Would it be better banter if Sarri told Miralem Pjanic to mind a well-defined box at the base of midfield and make endless one-touch passes as a r*****a, or if he said Pjanic was not technical enough for that role and pushed him forward as a box-to-box midfielder? How would things play out in the press if Sarri said Cristiano Ronaldo was too unselfish and unwilling to learn “my system?” How many times would Sarri storm halfway down the tunnel before slinking back to the bench, as he did during the Kepa Arrizabalaga incident at Wembley, every time Cristiano Ronaldo took it upon himself to create a highlight reel instead of executing his place in the circuits?
What would be worse: if Juventus ignored Maurizio Sarri’s transfer requests, or if they bought him Jorginho?
And Moise Kean? He’s still only 19 years old, so Sarri might not use him for more than group-stage dead rubber matches until the second half of the season. With Gonzalo Higuain set for a return to the Old Lady, maybe Chelsea could arrange to take Kean on loan.
Selfish, ego-driven stars who are motivated only by individual and team glory. Dictating the methods of the squad rather than achieving buy-in through reciprocity and progress. Young players who want the freedom to express themselves at footballers rather than follow a textbook page-by-page. Beloved veterans and rising youth. A media who will directly challenge him in his native language.
Juventus may not even have the dutiful players who do everything they are asked without question or complaint, players like Cesar Azpilicueta, Pedro or N’Golo Kante.
Every complaint Maurizio Sarri has had about Chelsea and every aspect in which he has struggled will be magnified at Juventus.
Sarri would have no place to hide in Turin, which would probably be for the best for football overall, but would spell the end of his remarkable career of failing up.