Chelsea midfielder Pedro has likened Chelsea’s new coach Maurizio Sarri to his former coach Pep Guardiola.
Pedro played under Guardiola for five years in Barcelona, following the Catalan into the first team at Camp Nou after they worked together in the B side in 2007-08. Sarri only took over from Antonio Conte at Stamford Bridge less than two weeks ago, but the Spanish winger has already noticed parallels with the Manchester City boss.
“They are similar. Their intensity, mentality. It is good,” said Pedro. It is good. These ideas, it will take time. The coach is very motivating. A really good, honest coach. I knew of him and what he did at Napoli. I was not close with him but he is a very good coach with very good ideas. When he arrived he was very good with the players, speaking a lot and really, really hammering on the pitch his ideas. It is a very big change for the players.”
Sarri gained a reputation for an attacking brand of possession football at Napoli, where he was in charge for three seasons.
Sarri was born on 10 January 1959, in the Bagnoli district of Naples. His father, born and raised in Tuscany, moved back to the region with his family following the end of his tenure as a construction worker for Italsider, a steel company. Raised in the Figline Valdarno neighbourhood, Sarri divided his time as an amateur footballer and banker for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena in Tuscany.
His work as a banker saw him travel Europe, working in London, Zürich and Luxembourg. Sarri would work in the bank in the morning and trained and played in games in the afternoon and evening. In 1999, aged 40, Sarri transitioned into coaching, following the same schedule he adhered to for his entire work life. After gaining employment with minor side Tegoleto, he decided to quit his job to devote himself exclusively to his coaching career.
Sarri would remain in Tuscany for over a decade, managing a series of minor clubs. During this period, he obtained a number of successes, and gained interest from amateur sides. In 2000, Sarri signed for Sansovino, whom he led over the course of three years to regional championships. His successes with Sansovino caused fellow non-league side Sangiovanneseto sign him in 2003, where he remained for two seasons.
In 2005, Sarri entered the second-highest division in Italy, working for Serie B side Pescara, which marked his first job as a professional coach. Despite the aesthetic on-field success, positive results were hard to come by, causing him to sign with a mixture of professional and semi-professional clubs for the next five years, including a stint as head coach of Alessandria in Lega Pro Prima Divisione in 2010. In July 2011, he was appointed at the helm of Sorrento, coaching the club through the first months of the season until the mid-season break, leaving the club lying in 4th place and playing an attractive, slick brand of attacking football.
On 25 June 2012, Tuscan Serie B club Empoli hired Sarri after he rescinded his contract at Sorrento.In his first season, he led the club to fourth place and the playoff final, lost to neighbours Livorno.
The following season, Sarri guided Empoli to second place in the final table and direct promotion to Serie A after six years away. In the 2014–15 Serie A, Empoli avoided relegation by coming 15th.
On 11 June 2015, Sarri left Empoli and signed for the club of his city of birth, Napoli, replacing Rafael Benítez, who left after missing out on a UEFA Champions League place.
In his first season, Sarri brought in Elseid Hysaj, Pepe Reina, and Allan. The trio would go on to be first-team stalwarts for the following campaign, as Napoli finished runners-up to Juventus. Sarri found himself embroiled in a heated exchange with Roberto Mancini, then head coach of Inter Milan, in the final minutes of a Coppa Italia match on 20 January 2016, where Mancini accused Sarri of being a homophobe. Sarri responded to the accusations by affirming that he wasn’t a homophobe, stating “what happens on the field, stays on the field”.Sarri was consequently fined €20,000 and banned for two Coppa Italia matches by Lega Serie A for “directing extremely insulting epithets at the coach of the opposing team”.
Sarri also extended his stay at the club for another three years.However, Juventus would manage to sign Gonzalo Higuaín from Napoli for €90 million in the summer, who had managed to equal the record for most goals scored in a singular Serie A season, with 36. However, Sarri vetoed the possibility of spending the money on a like-for-like replacement, instead, spending sparingly on weaker positions in the side to improve on depth, while tinkering with his squad to compensate for the loss of Higuaín. This was achieved through the positional change of Dries Mertens, originally a wide-forward, who was played more centrally the following season.[citation needed] This worked to great effect, as the Belgian netted 28 goals as the club finished 3rd in 2017, while Sarri was voted the league’s coach of the year, and received the Enzo Bearzot Award. He then further extended his contract to run until 2020.
Sarri, whose Napoli side had concluded the first half of the 2015–16 season Serie A in 1st place, gained the title “Campioni d’Inverno” (“Winter Champions”) for the first time in 26 years. This led him to believe he had constructed a side capable of winning the league the following season. Napoli would begin the 2017–18 season in hot form, setting a team record for most consecutive league victories, with 8 It also took the club until December to register a league defeat, while waiting three months for another, registering ten straight victories in the process.The club also regained the title of “Campioni d’Inverno” from the previous campaign. Napoli finished the 2017–18 Serie A season in second place, four points behind Juventus. On 23 May 2018, Sarri was replaced as head coach by Carlo Ancelotti.
Sarri is well known for his smoking habit, and is often seen smoking during games. In 2018, Napoli’s UEFA Europa League opponents, RB Leipzig, built a special smoking section in the locker-room area of their stadium, Red Bull Arena, specifically for Sarri.