Maurizio Sarri might feel his Chelsea reign will not properly get underway until this weekend.

While the Italian has already taken charge of two pre-season games against Inter Milan and Arsenal, on Friday he will finally be reunited with the first-team players who have been on an extended break after the World Cup.

Of course, that includes key duo Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois, who helped Belgium to third-place out in Russia.

That tournament may feel a long time ago now, yet the two Real Madrid targets have barely had a moment out of the headlines since then.

Sarri has openly stated that he wanted to speak to them face-to-face before any decision was made about their futures and that will finally be possible when they return to Cobham.

The Daily Mail report that the former Napoli boss is therefore planning 'crunch talks' with under a week to go until the transfer window closes.

However, it seems Chelsea have already made up their minds for them. The newspaper suggest Sarri will tell them that neither will be allowed to leave for the Bernabeu.

Chelsea's reasoning 

Los Blancos only value Courtois at £35million, in line with their wider stance on goalkeepers. Chelsea believe that is too low and would rather risk losing him for nothing when his contract expires in 2019 than letting him go for such an insignificant fee.

The European champions would like a new stopper but the Keylor Navas debate has always been a divisive one - there are those at the club who feel he is good enough and so they may not fork out huge sums for a replacement.

As for Hazard, Chelsea have put a new £300,000-a-week deal on the table and are reluctant to sell their star man as they feel it would be handicapping Sarri in his very first season.

Neither will be involved in the Community Shield against Manchester City on Sunday. Their Premier League campaign gets underway with a trip to Huddersfield on August 11.

The other major question mark is against the future of Willian. Sarri will also sit down with the Brazilian in the coming days and seek an explanation for his late appearance at training, seemingly not buying his excuse that it was down to an issue with his passport.

This is not the pre-season the new man in charge can have envisaged, with only Jorginho and Rob Green coming in the other way so far, though a move for Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha looks to be gathering pace. 

Should Chelsea sell Hazard or Courtois if they want to leave? Have your say in the comments.