Chelsea transfer news: Willian talks have been ‘very positive’ says Maurizio Sarri, but confusion over Thibaut Courtois

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Maurizio Sarri has said that he has had “very positive conversations” with Brazilian forward Willian over his future at the club.

Willian was supposed to report back from his post World Cup holiday last Friday, with Chelsea hopeful he would play some part in Wednesday night’s friendly defeat by Arsenal in Dublin. However, the Brazilian failed to arrive as expected when his passport expired.

A source at the club later confirmed that Willian — who has been persistently linked with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United this summer — did not arrive at Chelsea’s training base until Wednesday afternoon, a full five days after he was originally due back.

That left Sarri declaring he would hold “urgent talks” with the 29-year-old, and ahead of the Community Shield against Manchester City the new Chelsea boss said his conversation with the player had been a positive one.

“I spoke with him [on Thursday] about being late,” Sarri said.

“It was a very positive conversation so I am happy about it. I think that there is no longer a Willian problem.” When asked if he was confident Willian would stay at the club, Sarri replied: “Very confident.”

There was however no significant transfer update on goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who has been linked with a summer move to Real Madrid.

Sarri has repeatedly insisted that he wants the Belgian to stay at the club but admits his future is up in the air.

“I don’t know,” Sarri said when asked about the player’s future at Stamford Bridge. “At the moment Courtois is the goalkeeper of the club but I do not know in the future.

“It depends on the club and especially on him, I think. But I hope that Courtois will be our goalkeeper.”

Chelsea meet Manchester City in the Community Shield, having drawn pre-season friendlies with Inter Milan and Arsenal in the International Champions Cup, and Sarri said that he was relishing the chance to coach a team at Wembley for the first time.

“I am looking forward to playing at Wembley,” he added. “But the match will be difficult for us.

“I want to win because it’s important. But I think at this moment it is more important about performance. We have to improve of course. I hope to see from my team another step up in performance.”