Premier League
Chelsea Sack Antonio Conte Amid Maurizio Sarri Rumors
London, England – Chelsea have sacked Italian manager Antonio Conte, with former Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri set to replace him.
After two seasons with the club, Conte leaves having won one Premier League title in his first season. Despite this, the Blues mounted a miserable title defense in 2017/18 when they finished fifth.
However, the team was able to salvage the season after winning the season’s FA Cup.
Nevertheless, the 48-year-old was well-aware of the situation as he had taken shots at Chelsea’s hierarchy for the club’s recruitment policy.
Blues owner Roman Abramovich held off sacking the Italian manager to save up paying Conte’s full £9million compensation bill.
The discomfort between both sides was mutual yet cordial towards the end.
New Stamford Bridge Boss
To no one’s surprise, the club was already in talks with Sarri, who left Napoli at the end of this season. It is said that Napoli will receive €8M for Sarri as well as €57M for Jorginho who has been keen of a move to Stamford Bridge over Manchester City. Despite being axed by Napoli, Sarri remained under contract with the club. For this reason, Chelsea was unable to sign him sooner.
“Sarri is close to be new Chelsea manager. My lawyers are in talks with his lawyers to finalize everything,” said Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis.
“I’m sorry with Manchester City because we reached an agreement for Jorginho 15 days ago. But Chelsea is going to offer more to Napoli and to Jorginho for his contract, so he’ll join Chelsea I guess”.
Sarri has received many praises for his aesthetically beautiful style of play. After some tinkering with a 4-3-1-2, he settled at Napoli with a 4-3-3 formation. This allowed the 59-year-old to have more fluidity and ability to use tight passing triangles. Yes, very similar to Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, who’s sides pride on a very high pressing side at defense, forcing attackers to make mistakes. This, to allow his sides to take over and have more possession of the ball.
Despite all this, Sarri has yet to win any important trophies along the way. However, his style of play may be in Chelsea’s favor as their main star Eden Hazard is on the list of transfer players in Europe.
