Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri will be sacked before their next game, ex-Blues striker Chris Sutton said after their FA Cup defeat by Manchester United.
The Italian watched his side limp out of the FA Cup, he resembled a jaded end-of-the-pier entertainer going through the same old act that once brought him acclaim but is now greeted with open hostility and – even more painfully – mockery.
The early weeks of the season, when the ‘Sarri-ball’ philosophy that won him the adulation of peers such as Pep Guardiola brought optimism to Chelsea, seemed an age away as Manchester United breezed into the FA Cup quarter-final without needing to raise a gallop.
The rot was exposed by the 4-0 loss at Bournemouth and the 6-0 humiliation by Manchester City – their heaviest defeat for 28 years – but here they were embarrassed in their own home. And how the fans let Sarri know it as they loudly registered their disapproval.
Fans booed the Italian’s substitutions during the fifth-round match, and joined in when United supporters sang “you’re getting sacked in the morning”.
“This is Maurizio Sarri’s last game at Chelsea. The Italian job is over for them,” said BBC Radio 5 live pundit Sutton after the 2-0 home defeat.
“He’s done.”
Chelsea’s fans have already decided. Sarri has lost them.
And once a fanbase is lost, it usually takes something out of the ordinary to win them back, something Sarri shows no signs of delivering.
Sarri has not, and does not, help himself with a stubborn refusal to change tack to such an extent his substitutions are now so predictable they are greeted with sarcastic applause and the sound of laughter.
He is the master of the like-for-like substitution – all very well if the results are good, but managerial madness when Chelsea end up well beaten again.
It is hard to see Sarri coming out of this crisis unscathed.
Chelsea face Malmo in the second leg of their Europa League tie at Stamford Bridge on Thursday before taking on City in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.