A despondent Malang Sarr is being made to train with Chelsea’s Under-21 side by Mauricio Pochettino and the defender’s inner circle are said to be ‘worried’ about him after a January transfer to Le Havre collapsed.
Sarr joined Chelsea on a free transfer back in 2020 from Nice before being immediately loaned to Porto, where he made just eight league appearances across the 2020/21 campaign.
After a string of proposed loan moves broke down in the summer of 2021, Sarr decided to stay put at Chelsea and fight for his place, going on to make his Premier League debut in a 1-0 victory over Brentford in the absence of Thiago Silva and Antonio Rudiger.
But Sarr’s continued struggles for regular playing time saw the former France Under-21 international complete a season-long loan switch to Monaco last term, with the Ligue 1 outfit given the option to sign the player permanently for a fee of £12.6million.
Monaco decided against triggering that option after a muscle injury required surgery and brought Sarr’s season to a premature end – and the centre-back was subsequently left out of Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the United States.
Perhaps Sarr’s lowest moment came last August when a newly appointed Pochettino appeared dumfounded at the mention of his name in his press conference prior to Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Luton.
According to The Athletic, close friends of Sarr have never seen the centre-half so down after a potential move to Le Havre fell through on the final day of the January transfer window.
Mauricio Pochettino when the board told him there had been a bid for Malang Sarr: pic.twitter.com/SESzju4555
— Chels HQ (@Chels_HQ) February 1, 2024
The report states that Sarr no longer has a locker in the first-team building with the rest of Pochettino’s squad and instead gets changed with the club’s youth players in the academy complex.
Sarr was sent to train with Chelsea’s U21s after being snubbed for last summer’s tour of the USA and that is where the Frenchman has remained ever since.
Despite the dire situation he finds himself in, it’s claimed Sarr has remained professional throughout his time in west London and even tries to ‘hide his feelings’ from the rest of his team-mates.
A source told The Athletic: ‘I have never seen him as low as this. This is the first time I have seen him like this. He tries to change his mental state, but it is hard when you are not playing.
‘He is not in the first-team dressing room anymore, he is with the kids in the other building. He feels outside the group. He tries to hide his feelings, but I know him, what he is really feeling.
‘He wants to play football and works hard for that. He is completely fit. But at the moment, he does not know where he is going to play. Friends and family go stay with him occasionally. It is important for him to have people around him.
‘He loved playing under Tuchel. But some of the closest friends he made, like N’Golo Kante andMason Mount, have left. He goes to train because it is his job but I know he finds it very hard because any footballer who knows they are not going to play matches will find it difficult.’
After Sarr’s proposed move to Le Havre fell through last month, the Ligue 1 outfit accused Chelsea of going back on previous agreement and ignoring their calls – claims the Premier League club completely deny.
‘What Chelsea did to Malang Sarr was disgraceful,’ Le Havre director Mathieu Bodmer said.
‘With just a few details still to be worked out, they did a U-turn. They gave the youngster the go-ahead to travel, and a financial agreement had been reached for the 18 months of his remaining contract at Chelsea.
‘However, on several occasions, they went back on their agreement, and then gave it again. And once the player had agreed to make a big effort, to come to us on a tiny salary, just to play football, they blocked him.
‘Everything was OK, the contract had even been submitted to the league (LFP), but we never received Chelsea’s cancellation. In the end, they just told him he wouldn’t be leaving and they didn’t even answer the phone anymore.’
Sarr is tied into a contract at Stamford Bridge until the summer of 2025 on wages of £100,000-a-week.
All 21 of Sarr’s appearances for the Blues came under Thomas Tuchel in the 2021/22 season.
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