Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri said that he would deploy a different approach to the club’s policy of offering their 30+ players a contract extension of only one year.
The Blues are on course to lose Cesc Fabregas to Monaco this month. Additionally, David Luiz’s current contract also ends in the summer. However, as per Chelsea’s policy, they can only extend the 31-year old Brazilian’s contract by a year.
Sarri said, “I haven’t run a club so my opinion is not important. My opinion is it depends on the situation, I think. The situation is not the same for every player over 30 so its my opinion. If you are able to buy Chelsea we can discuss [changing it].”
Chelsea take on Tottenham Hotspur tonight in their first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. Speaking ahead of the match, Sarri said, “After the match in the Premier League I realised the real situation so, of course, now this match is more important. I saw my players in the dressing room after the match. They were destroyed so I realised that the match against Tottenham is a very important match for the club, the fans and the players as well.
They needed only to realise why the match was so bad and it was really very easy because the video of the first 15 minutes was clear. There was a big different in mentality, aggressiveness and determination, so it was clear.
Clear for me and also for the players. The match was really strange I think because it was a match after the international break and probably we were not able to arrive to the match with the right mentality and focus. It can happen but now we need to play another match. Here everything is really very difficult. If you think in the League Cup we played against Liverpool, now we have to play Tottenham. In an eventual final probably against Manchester City. It is like playing in the Champions League I think for the League Cup.
So here everything is really, really very difficult. The level of opponent is a really high level. The level of determination is now good, but we have to solve some problems of course. Sometimes during the match we were not able to have the right reaction to the difficulties to negative situation. In the last match we were not able to have the right reaction to a positive situation because after the second goal we conceded four shots on goal in two minutes. So we need to learn that we cannot lower the application in the defensive phase.”
