Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri confirmed yesterday that he has little control over transfers at Stamford Bridge when discussing the £57 million signing of Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund.
The Blues were one of the first English clubs to adopt the European model of a Director of Football selecting and negotiating deals for transfer targets, leaving the clubs’ coach to concentrate fully on working with his squad of players.
However, for the model to work best, it usually requires both manager and hierarchy to work closely together so both parties are in agreement when deciding on which new recruits would suit best.
It has not always been plain sailing for Chelsea though with previous bosses Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte constantly at loggerheads with the Stamford Bridge bosses for not pursuing deals for players they wanted to bring to West London.
Speaking after last night’s home draw against Southampton Sarri revealed that had very little input in the signing of Pulisic and even admitted that he did not know until yesterday that the deal was about to go through.
“I didn’t know anything about Christian Pulisic yesterday. The club asked my opinion about him one month ago and my opinion was positive and I knew the deal was done but I didn’t know anything. I’m not in charge of the market,” Sarri told BBC Sport.
“We have to play every three days so I cannot think of next year, I have to think about the next match.”
Check out where Pulisic fits in among the 10 biggest transfers in Chelsea’s history…
