Sarri, you need to take more interest in transfer market

ON Jan 2, Chelsea announced the signing of Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund, including to manager Maurizio Sarri.

In a press conference, the Chelsea boss said: “I didn’t know anything about Pulisic yesterday. The club asked my opinion on him about one month ago, my opinion was positive and today I found out the deal is done.”

Think about that for a second – the Chelsea manager found out about a new £58mil (RM304mil) signing at almost the same time as you and I.

The Italian reportedly earns around €6mil (RM28mil) a year at Chelsea. The club are willing to pay him that much money but apparently that doesn’t include trusting him to make transfer decisions.

It’s a crazy situation.

For me, managers should be judged on what I call the 3Ts of decision making – transfer dealings, team selections and tactics. Sarri is only doing two-thirds of the job.

Then of course there are the more mundane day-to-day decisions about how to motivate players, deal with egos, and with the many other aspects of the job such as communicating with the press.

Judging Mourinho by the 3Ts and the day-to-day decisions, it becomes obvious just how spectacularly wrong he got things this season.

Then there’s one other crucial part of a football manager’s job: how to develop and improve their players. This is what Sarri sees as his main responsibility at Chelsea.

When he arrived in London he announced: “I feel much more a training ground manager than a general manager. I think I’m one of the few managers who is bored by the transfer market. Our task as managers is growing the players we have.”

I think I could avoid boredom with a couple of hundred million to spend.

A lack of interest in the transfer market means that Sarri is doing his job with one hand tied (loosely) behind his back. Ironically, he used to be a banker so making deals should be one of his strengths.

It’s true that practically no manager has exclusive control over signings. Their “wish lists” generally have to be approved by the board, with many clubs operating a transfer committee comprising the manager, a director of football (if there is one), and selected board members.

It’s reported that transfer decisions at Chelsea are being made by director Marina Granovskaia.

She has been a senior adviser to Roman Abramovich for a long time, but is she better qualified than Sarri to judge which footballers should play for Chelsea?

If she is, then I wonder why she isn’t picking the team as well.

Football managers have never been under greater scrutiny. Every decision they make is analysed and debated in the media and among fans. One or two bad results and the pressure is immediate.

Sarri has made many good decisions so far at Chelsea and he’s clearly working hard on “growing the players” he already has. Chelsea fans probably wish he’d work a bit harder on Alvaro Morata though.

Somebody at Chelsea is probably taking enough interest in the transfer market to at least assess options for a new centreforward. It should be Sarri.

Paris St Germain’s Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani is rumoured to be a potential target for Chelsea and it’s definitely a position the club need to look at in order to take the next step and start to challenge Liverpool and Manchester City.

Klopp’s decisions on signings – particularly Virgil van Dijk and Alisson – have turned Liverpool into title contenders.

If Sarri wants to do the same, he will need to start taking more of an interest in the transfer market. Craig Wilkie. Football Writer. Football Coach. Football Fan. Follow him on Twitter@ciwilkie