Sarri hopes to turn jeers into cheers

AS the two sets of players filtered towards the dugouts at the end of an absorbing 90 minutes, all eyes turned to the Chelsea boss. As Chelsea’s control of this tie seeped away during a dismal second half in which Eintracht Frankfurt secured parity, Sarri worked himself into a frenzy on the touchline. This was the Italian at his most raw, his most demonstrative. His arms flailed in all directions, he paced beyond his technical area and earned rebukes from the Czech fourth official Pavel Kravlovec. Indeed, only the mediation of Gianfranco Zola protected Sarri from a dismissal. And yet, when his players came in at extra-time, there was nothing. We expected a show of strength from the manager. Would it be a roar over the finish line? Or a barrage of unrestrained frustration? Instead, Sarri produced neither. After all that fire, he was ice cold. As his players gathered in a huddle, Sarri (below) turned away, chewing on a cigarette butt and looking to the tunnel. The Italian stood alone, conjuring memories of his petulance on the Wembley touchline during the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City. One suggestion from Italy is that Sarri has a genuine superstition that he prefers not to step on the field of play. Yet rarely has a manager appeared so distant, so disengaged from a set of players. A few yards to his right, Frankfurt manager Adi Hutter was the man in the middle of it all, pointing left, right, up to space and down to the ground to carry his men over the finish line.

Sarri is a curious character. He has, by any measure, succeeded in his job this season, returning the club to the Champions League. Yet moments such as these pose renewed questions. The uneasy, fractious relationship with supporters has not been healed by a top-four finish. Sarri incensed the club’s support when he elected to substitute Chelsea’s best player of the evening, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, in the 86th minute. Somehow, the dreadful Mateo Kovacic stayed on, conceding possession and endlessly losing the ball. The boos were pointed and intense over Sarri’s decision. Indeed, it was only when Loftus-Cheek turned to the crowd and pleaded for them to raise the volume that the jeers turned to cheers. Kepa, the goalkeeper with such a point to prove after Wembley, then turned the cheers into elation. For Sarri, he must hope this is a corner turned at last.