Stamford Bridge says its farewell to the season on Thursday evening, and if the warm-ups for this last home fixture, the second leg of the Europa League semi-final, are to be heeded, we should expect applause to be delivered conditionally.
At the weekend, there were boos at half time, and then a begrudging buoyancy in the grandstands after the 3-0 win over Watford delivered an unexpectedly early confirmation that Uefa Champions League football would return to Chelsea in September via a top-four finish.
Anfield it was certainly not, but then, even for loyalists used to the habitual upheaval of managers, the undulating highs and lows of modern Chelsea, this has been a confusing nine months.
It began with a new manager, Maurizio Sarri, whose start was delayed by the prolonged settlement of terms for his predecessor Antonio Conte’s departure, and with a promise of a defined, unique style of football. Quite what that looks like is still an enigma.
What Chelsea have gathered is that Sarri has dogmas. What they always knew is that he has no significant trophies to his name. Here in mid-May, there are many yet to be persuaded his dogmas are the right ones but see a growing possibility that at the end of his first Chelsea season Sarri, like Conte, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Matteo and Rafa Benitez before him might be collecting a major prize.
The Europa League, in which Chelsea start Wednesday night’s semi-final with a light advantage thanks to their away goal in the first leg of the 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt, would be Sarri’s finest decoration in a career that previously flourished at an entertaining but silverware-free Napoli.
How far his Chelsea have entertained is another question. This is not a vintage Blues to compare to the Premier League champions of Mourinho’s version of 14 years ago, or Ancelotti’s high-scoring edition, or even the Chelsea Conte turned so compelling in 2016-17.
The boos and then the tepid applause within an hour on Sunday told the story of a whole campaign. ‘Sarriball’ as the manager’s idiosyncratic style was dubbed even before he arrived, has been seen in glimpses, barely more.
Additionally, the irregular impact that the two players most closely associated with Sarri’s Napoli, Jorginho and Gonzalo Higuain, have had on Chelsea since the club answered his petitions to sign them are no great endorsement of his capacity to graft his ideas onto this, his first managerial job outside Italy.
Chelsea have finished in the top quartet of the Premier League thanks in greater part to 'Edenball', a sport in which an uncommonly skilful Belgian bounces off a series of crude tackles, keeps possession, makes space for colleagues, and sees and executes exceptional passes and goals.
Eden Hazard has been doing that in Blue for the best part of seven years, under seven different managers. He may very well be taking part in his last home match for Chelsea on Wednesday evening. The long desire of the player to include a chapter of his career in Spain is looked on very favourably at Real Madrid.
The elegies for Eden would be sweetened if he signs off the season with a winner’s medal. “We think we we deserve a trophy this season,” said Sarri, whose high point so far was the League Cup final, lost on penalties to Manchester City.
The manager is equally conscious a post-Hazard future looks … well, hazardous. Chelsea are facing a possible transfer embargo after Fifa found the club had breached guidelines on the recruitment of young players, and pending appeal, that will be restrictive.
Sarri, to his credit, has softened the potential impact a little. The club’s notoriety for closing off first-team opportunity for graduates of their accomplished academy is less pronounced than it was.
Sarri’s Europa League adventure has been shared with the maturing homegrown talents Ruben Loftus-Cheek, 23 and scorer of a group-phase hat-trick, and Callum Hudson-Odoi, 18 and contributor of three goals in the knockout phase until ligament damage ended his season.
Their form meant Sarri could use Hazard sparingly in Europe, concentrating his best footballer on the chase for Premier League status.
The minimum target in the league now achieved, thanks to Hazard’s 14th and 15th assists of the season against Watford - he has scored 16 goals, too - the Belgian can continue the work he started in the last half hour of the first leg of the semi-final, tiring out a wearying Eintracht defence.
If anything looks like an invitation for a Sarriball steamroller at the Bridge, that should be it.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
New schools in Dubai
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
What is tokenisation?
Tokenisation refers to the issuance of a blockchain token, which represents a virtually tradable real, tangible asset. A tokenised asset is easily transferable, offers good liquidity, returns and is easily traded on the secondary markets.
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
ENGLAND SQUAD
Joe Root (c), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Alastair Cook, Sam Curran, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes
