According to journalist Duncan Castles, Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri is ‘happy to lose his job’ after a miserable first season in the Premier League.
The former Napoli manager joined the Blues last summer and has failed to impress the board and fans have been calling for the former banker to be sacked in summer.
Chants of ‘we want Sarri out’ and ‘f**k Sarriball’ have been clearly heard at recent games as the Blues toil in their battle for a top-four finish and return to Champions League football.
Chelsea started well under the Italian after he replaced countryman Antonio Conte last summer.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Transfer Window Podcast, Castles said: “I have been informed by a couple of sources that Sarri is not against being sacked by Chelsea.
“He’s not enjoying his time in London, he’s not enjoying working at the club, he finds the distance between himself and the ownership immense and feels he has no proper say in the transfer market.
“His argument is the way he plays football is fine, it’s merely an issue with personnel – if he had better personnel the results would be better – to the point where he would be happy to lose his job.
“He has an offer from Roma. Franco Baldini, who is a major figure in the strategy of Roma and a close advisor to the owner, has talked with Sarri and wants him to come back to Italy and be the next coach of the club.
“They’ve tried to get Jose Mourinho, but Mourinho has turned them down.
“Sarri they feel is a strong option, not least because Sarri has encouraged them in that interest.
“If you look at it from Sarri’s perspective the ideal way to go back to Italy would be on the back of a large, significant payoff from Chelsea, which is not to say he’s going to deliberately underperform to the end of the season, I don’t think that’s the case at all. He’s a proud man, he wants to demonstrate that he can win silverware with the club.”
Castles added: “But what I’m told by more than one person is he will not resist if Chelsea decide to dismiss him and would quite happily accept his severance cheque and then take one of the bigger jobs in Serie A and return to his home country.”