Maurizio Sarri tells Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich: Sack me now if you are not happy with my season's work

Maurizio Sarri has told Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich that he should sack him now if his job as head coach rests on next week’s Europa League final against Arsenal.

And Sarri has also confirmed that he would like to hold talks over his future after the Baku final, with Juventus keen to take him back to Italy and Roma also showing interest.

Chelsea will not make any decision on Sarri until after the Arsenal match, but will not stand in the 60-year-old’s way if he expresses a desire to return to his home country.

Sarri has 12 months, plus a year’s option, remaining on his contract which is worth £5million-a-year and Chelsea would demand that was paid up by Juventus or any other club that wants him.

Chelsea have qualified for the Champions League already after finishing third in the Premier League and also reached the Carabao Cup final. Asked if it would be fair for a decision on his future to be taken on the Europa League final, Sarri replied: “No, if the situation is like this I want to go immediately.

“You cannot say 10 months of work and then I have to play everything in 90 minutes. It's not right. It's not the right way. You're either happy about my work or you're not happy.”

Sarri, however, was far less bullish on the prospect of him still being at Chelsea next season, insisting next Wednesday’s final is his future.

“My future is Wednesday, I think,” said Sarri. “I need to think only about the final at this moment. I have two years of contract here, so I have no contact with other clubs at the moment. I have to speak at my club first of all after the final. I want to know if they are happy with me or not. That is it. I have two more years of contract.

“As I said before, I'm very happy to stay in the Premier League. Chelsea are one of the most important clubs in the Premier League, I think. So I'm really very happy. But we have to discuss about the situation. But it's normal. In every season, you have to discuss the situation with the club. You do it like this.”

Abramovich was in Boston last week for Chelsea’s post-season charity friendly against New England Revolution, but he and Sarri only briefly discussed the ruptured Achilles’ tendon suffered by Ruben-Loftus-Cheek that will keep the midfielder out for up to a year.

“The owner was there (to see me) only to ask the condition of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, of course,” said Sarri. “I spoke with him only for one minute, no more. But only about Loftus-Cheek.

“About a meeting, I don't know the date. If there will be a meeting, even. The situation is clear: I have a contract. In my opinion it would be better to speak about the season, but the situation is clear.”

Sarri refused to discuss the proposed return of former Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, who is expected to start his last-ever game for Arsenal in Baku before re-joining the Blues in a technical role.

But he did back Arsenal’s criticism of using Baku as the venue for the final and insisted the pressure will be on the Gunners, whose only hope of qualifying for the Champions League is by winning the Europa League.

“Baku is a big problem for our fans, so I think it would have been better to play it in another location,” said Sarri, who believes N’Golo Kante will be fit. “The situation will be the same for both teams. But, of course, it would be better to play with 30,000 fans of Chelsea and 30,000 fans of Arsenal. You do this job for this match. For these matches. So it's better for everybody to have the fans with the team.”

On the absence of Arsenal’s Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who has announced he will not travel to Azerbaijan over safety fears, Sarri added: “I'm really disappointed for the situation because I'd like to see him on the pitch. In this situation, you only have to respect the decision of the man. Not the player, the man.”

Sarri questioned the motivation of his players at times this season and it could be argued that Arsenal have more to play for in the final, with Chelsea safely qualified for next season’s Champions League.

“It's a risk, of course,” said Sarri. “On the other hand, we have to consider the pressure. In this moment, we risk to have less motivation than the opponents, but probably they have more pressure on them than we do at the moment. So there is a positive side and a negative side in both.

“We didn't want to play this final for a Champions League place. As I said two months ago, we wanted the Champions League through the Premier League. Then we wanted to win a trophy. So the final is very important for us. We aren't playing for the Champions League, but we feel we deserve to win a trophy.

“I think that we had a good season, with a lot of problems of course. We lost two or three matches very, very badly. But, at the end, we had a very good season. Now we have the possibility to play the final of the Europa League. So the season is a very good season. If we win, it will become a wonderful season.”