Sarri unable to give guarantees over Hazard and Courtois’ Chelsea future

For a man whose only previous association with the Premier League was allegedly calling the former title victor Roberto Mancini a “poof” and a “faggot” during a Coppa Italia tie two years ago, Maurizio Sarri did not put a foot wrong during his first appearance as Chelsea head coach yesterday.

While Sarri is unlikely to make the kind of waves that Conte did with his pointed comments about Chelsea’s shortcomings in the transfer market, he did reveal that he has discussed potential summer targets with the club, focusing on midfield. “I think our task as managers is growing the players that we have”. For us, he’s our most important player.

ESPN correspondent Liam Twomey asked a further question comparing Hazard with Dries Mertens, who developed under Sarri at Napoli.

With the 22-year-old uncertain of achieving anything remotely similar at Real Madrid, the move to Chelsea could be appealing. “When Ronaldo left United, it propelled him and I think it is time for Hazard to propel himself to that next level”.

“I would also like a player to come on the [training] pitch four or five days to have a clear idea”.

Sarri says Hazard is “one of the top two or three European players”, adding that he hopes “to improve Hazard but that will be hard”.

But talks are ongoing over a transfer to the Bernabeu for the Belgium intentional.

Former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane will rejoin Juventus, who he played for between 1996 and 2001, as an advisor.

Real Madrid are the huge favourites to sign both players with their odds as low as 1.33 to sign Hazard and just 1.20 to sign Courtois.

‘Antonio [Conte] reached incredible results here, he is an extraordinary manager and clearly I play in a slightly different way so it will take some time.

Sarri conducted most of his news conference in Italian although he is able to speak English. “But I don’t know how is our best at the moment”, Sarri said.

“I hope this initial time can be shortened”.

“I must adapt to Chelsea, I must adapt to the available players”.

Bakayoko joined Chelsea in a £40m deal from Monaco last season but failed to light up Stamford Bridge and actually struggled to perform under Antonio Conte.