Chelsea buying Jorghino could unlock Sarri impasse — report

With Friday come and gone, with another Alfredo Pedullà-reported Sarri deadline come and gone, the Italian newsman’s credibility has pretty much vanished around these parts. Self-destructed, actually. Nobody forced him to keep making seemingly unfounded claims about the state of the negotiations between Chelsea and Napoli.

With that Vesuvius-sized caveat, here’s the latest Pedullà claim about our dystopian managerial change. If for nothing else, then for a bit amused chortling.

Esclusiva! Hey, that sounds important. I bet he’s got it right this time!

For those of us who don’t speak Italian, what that tweet and the linked story claim — claim — is that in order to solve the impasse, Napoli want Chelsea to buy both Sarri and midfielder Jorginho. This would be the same Jorginho whose representatives flew into Manchester on Friday to finalize his transfer to Pep’s squad, with the details on a €54.5m transfer being ironed-out.

So what gives?

Pedulla’s angle is that De Laurentiis, as wriggly as ever, is hoping to extract even more money from Chelsea than City have been willing to spend. So, something more than €55m, plus a payment for Sarri, and Chelsea would have a new head coach. (In a report along the same lines, Sportitalia claims that the right price is €60m.) And if Chelsea won’t bite on Jorginho, then fullback Elseid Hysaj, who played for Sarri at both Napoli and Empoli, would be an option.

So says Pedulla, whose track record is about as good as the Jamaican bobsled team’s. So while it would be immensely satisfying to do a Willian on City and also acquire a player we could really use (not to mention finally get a new coach), I wouldn’t count on it happening.