Gianfranco Zola has admitted that Chelsea's squad tired of Maurizio Sarri's training methods.
Chelsea legend Zola was Sarri's assistant manager during his season in charge at Stamford Bridge, which saw the Blues finish third in the Premier League and win the Europa League.
Yet he has now revealed that the Chelsea squad struggled with Sarri's training, picking out Eden Hazard and Willian in particular as two players who suffered from the Italian's technical methods.
"They were talented players, like Hazard and Willian, players who know how to win games on their own, but they were suffering from the type of exercises and type of training we were doing – but it was necessary for the others," Zola told beIN Sports.
"I’ll be honest, they were brilliant because they got bored, but they kept doing it throughout and that was the reason why when everyone was dropping we were going up towards the end."
Whilst Zola admits that the Chelsea squad became tired of Sarri' methods towards the end of his time at the club, he also argued that boredom is often part and parcel of training.
"At the beginning, the players were very much behind everything that we were saying, they were brilliant," he explained.
"They were following everything, but then as the weeks passed due to the repetition and the amount of games they were playing, the players got tired and they also got bored in a way.
"But boring is part of our job. Sometimes you need to get bored but when you get bored you persist in what you’re doing and you get better.
"I remember that when I was learning to play football, kicking a ball for example, I used to do it 300-400 times a day at least.
"There were moments when I got tired but I needed to do it repeatedly because if I wanted it to become a part of me, this was the process I needed to go through."
