Maurizio Sarri pictured storming out of Chelsea's final training session ahead of the Europa League final
The Blues boss appeared angry at something during his side’s final run-out ahead of their big match with Arsenal on Wednesday
Maurizio Sarri stormed out of a rare full open training Chelsea session in front of the world’s media ahead of the Europa League final.
The Blues’ preparation to face Arsenal in Baku has been far from ideal as Sarri watched a training match towards the end of his public run-out at the Baku Olympic Stadium.
Gonzalo Higuain and David Luiz were seen minorly clashing at the end of a training match during the session.
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However, it appeared to be a minor incident to spark such a volatile reaction from the 60-year-old coach, who proceeded to throw down his baseball cap, pick it up and then throw it down again before storming out of the stadium and not coming back to witness the end of his players run-out on Wednesday night.
According to a Chelsea spokesman, Sarri’s frustration was not related to the clash between Higuain and Luiz and was instead because his side were unable to practice set-pieces with the media watching.
“Maurizio’s frustration displayed at the end of training was not related to any of his players, but was due to not being able to practise set-plays in the final 15 minutes of the hour-long training session as it remained open to media,” the spokeman said.
Sarri’s frustrations may have been exacerbated by key midfielder N’Golo Kante looking set to miss out on the big match after struggling through the final full training session ahead of kick off.
He trained alone with a fitness coach and then with his team-mates but he didn’t get involved in the training match and didn’t kick a ball once during the last warm-up.
The France international is expected to join Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Antonio Rudiger on the sidelines, even though Sarri had described him as “50-50” to make it in the pre-match press conference.
Sarri had said earlier that he loved his players, which makes him think about staying amid interest from Juventus, who are looking to replace outgoing manager Massimiliano Allegri.
Goal understands that Chelsea won’t stand in Sarri’s way if he wants to join Juventus but they will ask for £5 million to buy out his contract, as talks over his future will begin after the Europa League final.
Chelsea topped Eintracht Frankfurt to book their place in the Europa League finale as Sarri looks to seal his first piece of major silverware.
The Blues finished third in the Premier League, behind only Manchester City and Liverpool, while also falling to City in the finale of the Carabao Cup.
