COMMENT: Shrewd. Decisive. Whichever way you slice it, Chelsea's swoop for Malang Sarr this week was one to admire...
Marina Granovskaia, the club's managing director, didn't mince words when announcing the five-year contract Sarr had just inked. Much like the deal itself, Granovskaia told us straight. There was no reason for flowery language: it was simply an opportunity too good to miss.
"The opportunity to sign Malang was one we could not miss," said Granovskaia, before admitting Nice's homespun hero will be sent out on-loan. Why? Well, that's easy. This was one signing no-one inside Chelsea was planning for. But with Sarr receptive to the overtures of their intermediaries, Blues reps moved swiftly. Frank Lampard may not have a place for Sarr in his squad this season, but the manager knows a player when he sees one. Again, this was an opportunity neither he nor Granovskaia wanted to miss.
"He is a tremendous prospect," continued Granovskaia, "and we will be monitoring him closely during his loan period, hoping he will soon be back at Chelsea."
That loan is expected to involve a move to Germany. Indeed, Sarr was well and truly down the road to signing with a Bundesliga club before Chelsea's intervention. Borussia Monchengladbach were favourites. RB Leipzig had also been mentioned. Sarr confirmed both clubs had made attempts for him a year ago. Even Borussia Dortmund, where Sarr's former coach Lucien Favre is in charge, were weighing up a move. Indeed, inside Nice they were convinced Sarr would settle on the Bundesliga.
“Malang is a smart player," said OGCN's football chief Julien Fournier. "He is good at building the game and has great confidence.
“He will be free and can decide to go where he wants this summer. I have no doubt not that he can survive in Germany."
Yet instead, the 19 year-old is now on the books at Chelsea. Blues fans will have to wait 12 months to see him in their shirt, but there can be little doubt: this one is a real coup.
With Nice since the age of six, Sarr was a first teamer at 17. And for that season, four years ago, the young stopper played more senior games than anyother player for his age across Europe. Favre, always confident in Sarr's mentality, had set him on his way.
"He can handle competition," said the Swiss while still in charge at Nice. "I don't have to worry about him. Even at 18, he has a strong mind."
Malang Sarr and Patrick Vieira together at Nice
Favre's successor, Arsenal icon Patrick Vieira, would make Sarr an ever-present. Whether at centre-half or left-back, Vieira - just like Favre - has never found himself questioning Sarr's approach.
"He has the personality of a leader," says Vieira, who knows a thing or two about leadership. "He stays focused and performs great. He answers simply and clearly.
"My role, along with my staff, has been to help him progress. To talk to him so he knows what is needed to reach the highest level. And you can see Malang is listening."
It's that personality which saw Sarr last season call out a former teammate of his: none other than one Mario Balotelli. And on the eve of meeting him against Olympique Marseille no less...
"He knows very well that his behavior was not to everyone's liking," Sarr declared. "He set himself apart, decided not to integrate, not to be in the club project. It was embarrassing. It's a shame to have acted in this way but it was his decision."
For Sarr, the slight from Balotelli had nothing to do with him, but the Italian's approach to his profession. Coming through the OGCN system, Sarr has famously stated it cut him deep seeing teammate-after-teammate, friend-after-friend, fall away as he progressed through the age levels.
"The training system is cruel," says Sarr, "where everyone has gone, little by little, over the years. I even tried to help some who looked like they were for the cut."
Given those thoughts, you can understand the exasperation of Sarr, even at 19 years of age, when confronted by a senior teammate of Balotelli's attitude.
As Vieira says, this is the "personality of a leader" and a big factor why Chelsea moved so decisively this week.
Agents have known since April that Sarr would not be renewing his contract with OGCN. There was no dispute. Indeed, there's been no fallout. It was simply accepted for the talent and potential Sarr possesses, it was inevitable he would be eventually moving on.
"I will remain an OGC Nice player for life, that's how it is," says the 21 year-old. "I started here, I lived everything here, it's the club in my city, it's my club of heart.
"It's a chapter that is closing, I have another to open. I can't wait to see what it has in store for me."
Well, what's in store now is a move to England, a five-year contract and the chance to follow the paths of William Gallas, Franck Leboeuf and Marcel Desailly. Not bad company to keep and in France there's many claiming Sarr has the potential to reach the same levels.
This could be one of the most shrewd signings pulled off by Chelsea in recent years.
