Zinedine Zidane wants to come back to football. There is the managerial legacy of three Champions Leagues in three seasons at Real Madrid that it would be a shame to blight by underachieving elsewhere.
But at 46, and still with a passion for the game, he is not going to live off those extraordinary achievements for the next two decades until he reaches a more fitting retirement age. He wants a role somewhere.
After a relaxing sabbatical, holidaying in the Alps, sightseeing in London and watching his youngest sons play youth football in Madrid he is increasingly ready to come back to the game.
It could be that the start of next season is the right time. Chelsea could yet turn out to be the right club. But – as is the way with coaches who have no need to prove anything more in their careers – he is going to take some persuading.
He is not going to need a £200million war chest or a new five-year, £300,000-a-week contract for Eden Hazard. He’s been out of football for a while but he hasn’t been on the moon.
He knows, as most people in football do, that Roman Abramovich’s interest in football and Chelsea is currently at an all-time low – the club’s owner is unlikely to go from not turning up for matches this season, to investing more than he’s ever done, next.
But Chelsea will need to massively improve on last summer’s recruitment. Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and Kepa Arrizabalaga might have satisfied Sarri but they will not be enough for Zidane. Sarri was glad to be given the chance to manage a Premier League heavyweight; Zidane doesn’t need anyone to ‘give him a chance’.
Sarri was, and maybe still is, so convinced in his own methods that he believes personnel to be secondary. Zidane doesn’t have a ‘method’. There is no ‘Zizouball’.
He will take what quality comes his way. But he will demand quality. A FIFA-imposed ban on transfers would be a serious impediment to hiring him. Although, not, if it was preceded by an appeal that allowed for one summer of big spending.
He will want assurances that the squad gets a major face-lift so he can compete with Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino, who he bumped into at central London restaurant Locanda Locatelli two weeks ago.
Zidane’s pragmatism would take Chelsea in the opposite direction to Sarri – a sort of reverse of the 2011 switch from Carlo Ancelotti to Andre Villas-Boas.
Ancelotti is the coach Zidane most draws from. The only philosophy is to get good players doing what they do best – the system serving the stars of the team not vice-versa.
And if Hazard were not at Chelsea then someone of his style would have to come in to replace him. Zidane had a reasonable relationship with Isco at Real Madrid. He picked him to start last season’s European Cup final ahead of Gareth Bale.
Isco is completely out of favour at Madrid but on Wednesday Diario AS revealed that, despite have barely played this year, he is signing a new sponsorship deal with Adidas – the same brand Zidane represents, and was representing in London when he dined with David Beckham and chatted with Pochettino.
Zidane still lives in Madrid and his youngest sons Theo and Elyaz, 16 and 13 respectively, are still very much in the Real Madrid youth system.
Any move would be a family upheaval but joining the cast of managers in the Premier League is attractive, as is the idea of living in London with his wife Veronique Fernandez.
The biggest factor in him being convinced or otherwise could end up being Abramovich. Were the owner to go to the same lengths he once went to in the, ultimately failed, attempt to bring in Guardiola, Zidane maybe convinced.
If there is no change in the current mood at the club however, then Zidane will not be interested in climbing aboard. He will wait for another offer to come along, knowing that one definitely will.
