After months of debate and rumours, Chelsea have finally announced that current manager Antonio Conte has been sacked – paving the way for Maurizio Sarri.
Antonio Conte’s relationship with the club turned sour during the past couple of months and it was pretty evident that the Italian would be shown the door. But the amount of time it took for Chelsea to sack their manager has come as a bit of a shock to many people.
But finally, the Blues managed to go ahead with the call and released a statement saying: “Chelsea Football Club and Antonio Conte have parted company. During Antonio’s time at the club, we won our sixth League title and eighth FA Cup.
“In the title-winning season, the club set a then-record 30 wins in a 38-game Premier League season, as well as a club-record 13 consecutive League victories. We wish Antonio every success in his future career.”
Former Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri is scheduled to take charge of the Stamford Bridge outfit but if reports are to be believed then the Antonio Conte ghost is not leaving the club anytime soon.
One of the major reasons why Conte refused to leave Chelsea because he still had 12 months left on his current three-year deal as a result of which the Italian demanded £9.5 million – a year’s salary in full.
Previously Chelsea have not been hesitant to pay-off their manager but this time the Blues have decided not to let their manager dictate terms.
The Blues have made it clear that they will not be paying Antonio Conte’s remaining salary citing “a series of irregular behaviours”.
The first issue that Chelsea have pointed out is Conte’s text message to Diego Costa telling the striker he was no longer needed at the club.
Chelsea believe that once Costa made the message public it brought down his transfer price and the Spaniard could have been sold for much more than what Atletico Madrid paid for him.
Another big reason why the London club is refusing to pay off the Italian is the fact that the manager could not be contacted for a lengthy period of time during the previous summer transfer window which resulted in a bad transfer season for Chelsea.
But if the recent reports are to believed then Antonio Conte is not taking this lightly and the Italian has decided to take legal action against Chelsea if the club do not pay his salary.
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