The recent wave of far-right extremism in Italy has now apparently reached the rustic shores of Naples, with Napoli chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis branding his club’s former and now Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri a communist.
Such was the profound effect of far-right politician Matteo Salvini’s rise to power to the Partenopei chairman that in a recent interview with an Italian newspaper, de Laurentiis launched a bizarre tirade on Sarri, who managed the Partenopei from 2015-2018, calling the 59-year-old’s unwavering focus on his job as a blatant lack of personality.
De Laurentiis also conveniently used the ex-Napoli boss’ nonchalant attitude towards the transfer market to brand the coach a communist, further arguing that Sarri’s history of working in the banking industry has made him irritated with money.
“Sarri seemed timid and I discovered he was so dissatisfied with his past (working in finance). For a Communist to base his profession on the evils of money brought him to suffer from a syndrome of dissatisfaction,” said the Napoli chairman.
“I found Sarri to be very highly-strung. His wife couldn’t even come to the stadium. I used to say to Sarri, who shall we buy? He’d reply that he didn’t want to know anything about it.”
Calling a coach who prefers to work with the players he has a communist maybe a little bit of a stretch but if one even tries to consider de Laurentiis’ statement as a sort of warning of things to come at Chelsea, should we then take into account that, having shifted “left-winger” Dries Mertens into a centre-forward in his stint at Napoli, while also having done the same in recent matches with Eden Hazard at west London, is Sarri about to start Chelsea’s very own Bolshevik revolution at Stamford Bridge, especially with recent rumours stating Roman Abramovich is planning to sell the club?
Perhaps the timid, tactics-obsessed head coach wouldn’t care less.
