Gonzalo Higuain: Why Maurizio Sarri believes in a criticized attacker?

"To be abandoned like that, it was awful," said Maurizio Sarri. The news that his star striker was leaving for Juventus hurt him terribly.

Gonzalo Higuain had just entered history, beating a Serie A goals record, considered by many as indestructible, with 36 league goals in a season (which gives him a lead over Gunnar's record) Nordahl at AC Milan in 1949-1950). He did it during a campaign during which Napoli made his biggest challenge to the title since his last title in 1990.

The team had excelled in the 2015-16 season, but it ended up tied, defeated by Juve de Mbadimiliano Allegri.

"I could have accepted it had gone to the Premier League," said Sarri, the boss of Napoli. "But not Juventus, going there made it all the harder bye."

After a few months, Sarri was softened. He has forgiven and forgotten a transgression that many fans of Napoli still consider treason.

"It's a bit like when one of your sons makes you angry," he explained. "You can destroy them for a few days, but at the end of the day, he's still your son."

Party but not forgotten

Sarri knows what he wins by bringing Higuain to Stamford Bridge

In October 2016, Higuain and Sarri hugged each other for a moment before facing each other for the first time. When the match started, however, there was no room for feeling. Argentina scored the winning goal of Juventus and hit 32 times in a year that nearly ended in triples.

Last year the goals did not go as easily – Higuain had 23 in all competitions – but he still managed to beat big and break Napoli's title dreams. His goal was the only goal in San Paolo when the two teams met in early December 2017.

If Napoli had won this match, they would have been seven points clear of Juventus. Instead, the gap has been reduced to one.

Then, in April, a week after Juventus' loss to the Allianz Stadium and his six-year resignation at the Scudetto, he made a comeback at the last minute with a 89th-minute win over Inter in the San Siro. .

Sarri says that if Napoli had gone to bed earlier that night instead of staying awake to watch the Juventus game, his team might have ended 28 years of waiting for the championship.

The goal of Higuain killed the conviction of his players and settled the nearest title since 2010, perhaps even 2002. The next day, Napoli collapsed in Florence. The Partenopei were beaten before leaving the tunnel.

"We lost the title at the hotel," said Sarri. And some people outside of Italy are still wondering what Chelsea's manager sees at Higuain? They question his persistence in hiring a 31-year-old, who is considered by many to be the player who misses opportunities and penalties in the big international finals and who does not score enough goals in the Champions League playoffs.

The attacker by whom all others are judged

Higuain's England reception echoes the skepticism that Zlatan Ibrahimovic had to endure before scoring four of the Three Lions in 2012, including a 30-yard indirect shot.

In Italy, on the other hand, El Pipita is the attacker to whom all the others turn to and according to the criteria of which all the others are judged. No one has scored more goals in five and a half years in Serie A.

Higuain scored history with Sarri, breaking the season's record with a hat trick on the last day of the season, which he completed with a superb kick shot outside of the area of ​​repair.

This record existed since 1950, when the goal / match ratio was much higher than today. It's a remarkable feat for a variety of reasons – from Higuain's failed games to suspension, to the fact that almost no one scores more than 30 goals in a single Serie A campaign, let alone 36.

If we clbadify the modern era as the start of the Champions League at the time of the Higuain record, La Liga has already had more than 30 goals scored by 10 players. The Premier League had eight. Series A had one – Luca Toni. And when he did it in 2006, he was the first player to do it in 47 years.

Higuain's margin of victory at the top of the scoreboard (Paulo Dybala was the next best scorer in Serie A with 19 goals) was the biggest in history, comfortably beating the 10 goals separating the legendary Giuseppe Meazza and Rodolfo Volk in 1930.

In this context, you can perhaps understand why Sarri considers Higuain as "the best of the world" in his role and sympathize with the Italian experts who always have him in the conversation when it comes to to name the five best centers on the planet. .

Higuain deserves more success

Sarri, outspoken, said: "If he does not win the Gold Ball, he has a hard head." Gaining respect outside of Italy and Spain, where he won with Real Madrid, has proved more difficult.

One of the factors is that the profile of Serie A is not what it was in the 90s, despite the regular appearances of Juventus in the final of the Champions League and the number of executives recruited in Italy who have no problem winning the Premier League.

Another audience is wider judging only on World Cup and Champions League times [incidentally he scored twice in the 2017 semi-final].

Then there is the notion that Naples did not suffer much after the departure of Higuain. Football has only improved and Sarri has reinvented Dries Mertens in one of the top scorers of the moment.

The last six months have not really helped either. Higuain was, by his own admission, "expelled" from Juventus, but as explained by Fabio Paratici, sports director of the club: "To find a better striker than Higuain, we had only two options: Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. "

All major European clubs, with the exception of Barcelona and PSG, would have worn their current number nine if they had the means to sign CR7. Higuain should not take it personally.

The problem (and perception) is that he did, falling into the same trap as Leonardo Bonucci, who left Juventus to settle in Milan AC 18 months ago, determined to prove that his former team was wrong.

The emotions took over at the expense of its form and it was a similar story with Higuain. He scored six goals and created another – the winner of Patrick Cutrone against Roma – in seven games from the Milan derby in October.

Higuain delivered the goods and matched expectations. When Ronaldo missed a penalty, his encounter with Juventus was decisive and, to avoid spoiling, he received a red card, which triggered tantrums from the mother. It is hard to resist the temptation to argue that Higuain never recovered.

The truth is however more nuanced.

Chelsea could raise the player and the club

Milan suffered a serious injury crisis, which plagued the creators in the midfield. Hakan Calhanoglu, one of the team's most inventive players, has had a sub-par season and while Suso leads the standings, the two Milan wingers are reversed and have a tendency to fall on their feet. the strongest instead kind of cut-backs all the strikers like to be on the end.

The arrival of Ivan Gazidis as Chief Executive Officer and the UEPF decision regarding FFPs in December also influenced the strategy.

The warmth felt by Higuain within the club during the signing of his contract is appeased against the expenses related to the payment of his salary – the second highest in Serie A behind Ronaldo – not to mention the 45 million euros. euros remaining that it would have taken to reach an agreement on a permanent basis for a guy in his thirties.

The debate rages in Italy on whether Milan makes the right decision to break ties with Higuain. His substitute, Krzysztof Piatek, was the revelation of the Serie A season, but could well be a flash in the pot with a ceiling far from that of his predecessor.

The concern for Chelsea is to recruit an attacker no less sensitive than Alvaro Morata, and a man closer to the end than early in his career. But the terms of the deal mitigate the risk, as does the father-son relationship between Higuain and Sarri.

El Pipita could be the spark that gives life to Sarrismo and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.