Chelsea: Maurizio Sarri’s first Blues training session – Smiles all around
The man has finally taken over at Stamford Bridge and to say it was a long wait would be an understatement.
No less than a week ago Chelsea made headway with their biggest disruption this preseason, and that’s settling their managerial issues. Nonetheless, things progressed and troublemaker Antonio Conte was sacked and long mentioned, Maurizio Sarri was named as the new boss at the Bridge!
It was a long wait for both, the club and fans to have all the dealings dealt with. Thankfully, the dust has settled and real preseason preparations can take place in London for Roman Abramovich’s beloved Chelsea.
The 59-year-old Italian was previously involved at Napoli over in Naples. What he left there was something to be mentioned amongst the best teams in Europe. Napoli have made the Champions League in consecutive campaigns under the Italian mastermind. Something desperately missing at the Bridge.
Now that the water’s under the Bridge
Since moving on in this saga that appears to be a regular second season debacle, the players who are not on break from international duty and the new man in charge are sound, and working hard at getting preseason to date.
That, plus the movement behind the scenes to get new players in has also moved along swiftly. Sarri took his first training session and it was all happiness and a sense of relief devoured the training ground.
Sarri is a manager who likes to leave a longterm legacy at a club he takes up the reins at. If he’s to do this at Chelsea, it will be one of the toughest asks in his managerial career. Keeping the players, the board, and the owner happy at the club, will take some doing.
We all know the previous two managers failed at their attempts.
But he is off to a good start, judging by the pictures of the players training and all the movement of players who still want to take up their trade at the London club. Jorginho is one who stands out in this regard.
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Will he be allowed to settle?
Who knows! With his boss a hound to deal with, things could be peachy now, but could turn rotten in a loss of a fixture, or two. It will be interesting to see if the Blues take up the same approach as Maurizio did at Napoli, where he was allowed to build a strong foundation.
This has inevitably lasted a while now, even beyond his care. Chelsea, have railed themselves back on track with a few positive shifts. Let’s see if it will be matched by time.