Chelsea Tactics and Transfers: Frank Lampard’s return absolves all
Maurizio Sarri didn’t deserve to be fired, and he wasn’t. He never acted like he wanted to stay, and he didn’t. Chelsea moves on.
Maurizio Sarri underestimated the madness that is Chelsea Football Club. Now he can leave to move back to Italy and tend to his older parents and work for a club that makes sense. He met every single one of the goals that were laid in front of him, and yet somehow found a way to make himself one of the more hotly debated figures in recent memory at Chelsea.
It’s entirely too true his attitude was seemingly always negative. He didn’t seem to understand that, in a league like the Premier League, which is watched in far more markets around the world than Serie A, his commercial and press duties do matter. He took for granted what many other managers realized: though they are a pain, he could have made them useful. He didn’t dress the part or understand that optics in training and on the sideline do, in fact, matter.
He did, though, improve the players and the team. Sadly, once again, Chelsea have managed to alienate another fantastic footballing mind. Even if he was not the right choice for Chelsea in the long term or necessarily the “short long term,” there was no reason to treat him the way some around the club did.
His Juventus exit is convenient and it’s nice that Chelsea did not need to fire him. But Chelsea did not do themselves any favors in terms of their reputation in the larger footballing circles of the world with their behavior this season.
If anything, they are unbelievably lucky they have such a good option to follow him. Frank Lampard presents a wonderful opportunity to create a big enough press explosion that Chelsea can hide some of their embarrassment.
Sarri was a great coach and a bad manager. He was good on the training ground. To say that he wasn’t would be stupid and ignorant. The improvements in Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s game alone are the sort of thing a coach can hang their hat on with glee.
A manager, though, does more than just coach. They understand the transfer market, the benefits of an image (look at how well Jose Mourinho has managed to make himself a larger than life figure), they understand as Sir Alex Ferguson (the best ever example of manager over coach) that the match at the weekend begins with Monday’s press conference.
This is why Sarri is on his way out. He did a good job for a year and though there are many convenient reasons to frame his departure, it is a shame that yet again Chelsea failed to understand some of the core principles of football in their behavior towards him.
All that, though, is minimized by Frank Lampard coming in as the manager Chelsea need.
They don’t deserve an option this good. They don’t deserve an option half as good. Frank Lampard is a classy, intelligent and well-rounded man who, as far as I’m concerned, can walk on water.
Chelsea’s disrespectful, impatient and ridiculous approach not only to their managers but football itself in recent years does not befit a man of Lampard’s caliber. Yet they will likely end up with him.
Lampard has already made the move of a manager in getting assurances from Roman Abramovich that he will get two years. That will bleed out into the Chelsea-sphere and actually create some of the culture that is missing at Chelsea all the time. The players at Stamford Bridge are such an embarrassing group of ill-disciplined man children because they know they need not respect anyone. Who cares if a manager is upset at you for training poorly or for poor self-discipline if you know they’ll be gone within a matter of months anyway?
More. Chelsea are cornering themselves with two-year extensions. light
Lampard will be around for a minimum of two years. He will create a team in his image and a team in his image will be great. They will be industrious, they will be organized and intelligent. They will be professional and disciplined, yet still possess creativity and swagger while not sacrificing an ounce of class and stature.
That is the sort of Chelsea team the supporters deserve.
Maybe the end justifies the means. Chelsea treated Maurizio Sarri sorely. They treated Antonio Conte crazily. They treated Jose Mourinho maliciously, and they should be punished for all of that. Each of those three is a genius footballing mind and Chelsea somehow treated them like vagabonds to be thrown out with the trash.
Next. Maurizio Sarri melted and quit at the first sign of trouble. dark
They certainly don’t deserve a story as good as Frank Lampard returning. but somehow that is what they have. That is a truly wonderful thing.