BOSS IN GOOD WILL GESTURE

about it.” He admits he is slightly less certain about goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (below) who is wanted by Real Madrid.

Chelsea want to hold Courtois to the final year of his contract having failed to find a replacement.

But with Thursday’s transfer deadline looming, Sarri said:

“At the moment Courtois is the club goalkeeper.

“I don’t know in future. It depends on the club and it depends especially on him, I think. But I hope Courtois will be our keeper.

“It’s very important for us to keep the top players.”

Meanwhile, Sarri wants to achieve Mission Impossible by lasting 10 years at Chelsea.

The Italian is the Blues’ ninth manager since owner Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003. He knows his Russian boss has a fearsome reputation for sacking managers, with Jose Mourinho lasting the longest – three years three months – in his first spell in charge.

But Sarri said: “I want to stay here for 10 years. I know I have to win. And then it depends on the club.” Meanwhile, City boss Pep Guardiola has warned his record-breaking champions he will not tolerate any slacking as he bids for back-to-back titles. No team since Manchester United in 2009 has managed to defend the title. But Guardiola has done it with Barcelona and Bayern Munich and said: “I’ll try to repeat what we did and be harder with my players. “If after winning the title they are thinking ‘OK...we’re really good’ that’s the moment we start to go down.

“To be clear with them, the guys who are good, we’ll say they are good and if they are bad, we are going to say they are bad.”