Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri only cares about money, claims Napoli president

New job: Maurizio Sarri
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Alex Young @alexwsyoung10 October 2018

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has claimed former coach Maurizio Sarri was only interested in money before his summer switch to Chelsea.

Sarri left Naples without a trophy after two years but won plaudits for his attacking style of play, Manchester City's Pep Guardiola a notable fan of the so-called 'Sarri-ball'.

De Laurentiis fell out with Sarri in the summer as Chelsea's interest become apparent, leading to Napoli hiring Carlo Ancelotti before Sarri left to leave the club with two managers.

Sarri's eventually completed his move to Stamford Bridge and has not lost in 11 competitive games since, winning nine, and De Laurentiis is still smarting from the exit.

"I thought I had met a coach who would stay at Napoli for a long time," De Laurentiis said. "At a certain point it became a question linked exclusively to money.

"Suddenly, it was established by the media that his contract must be adjusted. So what is the value of an agreement just signed? We had already gone from €700,000 to €1.5 million.

"I also once heard him say that for his next contract, he wanted to get rich.

"Sarri’s declarations of love for the city? I believed it, but then I wondered: ‘What if he was using me as a bank?'"

He continued: "Ancelotti was a date written in the football universe as if fate had decided it," he said. "It took five minutes to get an agreement. The quickest negotiation of my fifteen years of football.

"With him, we have a human relationship. We discuss our mutual interests. And if I talk about football, he doesn’t get offended."

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