It was completely in keeping with his seven-year Chelsea career that Gary Cahill arrived half-an-hour early for our interview ahead of his Stamford Bridge farewell.

Since refusing to give in to injury to play in the 2012 Champions League final just four months after arriving as a £7 million signing from Bolton Wanderers, Cahill has been one of Chelsea’s most reliable players and characters.

He has also been one of the most successful, collecting every domestic and European winners’ medal, and taking over the captaincy from John Terry. As he said himself, Cahill can leave with his head held high at the end of a season in which it could so easily have dropped.

Chelsea’s final Premier League home game against Watford on Sunday will mark the 33-year-old’s goodbye, whether or not he is involved in the match, with the players due to complete their annual ‘lap of appreciation’.

Cahill described the final season of his contract, during which he has not started a League game and has not been offered any personal explanation from Sarri, as “terrible” and one that he will erase from his memory as soon as he leaves Chelsea.