Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PUFF DADDY
Chain-smoking, fun-loving Sarri will light up the Bridge... as long as Chelsea find a way for him to get his nicotine fix!
IN the next three weeks, Chelsea need to find an area of Stamford Bridge in which chain-smoking new boss Maurizio Sarri can light up on a matchday.
The Italian gets through 80 cigarettes a day, according to those close to him. Four or five an hour.
Going 45 minutes, let alone 90, without sparking up is going to be a test for the Italian, who was a regular touchline smoker in his days in Serie A as Napoli boss.
UK smoking laws don’t allow that, so club officials have been tasked with finding a way to provide an area in which he can get his nicotine.
Sarri has other issues to deal with. The biggest of which is how to get his Chelsea side to rise from the ashes of last season.
Sarri needs them to light up Stamford Bridge, in the same way his old Napoli charges used to light up the Stadio San Paolo.
Chelsea’s new boss won’t have time to catch his breath either, if Chelsea are going to stay close to Manchester City and the rest of the title hopefuls from the off.
“A few years ago I needed a long time,” said Sarri, when asked how quickly he could impose on Chelsea’s players his belief of the way the game should be played.
“In Napoli we suffered in the first three matches, but after that we started along a positive path.
“I hope I have improved and that this initial time can be shortened again – and that the players can help us.”
The style of football Sarri likes to play has seen him praised by some of the biggest names in the game, not least Pep Guardiola, who described his friend as “one of the absolute best”.
And even though Sarri has never won a major trophy, it was the football that Napoli produced under him which convinced Blues owner Roman Abramovich to hire him.
It is a brand of football based on ‘fun’, a buzzword for the new man at Stamford Bridge.
Sarri added: “I hope that Chelsea fans can expect more entertaining football.
“My goal is to have fun as long as I’m here, and be competitive in all competitions until the end of the season.
“I want to have fun, because in life the biggest gift you receive is to have fun while you are doing your job.”
Sarri insists Chelsea will play in a way that is more Guardiola than Jose Mourinho – and there was certainly a marked difference in the way that he spoke about those two men.
He called Guardiola “a class act, a champion, a genius”.
He said of Mourinho: “Jose is someone who has won everything.
“That is enough for a manager. He is a man who won everything repeatedly in different clubs.
“Someone who has this track record does not need any description.
“My playing philosophy is closer to Pep Guardiola – but I really appreciate both in the same way.”
Blues fans must hope Chelsea’s players appreciate Sarri’s vision in double-quick time – and the 59-year-old can breathe fresh air into a side which coughed and spluttered its way through so much of last season.