By the time Maurizio Sarri makes his way back to Italy, he may be looking wistfully on Chelsea fans’ ambivalence towards his year in west London.
Maurizio Sarri needs to sign a contract with an Italian club who will welcome him with affection. Otherwise we might start feeling sorry for him as he gets caught between two worlds. Apparently Napoli fans did not think much more highly than Chelsea fans of Maurizio Sarri’s dedication of the Europa League trophy to them, the fan base for whom he won zero trophies in three years. They may have appreciated the nod, but the rumours of Sarri’s potential departure to Juventus erased not only the gesture but the accumulated affection of his time in Naples.
Jorginho, who so far has not been linked with a tandem move from Chelsea to Juventus, said Napoli fans “could treat it as a betrayal” if Sarri takes the job at Juventus. “They’re like that,” Jorginho said.
The Italian media is now full of such hyperpartisan soundbites. Edinson Cavani left Napoli before Sarri arrived, but his lawyer took the opportunity to say “Sarri is a traitor.” He said it was “inconsistency of behavior and thought” and “the height of incoherence” to dedicate a trophy to one set of fans only to then take a job at their biggest rivals.
Neither Napoli nor Juventus fans seem particularly enthused about the prospects of Sarri taking the job in Turin. Juventus fans want a manager with more than one Europa League title and a dubious record of working with world-class players. Napoli fans, who think very highly of Sarri’s managerial nous, don’t like the idea of Juventus reinforcing their position atop Serie A. But more than that, they just don’t like the idea of “one of their own” becoming “one of them.”
This is another great example of why I’m probably among the worst choices to lead a fan blog. Of course, that’s probably also why my predecessor tabbed me to carry on his legacy.
Simply, Friedrich Nietzche was wrong. Football fans were God’s second mistake.
Maurizio Sarri is not interested in the Juventus job because he hates Napoli. He’s interested in it for the same reason he left Napoli for Chelsea: it’s a better job at a bigger club. To borrow from Cavani’s lawyer, it’s the height of incoherence to think an Italian coach – any coach, but particularly one from Italy – should turn down a job at Italy’s top club simply because they worked for three years at Italy’s more prominent runner-up.
If Maurizio Sarri takes the job at Juventus and Napoli fans turn on him, the Neapolitans will be right down there with those idiots who boo players who spent a single season with the club on loan and now – because this is what loanees do – play somewhere else. Looking at you, Stoke City. Victor Moses was only a temporary Potter, move the hell on.
The funny thing is Napoli are the closest thing Serie A has to a “neutral” team. They are the only major club in Naples, so they do not have a cross-town blood rival. This means their ultras do not form bizarre alliances with the enemy of their enemy. Napoli has endured long stretches without trophies, when they were no real threat to the real powerhouses of Italian football.
In a way, they are a bit like Tottenham. They’re just sort of there, in the background, innocuous. Barely worth having a rivalry with because they are always going to end up runners-up anyway.
If anyone should be upset about Sarri’s move to Juventus it is Chelsea fans. He is leaving Chelsea with two years left on his contract. He is jumping ship at the first opportunity to grab something better. Any suspicions of Sarri being a mercenary playing hopscotch across the footballing world are better held at Stamford Bridge than Stadio San Paolo.
But, of course, most Chelsea fans can only muster a “meh” at the prospect.
If Chelsea fans have a more reasonable reaction to anything than you and your fellow fans, some serious soul searching is in order.