Maurizio Sarri lasted only one season as Chelsea manager and the club are now left with few options as his replacement.
Another year, another new manager that Chelsea needs to name as Maurizio Sarri’s time at the club is over after he accepted to become the new Juventus manager. He will be taking over from Massimiliano Allegri whose contract was not renewed.
Despite only lasting one season, Sarri did deliver a Europa League title and got Chelsea back into the Champions League by finishing in the top four. His time at the helm was not without its ups and downs, however.
Things started off to a rocky start after Sarri was introduced as manager late into preseason as Chelsea took its time in firing Antonio Conte. But he got the team off to a decent start early on in the season as he tried to implement “Sarri-ball” in an attempt to replicate the style of play people saw when he was in charge of Napoli.
The players seemed to be buying into his system and the team was winning. In a surprise upset, they also handed Manchester City their first loss of the season when the two met up at Stamford Bridge. That was arguably their high point before things started to fall apart.
Chelsea started dropping points and it was evident that the team had some deficiencies at striker and Jorginho, the player brought in at the behest of Sarri, was struggling and if the opponent kept him under check, they kept Chelsea under check as well. The low point for Sarri came in the final of the Carabao Cup when the keeper, Kepa, refused to come off after it looked like he was going to be subbed off due to injury.
While everyone was calling for Sarri to be fired or for him to resign, he kept steady and Chelsea kept progressing in the Europa League. The culmination of winning the Europa League turned their season into somewhat of a success for both club and manager. But Sarri’s future was still in question but it looked like Chelsea would have to make the first move.
In comes Juventus and Max Allegri. When it was announced that Allegri was not going to continue as manager, an opening popped up that was too good to turn down. Sarri wanted to go back to Italy and in the end, he did.
But with him now out of the picture who is out there to take become the next Chelsea manager?