I Told Sarri That He Was A Transactional Kind Of Manager – Rob Green

Ex Chelsea goalkeeper, Rob Green has said he was hailed by his team-mates after he told Maurizio Sarri to have a plan B while he was Chelsea manager.

Supporters and experts kept blasting Sarri’s rigid tactics and adamant selection policy, but things got better after their strong finish to the season.

The 3rd-choice goalkeeper, Rob retired after Chelsea won the FA Cup in May, and he has now shed light on what it was like to work with Sarri at the club.

His words, “The lads put their hands up and said, ‘We care a lot’ but they spoke without saying very much,”

“I was thinking to myself: ‘I can’t have this’.

“I turned to Sarri and said: ‘Look, you are in a really difficult position and I understand that because there is stuff going on at this club that I can see, you can see and no one on the outside can see, so I get you,’ but all the while I was thinking, ‘I’m going to give him both barrels in a minute’.

“I just spelled it out. I told him: ‘You have no plan B. You’re a transactional kind of manager. The players in the group are not the kind to speak to you like this — they care very much but are scared to say something to you, like I am. I don’t care because what are you going to do — drop me!?’

“I spoke for 15 minutes. A lot of players said afterwards that they enjoyed me saying that: ‘You said what I wanted to say but I couldn’t say it’. Obviously, if they had, it could have affected their place in the team or their future at the club.

“Two of the assistant coaches, Gianfranco Zola and Carlo Cudicini, said something along the lines of: ‘That was brilliant. We’ve been trying but we are in a compromised position as well in that it is a very hierarchical style and there isn’t a lot of feedback coming in return.’”