And so it begins again. The inbred culture of dissent and lack of professionalism within the Chelsea playing squad will likely see yet another managerial departure from Stamford Bridge. For the fifth time during Roman Abramovich’s reign Chelsea look ready to jettison Maurizio Sarri mid-season because, put simply, the spoiled sulking brats within the dressing room have acted like Roman Emperors at the Coliseum by giving an emphatic thumbs-down to the beleaguered Italian. And why not? Twelve managerial appointments over Abramovich’s fifteen-year tenure at Stamford Bridge proves beyond doubt his indulgence of his pampered stars at the expense of whomever is the incumbent manager is. Even serial winners such as Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Conte have fallen to the whim of an owner blinded by a misguided loyalty that fault and blame must lie exclusively at the door of the coaching staff rather than address the toxic culture that dominates the dressing room.
In defence of Abramovich it is hard to argue against his policy when you look at the success Chelsea have enjoyed since his arrival in 2003. Aside from Manchester United Chelsea are comfortably the second most prolific accumulator of silverware in England; winning every domestic honour in addition to their successes in the European Champions League and Europa League. The difference now is that those revered Chelsea teams of the past included talismanic characters such as John Terry and Didier Drogba, so although they turned against their manager they usually had the quality and drive and determination to arrest their on-field slumps and return to winning ways once they had been appeased by a coaching change. Nowadays though Chelsea are bereft of quality and leadership; the fact that David Luiz is still considered a competent defensive option the most brutal illustration of their on-field woes. In reality the unsettled and soon-to-be departing Eden Hazard is the only player who would trouble the starting-XI’s of the sides ahead of the Blues.
That is not to absolve Maurizio Sarri of all blame for Chelsea’s predicament though. His much-vaunted Sarri-ball tactical structure seems incompatible with either the high tempo style of the English Premier League or the players at his disposal. Sarri’s stubborn refusal to adapt his approach and his blind-spot towards the shortcomings of his golden boy Jorginho has alienated players and supporters alike. The fact that Sarri’s explosive start to his time in England, incorporating thirteen games without defeat, was curtailed at the exact moment where opposing managers twigged that the static, ponderous Jorginho was the hub of Sarri’s entire tactical plan is no coincidence. Swamp and harass Jorginho and not only do Chelsea have nowhere to go but Sarri has absolutely no semblance of a Plan B. The inflexibility of Sarri-ball has been laid bare; a flaw amplified with Sarri’s paint-by-numbers approach to substitutions. On just FOUR occasions has Sarri replaced an outfield player with a different position: it is always a defender for a defender, midfielder for midfielder or striker for striker. The personnel may change but the team shape stays rigidly intact. In recent weeks, on the hour mark, Stamford Bridge has risen in mock acclaim of Ross Barkley replacing Matteo Kovacic or vice versa.
True, Sarri has not enjoyed the transfer market dominance of his predecessors at Stamford Bridge – notably Jose Mourinho – with the Russian oligarch overtaken by the petrodollars of Abu Dhabi. Pep Guardiola at Man City enjoys almost limitless funds but importantly, along with Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, he has a near-total control over the club’s transfer policy. It has always been a point of contest at Chelsea as to who ultimately is in charge of the crucial area of player recruitment. Past acquisitions of Andrei Shevchenko and Michael Ballack were largely attributed as a whim of Abramovich while more recent signings such as Davide Zappacosta, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Danny Drinkwater were presumably the whim of a pimply adolescent work experience schoolboy. But Sarri was employed by Chelsea and hailed as football’s next revolution after impressing with a vibrant attacking style of play during spells at Empoli and Napoli in Italy’s Serie A. He was charged with transforming the rather dour but functional Chelsea of Antonio Conte into the swashbuckling tour de force that Abramovich has craved for nearly two decades. And yet the solitary arrival of Jorginho in pre-season and the loan signing of Gonzalo Higuaín in January suggests that Chelsea’s trademark short-term mentality will afford him neither the time nor the funds needed to fulfil that quest.
The impact of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in reinvigorating and reenergising a stale Man Utd will not have gone unnoticed at Stamford Bridge, hence reports of Chelsea turning their attentions towards their own club legend Frank Lampard as a potential successor to Sarri. But there needs to be an air of caution before Chelsea place their faith in Lampard’s ability to perform a similar act of resuscitation. The circumstances are wildly differing: although Man Utd’s players deserve contempt for their own lack of professionalism towards the end of Jose Mourinho’s reign – a certain £90M Paul Pogba in particular – the general consensus was that the Portuguese was to blame for the toxic cloud enveloping Old Trafford. Thus the removal of the Mourinho factor was almost inevitably going to impact positively and with immediate effect on the club. But at Chelsea the bulk of the problem lies within the dressing room; a direct consequence of Abramovich’s indulgence at the expense of managerial authority and respect. Certainly the manner of a clearly disinterested and demotivated Chelsea’s meek FA Cup surrender to Solskjaer’s Utd did Sarri few favours. But it is an equation less easily solved than with the dismissal of the Italian. And yet a similar capitulation to the 6-0 humbling against Man City in the League Cup Final could be the final nail in his coffin.
Chelsea’s other reported target is former Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane, although quite why the Blues genuinely believe the three-time European Champions League winning coach would willingly subject himself to the curious mechanisms of Stamford Bridge is a mystery. A club riddled with self-interest, a dressing room infested with precious egos, prone to rebel at the merest hint of dissatisfaction with the management, where the players are the real powerbrokers and an increasingly distant, disengaged owner indulging of their every whim? A club that demands instant success yet provides its chosen sacrificial lamb with none of the stability, the control, the authority or the respect required to perform his job? And despite their recent success Chelsea lag light years behind the true European elite in terms of stature, prestige and tradition. Denied their enviable once-time position of transfer market dominance – and potentially facing a full transfer ban for illegal tapping up of young players from across the globe too – at the very time their squad requires almost complete overhaul. Their only world-class player is desperately seeking pastures new and their youth system feels increasingly betrayed and disillusioned by a short-term focus that blocks any hope of graduation from the academy into first-team.
Take Callum Hudson-Odoi; subject of a £35M+ bid from Bavarian giants FC Bayern and indicating his desire to accept that challenge. Instead Chelsea denied him that opportunity, claimed with a serious lack of conviction that they viewed him as a future star, selected him fleetingly during the January window under the premise that their longstanding distain for their youth prospects would miraculously shift and then, when February brought an end to FC Bayern’s pursuit, duly relegated him back to the fringes of the squad. Dishonesty. Distrust. Why would Zidane compromise his faith in promoting youth – Theo Hernandez and Marco Asensio just two of the proteges he nurtured during his hugely successful spell at the Bernabeu balancing far greater levels of pressure and expectation than Chelsea could ever truly justify – for the fickle short term mentality of Stamford Bridge? Why would Zidane risk his reputation by taking such a significant backward step in his career at Stamford Bridge, especially when it is very conceivable that far more prestigious jobs potentially at Man Utd, FC Bayern, Juventus and even a return to Real Madrid could materialise? The reality is that he will not. Certainly not for the dishevelled rabble in west-London.
The bottom line is that Maurizio Sarri will be sacked by Chelsea either during the remainder of this season or in the summer. And because of his stubbornness, his inflexibility and his increasingly erratic and inconsistent media briefings Sarri has in many ways become the architect of his own downfall. But then, at Chelsea, the managers always are….
The Eye of the Fly 