POSER OVER SARRI’S FUTURE

Blues manager facing the sack as players unhappy once again

AFTER all but surrendering the Serie A title to Juventus in the spring of 2017, Maurizio Sarri’s outlook for his Napoli future was not promising.

“Coaches are like fish,” he mused. “After a while, they start to stink.”

The use-by date on Chelsea managers is always short, but in the case of Sarri matters have deteriorated at an alarming rate.

Chelsea chairman, Bruce Buck, sat in on his pre-match press conference this week in Malmo, then Buck took the peculiar step of going pitchside on Thursday evening to get a close view of Chelsea’s warm-up drills.

The players’ senses are tingling. One confided in his adviser that he expected Sarri to be sacked if the club fail to win at least one of their next two games — against Manchester United in the FA Cup and Manchester City in the League Cup final.

Ultimately, the decision will not fall to Buck. Director Marina Granovskaia runs the show and she will make recommendations to owner Roman Abramovich, if he does not beat her to it.

Sarri admits he has not heard from Chelsea’s Russian owner in the past three weeks, and the growing impression is that of a club whose troubles extend beyond the dugout.

The financial news website Bloomberg has spoken of the ‘last days of Londongrad’. Abramovich has not attended a Chelsea match this season and has not been seen in London since his visa renewal application was denied last year.

His absence is viewed as a response to the worsening of relations between London and Moscow following the Salisbury poisonings last March. In the autumn, it seemed Abramovich was seeking a way out of Chelsea. The talk was that £3 billion (RM16 billion) would do the job and Czech investor Petr Kellner, a business partner of Abramovich with a box at Stamford Bridge, has not denied reports he is interested.

Chelsea insist the club is not for sale but the feeling is that Abramovich has less inclination to compete with the Manchester clubs in the race for elite talent.

Chelsea will probably lose Eden Hazard, and their best young player, Callum Hudson-Odoi. If Sarri leaves, there is no guarantee they will keep their striker Gonzalo Higuain.

David Luiz continues to stall over a 12-month contract extension — an offer that proposes a wage cut — and his moods have darkened the dressing room. There is also disquiet among the squad at how club captain Gary Cahill has been frozen out by Sarri.

Now, Sarri teeters on the brink. Premier League away defeats at Arsenal, Bournemouth and Manchester City have damaged the players’ faith in the manager’s vision.

When he arrived, his predecessor Antonio Conte’s obligatory pre-match nuts, seeds and dried fruit disappeared. At the training ground, bans on fizzy drinks and butter were lifted. Sarri trusts his players to consume such ‘treats’ in moderation.

Training sessions are usually in the early afternoon, to mirror most kick-off times, and this was initially popular.

Now, however, players have become frustrated by not being free to spend time with their young families. The sessions are felt to be repetitive and stodgy, while some players are struggling to grasp the intricacies of Sarri’s demands.

After the 3-1 defeat at Tottenham, Sarri hauled his players in for individual meetings. After the 4-0 loss at Bournemouth, a lockin lasted 50 minutes and Sarri even asked his players what he should do to improve.

Another hour of clear-the-air talks followed the 6-0 demolition at Manchester City. Sarri remains stubbornly fixed to his principles but too many players aren’t reading the script.

Cesar Azpilicueta, Marcos Alonso and N’Golo Kante are being asked to perform roles that are ill-suited to their strengths. Alonso, hooked in the second half at City, then left out of the travelling party for Malmo this week, bore the brunt of Sarri’s frustrations.

Captain Azpilicueta has, in his leadership role, exchanged frank words with his manager. The club, meanwhile, are concerned that Kante, a player handed a new £290,000-a-week contract this season, is being wasted.

The Chelsea players do not dislike him. He talks to them about their families and, unlike Conte, he happily holds conversations about matters other than football.

Yet a charming personality cannot deflect from results or the increasing feeling that, once again, the whiff of change is in the air at Chelsea.