The Maurizio Sarri era at Chelsea began on Monday, sort of, with a 1-0 win over Perth Glory in an international preseason friendly. It’s a win in a preseason exhibition match, but a much bigger victory for the Blues and their fan base could be right around the corner, in the form of retaining a very important, key player trifecta.
Sarri believes the extremely valuable triad, of forward Eden Hazard, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and winger William will all stay put at Stamford Bridge this summer. Real Madrid are heavily pursuing the first two, with Manchester United and Barcelona battling it out for the third member of that troika.
None of the trio are currently with the Blues on tour, as they are all on holiday following deep World Cup runs with their respective countries, Belgium and Brazil.
Maurizio Sarri says he looks forward to meeting all of them when Chelsea returns home next week to west London, and the players arrive at the Cobham training ground.
“I’d like to talk to a person face by face,” said Sarri, sounding like the many of us who are fed up with the impersonal direction communication technology has taken us these days.
“I don’t like to talk to a person by telephone. It’s a pleasure to have Courtois, to have Willian, to have Hazard, but (their club futures) doesn’t depend on me, not only on me. So, we have to wait. I’m confident.”
“Face to face, I think at the end of the month because they will come to Cobham at the end of the month,” he said.
According to reports, Chelsea would turn down the idea of selling Hazard, even if the price would potentially make him the second most expensive player in world history. And we’ve also seen reports that Chelsea have turned down three bids from Barcelona already for Willian.
Sarri then took a jab at the back pages for getting out of control with transfer rumors.
“I think that the press sell the players every single year. They buy players, they sell players,” the Italian added.
“I hope the trio can stay because they are fantastic players, fantastic talents and we need the best players in Chelsea.”
“I speak to Willian almost every day, he loves to play for Chelsea. I think he’s going to stay.”
The summer transfer window closes early this year, in just 17 days, so there isn’t all that much time to get these kinds of deals done, and that always favors the side holding the assets.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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