Maurizio Sarri has spoken about the regret he feels in pushing to leave Chelsea after only one campaign at Stamford Bridge, calling the decision ‘a sensational mistake’.
Sarri got his wish to leave the club and moved to Juventus in 2019 but looking back now, he feels he was wrong to push for a return to Italy and says that Marina Granovskaia, the Chelsea director, wanted him to stay.
Sarri, who is now the Lazio manager, believes that the team Chelsea have these days is better suited to his style of play.
Speaking to AlfredoPedulla.com, Sarri said: ‘At Chelsea I made a sensational mistake, that of wanting to return to Italy at all costs.
‘Marina stonewalled me to leave Chelsea, I had this desire to return to Italy. Chelsea are a great club, in the following years they have taken many young people suitable for me.
‘I experienced a particular year, in which Abramovich could not enter England and we had an owner who was not present in the area.
‘A rather difficult situation, all in the hands of Marina and she had a thousand problems to solve, the football aspect was in the hands of us of the staff, not having the economic power available. ‘Then came Werner, Havertz, Mount, Ziyech: all suited to me and my way of playing.’
In his final game at the club, Sarri oversaw a 4-1 win over Arsenal in the final of the Europa League in 2019, his first major honour as a coach. They also finished third in the Premier League.
But despite landing silverware, Sarri was never popular with the Chelsea supporters and there were calls for Chelsea to replace Sarri with Frank Lampard.
Sarri, meanwhile, spent the 2019-20 campaign as Juventus manager and won the Serie A before he was replaced by Andrea Pirlo.
‘It was taken for granted,’ Sarri said of his success with Juventus. ‘I think mine was not celebrated very much.’
On being replaced by Pirlo, Sarri said: ‘This is the Guardiola effect that did so much damage in the end. An exception was taken as if it were a rule and you run the risk of burning some guys who would be great coaches after a few years.
‘Sometimes there is a risk of hindering the careers of young people who could become very good with a little more experience.’
