Chelsea v Man City: Rob Green challenging Maurizio Sarri after 2019 loss was wild | OneFootball

Former England goalkeeper Rob Green may never have played a competitive game for Chelsea, but the dressing down he gave former Blues’ boss Maurizio Sarri after a 6-0 defeat at Manchester City will live long in the memory of all who witnessed it.

Games between Chelsea and City in the recent past have generally been tightly-contested affairs, with the two sides often meeting to contest major honours.

However, there was nothing close about Chelsea’s visit to the Etihad in February 2019 when they were thoroughly humiliated by Pep Guardiola’s men.

Sarri’s west London side were 4-0 down within 25 minutes as Sergio Aguero ran riot. The City legend bagged two before the break and went on to complete his hat-trick 11 minutes into the second period.

It was a nightmare afternoon for Sarri, who had no answer to the onslaught of the opposition.

As Green explained to The Athletic after leaving Stamford Bridge later that same year, the Chelsea squad had lost all confidence in Sarri after the defeat, but none of the Blues’ team wanted to outright confront the Italian.

It was then that Green decided to make a stand on behalf of his colleagues in explosive fashion.

Rob Green went in hard on Sarri after comprehensive Chelsea defeat

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

Green clearly felt for his boss on some level at having to deal with the politics that came with working at Chelsea at the time. However, the veteran shot-stopper also recognised he had pretty much nothing to lose by making his thoughts known.

Having just celebrated his 39th birthday, Green was already deep into what would be the final season of his professional career.

“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!?’”

It was a savage rant from Green, but one that his fellow players and staff would later congratulate him for.

“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,” Green reasoned.

Club legend Gianfranco Zola was among the Chelsea backroom staff to echo those sentiments.

“Two of the assistant coaches, 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.”

How did Sarri react to Green calling him out in the Chelsea dressing room?

Despite all that positive feedback, though, Green knew he was soon going to have to answer to Sarri for his outburst.

Surprisingly, the former Napoli manager took the pointed criticism well.

Green continued: “How did Sarri take it?” We were all walking out of the room at the end and he was standing at the door.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh f***, I’m dead’ but he shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you, that’s the first time anyone has made me think at a meeting.'”

Although Green would claim in the interview that his speech “hadn’t changed anything”, Sarri was able to lift Chelsea from sixth place after their battering at the hands of City to ultimately finish in third the Premier League at the end of the season.

Having also guided the London side to the Europa League title at the conclusion of the campaign, Sarri decided to depart on a high and return to his homeland with Juventus later that summer.

Enzo Fernandes to Chelsea is done! (Football Terrace)

What are Green and Sarri doing now?

Green’s own Chelsea journey came to an end during the same period. The ex-West Ham and Norwich ‘keeper hung up his boots after leaving the club and now works as an occasional pundit, while also selling fine art to professional footballers.

Sarri, meanwhile, is now head coach at Lazio, having been sacked by Juventus in August 2020 after just a single season.

The Italian was able to transform his time at Chelsea with a strong end to his sole campaign in charge – and that’s exactly the sort of finish that current Blues’ boss Graham Potter requires to the 2022/23 season.

With the club sat well short of the Premier League top 4 ahead of Man City’s visit to Stamford Bridge on Thursday, a positive result is a must for Potter as he looks to resurrect Chelsea’s charge for Europe.