Maurizio Sarri has lauded Chelsea’s work in the transfer market despite his late arrival, but admits that not being able to sign Gonzalo Higuain will remain a small regret.

By the time Sarri arrived, his predecessor Antonio Conte had already taken several of Chelsea’s pre-season training sessions, and the new man in charge was thrown into the deep end.




Jorginho was acquired from Napoli when he was all but certain to join Manchester City, and Chelsea splashed out a world record fee for a goalkeeper to snare Kepa Arrizabalaga away from Athletic Bilbao when it became clear Thibaut Courtois was leaving.

They also managed to sign Real Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovacic on loan and while Sarri admits that he could have had more of an impact on transfers, had he arrived earlier, he believes Chelsea have done good business.
 


However, Sarri wanted to sign Higuain, but the Chelsea hierarchy were not keen and the Italian admits that it will remain a small regret; the Argentine eventually signed for AC Milan.

Asked about his thoughts on Chelsea’s transfer window, Sarri told Sky Italia: “If I had arrived earlier, I would have had more impact.

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“The club was very helpful.

"We signed a great goalkeeper as it was not right to keep Courtois against his will. Kovacic can explode here and there is also Jorginho.

“The spine of the Chelsea team was already great.

“It was a small regret to not get Higuain, but every club have one at the end of the market.”

Higuain joined AC Milan from Juventus in the summer and admits other than Sarri, no one at Chelsea showed any enthusiasm to sign him.