Despite Maurizio Sarri's 'boredom' of transfers, they will dominate his start to life at Chelsea

The futures of Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois are the two main areas for concern

Maurzio Sarri began his unveiling as Chelsea manager by claiming that he is “bored of the transfer market”, but the market will still dominate his start in the job before the window closes three weeks from tomorrow.

The futures of Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois are top of the agenda, with both players pursued by Real Madrid, and neither giving a clear indication yet that they are desperate to stay at Chelsea. Real’s negotiations to sign Courtois are already progressing towards a £35m agreement.

But Sarri was pointedly relaxed about the issue at his Stamford Bridge press conference on Wednesday afternoon, insisting that he would not even need to speak to Hazard and Courtois before their scheduled return to Cobham. Even though that return will be just a few days before the transfer window shuts.

Hazard and Courtois, along with N'Golo Kante and Olivier Giroud, are due to return to Chelsea on the weekend of 4-5 August, the weekend of the Community Shield, three weeks after their last game at the World Cup. The transfer window closes on Thursday 9 August and Chelsea begin their Premier League campaign away at Huddersfield Town on 11 August, before hosting Arsenal the following Saturday.

Despite the pressing schedule, and the apparent need to secure those two players’ futures, Sarri said he would not be calling Courtois and Hazard to speak to them.

“I don’t think so, honestly,” Sarri said when asked. “Clearly the players you are referring to are very high level players and I would like to keep them in my squad. But a telephone call without looking at them in the eyes would not give me any certainty. I would like to meet these players face to face to understand them and what the best thing is to do for everyone. Before that I would also like a player to come on the pitch for four and five days with me to have a clear idea on what the situation is.”

Hazard has three weeks off before he returns to Chelsea (EPA)

This does not mean that Chelsea will not be speaking to the players at all over the next few weeks. Club officials are in touch with the players’ representatives, especially with Real Madrid’s negotiations with Chelsea over a £35m fee for Courtois already at an advanced stage. Hazard’s future is more in the balance, given that he has two years left on his contract, rather than one. Chelsea still hope that they can persuade him to stay with an improved contract offer.

Sarri said that as much as he would like to keep Hazard and Courtois, he was a manager who proved himself on the training pitch rather than in the transfer market. Napoli had to sell Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus for €90m in 2016 but continued to improve for the next two seasons regardless.

“Clearly we would always like to keep the strongest players, this is what any manager and club wants to do. We will have to see how the transfer market goes. But I want to clarify I feel I am more of a field manager, a pitch manager than a general manager. I think I am one of the few managers who is bored by the transfer market. I don’t want to talk about it, I am not that interested in it. I think our task as managers is about growing the players we have.”

While Sarri is not banking on spending hundreds of millions on players before the season starts, he has already made one important signing, taking his old player Jorginho from Napoli, beating Manchester City to his signature. But even after signing Jorginho, Sarri would still like more quality in midfield to help his Chelsea team play in his style of football. He knows that if he does not get those players, he will have to adapt.

“I spoke with the club and said that ideally I think that a pinch of quality is lacking in our central midfield for a certain type of play,” Sarri said. “Otherwise they are a very high level. At the end of the transfers it will be up to me to understand which type of game is the most suitable for the final squad. I cannot claim to come here to change 20 players, I must adapt to Chelsea and the players and then we will see if we change something in my game, because the squad is making me play a different game, because of their characteristics.”