Chelsea Rumors: Sarri Could Have Taken Over From Lampard But Chairman Intervened

KEY POINTS

A Maurizio Sarri return to Chelsea would have made sense if it happened
Sarri hopes to continue his coaching career at Naples
Thomas Tuchel continues to lead the Blues but knows work needs to be done on the offensive side

Chelsea needed someone who could take over from Frank Lampard, and the fortunate successor was Thomas Tuchel.

Things have changed tremendously for the Blues since the German took over although it appears there was another familiar name in the mix to succeed Lampard–Maurizio Sarri.

According to RAI Sport via Area Napoli, the former Blues boss had allegedly agreed to return to Stamford Bridge.

The Italian manager had already said yes and that Marina Granovskaia batted for him to return.

Unfortunately, the said plan never came to fruition after Chelsea top brass Roman Abramovich stepped in.

With all that now a foregone conclusion, Sarri is now aiming to handle Napoli, a move that the 62-year-old’s wife and son are fully supporting.

Sarri last managed Juventus but was eventually sacked. This is despite the fact that his tenure resulted in delivering the Europa League silverware to The Black and Whites.

He was relieved in August 2020 when Juve got eliminated from the 2019-20 UEFA Championship League round of 16 by Lyon.

The Italian manager handled Chelsea from 2018 to 2019 before choosing to move to JFC, a move that reports say was to have him closer to his parents in Italy.

Sarri managed 40 wins, 11 draws, and 12 losses, managing an average of 2.08 points per game as the Blues manager.

As most know by now, all this is water under the bridge. Tuchel has taken over and has so far held a clean slate in six games.

Since taking over, he has racked up 14 points out of a possible 18. But as far as the German is concerned, there remains a lot of work to be done.

Maurizio Sarri, manager of Juventus FC Getty Images | Stefano Guidi

Part of Tuchel’s success with the Blues has been because of good defense. Now, he plans to address their attacking puzzle which should be daunting with the likes of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech in the fold.

"We think day and night about scoring and creating chances. We play high up the pitch and given the statistics from the last matches, I know we don't score enough for the number of touches in the box, the number of shots, the number of chances we're creating," Tuchel stated via Sky Sports.