Jorginho is the divisive Chelsea midfielder that Pep Guardiola wanted but Blues fans didn’t
In another life, Jorginho may very well have been lining up in a different shade of blue in Porto this Saturday.
The Brazilian-born Italy international was on the cusp of joining Pep Guardiola’s champions in 2018, as they looked to build on a record-breaking 100-point season.
But things change. Chelsea announced the arrival of Maurizio Sarri as their new head coach and the allure of teaming up with his Napoli coach in west London proved too strong.
Jorginho has been Chelsea’s unlikely top league goalscorer this season with seven goals
It is a sliding doors moment that Jorginho himself must look back on and ponder, especially given his experiences at Stamford Bridge.
With Sarri proving an unpopular appointment, the diminutive central midfielder has often been tarred with the same brush.
Free from the shackles of association, though, he has now established himself as a key fixture at the heart of Thomas Tuchel’s team. He could be poised to finally enter the hearts of Chelsea supporters should he be called upon at Estadio do Dragao.
In the summer of 2018, it became clear that Jorginho was set to become a Premier League player.
Napoli had just been pipped to the Serie A title by a rampant Juventus side. Sarri’s side were lauded for playing some of the most attractive football on the continent, and at the centre of it was his No 8, pulling the strings.
Pep Guardiola had wanted the Brazilian-born midfielder to join him at Manchester City
Those performances had attracted the attention of the Premier League champions, who swooped in to seal a deal. They believed it to be done. Sarri, recently announced as Antonio Conte’s Chelsea replacement, ensured it wasn’t.
‘We were close but in the end Jorginho decided to stay with Sarri,’ Guardiola lamented at the time.
‘I’ve said before that I want players who want to come here. He didn’t want that. We tried, we believed it was done but at the last turn he decided on Chelsea.
‘Nothing to say but good luck at Chelsea. English football has an exceptional holding midfielder.’
At first, Chelsea supporters failed to agree. Sarri-ball, loved in Italy, was loathed at the Bridge, and Jorginho was the embodiment of this on the pitch.
Anger at the coach and the style of play also led to resentment for their new recruit, who started all but one of their Premier League games that season.
Jorginho was brought to the club by Maurizio Sarri, who was unpopular among Chelsea fans
So intrinsic was the link between Jorginho and Sarri that it was almost a given that he would follow the head coach to Juventus after just one season in England.
Instead, he stuck it out under Frank Lampard, with his selection now free from suspicions of preferential treatment.
His status as an automatic pick suffered, but so too did Chelsea, with the miraculous feat of a top four finish while under transfer embargo swiftly forgotten after a difficult start to the 2020-21 campaign, as over £200m-worth of new faces failed to hit the ground running.
The Italian has played a key role in the club’s renaissance under Thomas Tuchel
The blame for this was laid at Lampard’s feet by the board, as he paid for the slow start with his job. Jorginho himself, was equally as critical.
‘Look, I’ll be really sincere here on Lampard. I believe, given he was a legend at the club, he skipped some steps necessary for learning before moving to a big club,’ he told ESPN in Brazil.
‘He came to a club where he is a legend, without having experience at other clubs. I think he came too soon, skipped a few steps ahead and wasn’t ready for a job at this level, to be honest.’
For a player that had yet to endear himself to the fans after two-and-a-half seasons, it was a bold move to criticise such an icon of Stamford Bridge. It brought an inevitable backlash with it.
While some stuck up for him, insisting he had merely pointed out the obvious, fans took issue with such an open attack on one of their enduring heroes.
On Twitter, some questioned whether he was deliberately trying to stoke fans’ feelings towards him. Others suggested it didn’t matter whether he was even right, they just didn’t want to hear it.
It brought Jorginho right back to where he had started at Chelsea, in the opposite camp to supporters, pitted directly against them.
However, his form towards the end of the season has been a cause for alarm for the club
Under Thomas Tuchel, however, he had been able to let his football do the talking. The German has built his midfield on the basis of rotating Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante, with any two playing at the same time.
Having sat out eight matches under Lampard earlier in this season, he only failed to take to the pitch twice in the second half of the league campaign under the former Paris Saint-Germain boss.
His performances in the Champions League were also praised – playing all 180 minutes in the ties against Porto and Real Madrid.
He has made his mark in front of goal, too, shaking off early season problems from the penalty spot to land the unexpected role as Chelsea’s top scorer in the Premier League this season thanks to his improvement from 12 yards.
His glaring error against Arsenal almost cost the club their place in the Champions League
After missing three times earlier in the campaign – once against Krasnodar and then against Liverpool and Arsenal in the league – Jorginho has scored each of the four penalties he has taken since Tuchel’s arrival, and will assume duties should he be called upon on Saturday.
Being able to finish from 12 yards isn’t going to win fans over in its own right, and other elements to his game have still given cause for concern – his lapse against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge earlier this month almost undid all their hard work in getting themselves back into the top four race.
Still, his influence in Tuchel’s side is undeniable, and there is a renewed sense of belonging instilled by the past few months.
‘How could I want to leave the club?’ he recently asked reporters this month after talk of an exit was mooted.
‘That’s not the point. It’s not the point even talking about it now. I’ve got two more years and like I said, I really feel at home here. So there’s no point actually even talking about it.
‘And we have only just started under Thomas [Tuchel] – we’ve got a lot more to do here.’
Chelsea fans would want for little more if Jorginho could help deliver the ultimate prize on Saturday night.
He could yet have a telling contribution when Chelsea and City meet in the final in Porto
