That old adage about insanity – doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results – is looking more and more like Chelsea‘s motto.
Hire one obsessive, exacting, difficult manager. Have one good season with him, then stumble, sack him, and find the next one. It was Jose Mourinho first, then Antonio Conte, whose reign – hardly unsuccessful, with a league title in his debut season and the FA Cup in his second – is almost certainly coming to an end, and the presumptive favourite to replace him is Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri.
In fairness, Chelsea seem to have perfected the model of enjoying top-level success despite what seems like unsustainable managerial churn, so perhaps Sarri will follow the pattern. Yet the 58-year-old comes with greater risk than his immediate predecessors, having never won a trophy in a career that has now stretched across 13 seasons. Not since Roberto Di Matteo was hired as an emergency replacement for Andre Villas Boas in 2012 has someone with a CV so bare been linked with the Stamford Bridge hot seat.
Di Matteo, of course, led the Blues to the greatest success of the Roman Abramovich era, winning the Champions League that year, so there’s no reason to believe Sarri can’t be successful at Chelsea. He’s got plenty going for him – his Napoli side has been one of the most thrilling, compelling sides in Serie A this year, and were it not for the presence of a historically good Juventus team they would certainly be league champions. They’re the first Italian team to cross 90 points and not win the league.
Sarri managed to get a talented Napoli side to play as a sum greater than its parts, even though they ended up falling short. It’s a quality that Chelsea have seen under Mourinho and Conte in recent years – but only for one-year stretches. Those single-season campaigns of brilliance delivered two Premier League titles, but also ended up wearing down a squad that immediately fell away the following season.
The new manager bounce should revitalise this Chelsea squad, and Sarri’s attacking style will suit some of Chelsea’s leading players more – Eden Hazard, if he stays, chief among them. One need only see the emergence of Lorenzo Insigne and Hazard’s compatriot Dries Mertens this year to see the level of performance Sarri can coax out of attacking players. The Italian took a team that lost a goalscorer of the calibre of Gonzalo Higuain and ended up making it a more convincing title challenger.
Maurizio Sarri to Chelsea? What are the odds of Eden Hazard being converted to a no.9 and going on a Dries Mertens-esque goal scoring epiphany?
— Matteo Bonetti (@TheCalcioGuy) May 23, 2018
But there’s a sense that Chelsea are missing a trick by going with Sarri, especially considering his rumoured replacement at Napoli. Carlo Ancelotti is nothing short of a coup for Partenopei, but it’s shocking that the former Chelsea manager was available and more wasn’t done was to arrange a return. Whatever fall-out happened between him and Abramovich when Ancelotti was sacked in 2011 has reportedly been resolved, and of the managers looking for a job this summer, it’s hard to argue that any was a better fit for Chelsea.
Not only does Ancelotti have a deep understanding of the club, winning history in England, a Premier League winning percentage, 63.2%, that ranks in the top five in the competition’s history, he’s also a sharp contrast to Conte and Mourinho where fellow Italian Sarri is more of the same. The former PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and AC Milan manager has made a name for himself for his laid-back, player-friendly managing of a squad. It’s the sort of style Hazard hasn’t known since moving to England – and one that the Belgian seems to be craving.
4 - Carlo #Ancelotti is the only manager to have won the title in four of the top-5 European leagues (ITA, ENG, FRA, GER). Successful. pic.twitter.com/aRyaEXyChX
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) May 23, 2018
Reportedly, overtures were made to secure Ancelotti’s services, only for talks to never progress. But if it’s come to a straight choice between him and Sarri, the fact that the junior Italian has been preferred is perplexing.
Sarri is a driven manager with a thirst to prove himself at the highest level, and Chelsea have made a habit of letting such managers thrive. But there’s no escaping the thought that a triumphant return for Ancelotti was an opportunity too good to pass up, and they’ll rue letting it go.
