BLUES BOSS HAS GONE TO WAR WITH HIS PLAYERS

THERE is nothing more humiliating for a player than to hear his manager talking in the way Maurizio Sarri did after this Chelsea defeat. Sarri spoke in his native Italian rather than English so that his message about a lack of motivation was not misinterpreted. He will have said all of this to his players in the dressing room, but they did not give him the reaction he wanted, so he has taken it public. Sarri has deliberately gone to war with his players. Former Arsenal boss George Graham was open in the dressing room — it would be a war zone if he wasn’t happy! Arsene Wenger would say, ‘Let’s talk tomorrow when we’ve all calmed down,’ and then he would try to find a solution. Sarri seems to be thinking, ‘OK, they won’t listen to me in private, so I’ll dig them out publicly’. He’s gone for broke. Sarri knows he has no time to lose under owner Roman Abramovich, who is never afraid to sack a boss and start again. Chelsea have a very powerful dressing room and it seems that if they cannot be champions, they won’t go for second or third. That’s wrong. Chelsea won the title in 2015 under Jose Mourinho, then finished 10th. They won the title under Antonio Conte in 2017, then finished fifth. Both of those are examples of the group losing their way. Part of the problem for Sarri is that he has never won a trophy and the players may disagree with the decisions he is making. N’Golo Kante is playing in an alien position, they are competing without a centre forward and Eden Hazard is being used up front rather than on the wing. Now, thanks to Sarri making their problems public rather than private, the world will be watching to see whether Chelsea’s players react in the right way.