This summer’s transfer window was full of speculation about midfielder Jorginho joining Manchester City. The deal was close to being completed, however, in the end, the world-class midfielder chose Chelsea over Pep Guardiola’s side.
Once it had been confirmed the Italian international had snubbed the Etihad in favour of Stamford Bridge thousands of Blues were left a tad disappointed.
At the pre-match press conference ahead of this year’s Community Shield between City and Chelsea one journalist ask Pep to give us his thoughts about losing out on an individual player.
“The blow would be to come here but when he preferred to be in Chelsea.
“We believe we were so close, we believed it was done, but at the last turn, he decided to go to Chelsea. The same with Alexis Sanchez when he decided to go to United.”
City may have lost on a potential signing but on the day, last seasons Centurions outplayed the FA Cup winners off the park and won 3-0.
Jorginho opened up to ESPN Brasil.
“There are a lot of things behind a negotiation process,” Jorginho said when asked about his decision to join Chelsea over City. “I believe Sarri’s arrival played a big part on it.
“And there’s also the greatness of Chelsea, such a big club. So these factors helped me making my mind.”
Both Sarri and Jorginho spent a successful three year period at Napoli.
“Yes, it’s a pretty good (Sarri) relationship,” Jorginho said. “He’s always bantering, joking with me.
“He didn’t call me, because he’s not the type to be phoning players, but of course, through agents, I knew what his wish was and what kind of work would be put in here.”
“Very offensive, very offensive,” Jorginho said of Sarri’s methods. “He’s very tactical, and he works a lot on the tactical aspects of the game.
“You can see the end product when you look at Napoli and how Chelsea are playing now.
“Good football to watch, entertaining for us players to play in, because there are always good moves and the players have fun playing under him.”
On 14 July 2018, Jorginho made the Chelsea move on the same day as Sarri on a five-year deal. The London based side was thought to have paid Napoli £50m with another £7m in potential add-ons.