Cigarettes and Sarriball

After weeks of waiting for the inevitable to happen, the daily tweets from ITKs that it would be a done deal in 48 hours that have been popping up since June, it was only in the last week after the close of a World Cup that distracted from the unfolding shambles, that the supposed inevitable actually came to pass. Antonio Conte, purportedly insistent on fulfilling the last 12 months of his contract despite knowing he wasn’t wanted at the club, had to take the first days of pre-season, before being shown the door as soon as the Is and Ts were dotted and crossed on Mauricio Sarri’s signature on his contract.

Tactician and chain-smoker, Mauricio Sarri won't be able to smoke on the touchline at Stamford Bridge

Going through Conte’s reign probably requires two 300-plus page books, split into a first volume lavishing with praise, and a second dishing out the criticism. It was clear from the start of Conte’s second season that all wasn’t well. By January, it was clear he didn’t want to be there, and after the Champions League exit it almost seemed as if he was sabotaging Chelsea’s chances of playing Champions League football in the next season. It became obvious that the club needed a new manager, as well as a minor refurb of a squad that last season began to look stale, and a radical change of style of play now the 3-4-3 of 2016/17 was no longer new, but almost the norm in English football.

Mauricio Sarri provides this. A former bank manager, he has no professional playing experience, but has managed 12 different Italian clubs since 2000, with Chelsea his 13th, and his first outside Italy. He became famous internationally in his last role at Napoli, taking them to the runners-up in Serie A in all of his three years at the club, including last season’s pan-European record points haul for a side that didn’t win the title – 91 points, four off of Juventus. He also achieved notoriety for his style of play; clips of Napoli’s playing out from the back, even when pressed, often went viral across social media, as well as videos of beautiful, well-worked goals. Additionally, despite Napoli often being forced to sell their best players (think Higuain being bought by rivals Juventus immediately after breaking the Serie A goals in a season record), he managed to find replacements, often left-field ones, like Dries Mertens being shifted from a decent winger to a brilliant centre-forward.

Admittedly, I haven’t got the greatest knowledge of Sarri – whilst at University I haven’t been able to watch as much European football as I would like, and so what I’ve seen has been limited to the big games in Serie A or the Champions League, but mostly highlights. But what I do know, is what Chelsea need. And what we need is a new start. Only one side can win the League, one can win the FA Cup, and one can win the League Cup. With there being a ‘big six’ of clubs in the Premier League who go into the season with hopes and expectations of grabbing at least one of these trophies, even ignoring the chances of cup upsets and Leicester league title wins, there’s a decent chance you’ll go through the season without winning something. The Conte brand of “suffering without the ball” is all well and good when you’re winning the League or Champions League, but when it leaves you in fifth with unhappy fans and players, then it isn’t worth it. Sarri’s expansive brand of football promises entertainment; attacking football, for the full 90 minutes, regardless of opposition.

A club full of young talent needing to be nurtured, Sarri could also be the perfect man for this role too. He famously isn’t a fan of the transfer market, happy to work under a Director of Football and focus on working on what he is given with. At Napoli, a club with performances matching and bettering clubs with more resources to outspend them on top players, Sarri managed to create top talent out of the gems of lesser Serie A players that were picked up, like Jorginho, who signed for Chelsea at the same time as Sarri; whilst at Empoli, many of his best players there are now at big Serie A clubs, like Danielle Rugani at Juventus, someone Chelsea have been linked with this summer. This approach would be most welcome at Stamford Bridge: it was this style that Chelsea tried to implement with Antonio Conte, with Michael Emenalo making signing choices and Conte coaching the players he was given. However, last summer, a mini civil war broke out over this arrangement, with Conte trying to grab more power. Emenalo left in the autumn of 2017 and hasn’t been obviously replaced, but it seems that with the continuing high turnover of managers at the club, this is the route Roman Abramovich and his board want to go down. It is one that makes sense, both long-term, and with a manager like Sarri at the helm.

Jorginho, central to Sarri's Napoli side, has moved to Stamford Bridge alongside his manager

All in all, after what felt like an arduous season at times last year, even with the sweet ending at Wembley, a change in manager, in staff (with Gianfranco Zola back at the club, which can only ever be a good thing), and in players is a welcome result. This season is a fresh start, something bold, exciting, and new in the offing. The famously chain-smoking Sarri and his team will be looking to implement his style, ready for the first game away to Huddersfield, as well as the Community Shield which precedes it. He has a race on, as many of the squad will be returning from their belated holidays after the World Cup later than would be liked, but he isn’t one to shirk from a challenge. Anyway, as they say, when it comes on top, you’ve got to make it happen.