Story by Bayo Psalms
The old lady down the road finally primed to move in next door; at Stamford Bridge. Italian national team coach Antonio Conte has confirmed he will be stepping down as head coach after Euro 2016, and now many betting agencies and odds-makers across the world are now tipping him to take the reigns as Chelsea manager, ahead of other candidates such as Diego Simeone.
Chelsea are to confirm a new manager at the end of the month, according to information on Sky Sports.
And besides the fact that Wikipedia now have Chelsea FC in the column of teams managed on Conte’s page on the website, speculations surrounding other managers linked to the job are dying or totally dead by now.
The former Juventus manager has been linked with a move to Chelsea since Jose Mourinho was given the boot by owner Roman Abramovich on December 17.
The president of the Italian FA, Carlo Tavecchio, had announced on Tuesday that Conte will not be renewing his contract with the association and the 46-year-old have confirmed it himself.
“At the moment, my focus is on the Euros, where we’ll try with hard work and sacrifice to do our best at the tournament,” said Conte.
“Anyone who knows me, knows I will give my total commitment to this. I feel I should go back to being a club manager, to have the chance to train with players every day.
“I want to thank the president and everyone at the federation who has followed me in this wonderful adventure.”
Tavecchio, however, added: “He misses the training pitch and working with players every day. That’s understandable.”
Meanwhile, with Guus Hiddink who took over as coach on interim basis after Mourinho got sacked virtually ruling himself out of all possibilities of taking charge on a permanent role at the end of the season the chances of fans of the blues seeing a new coach in the dugout.
After winning three Serie A titles with Juventus, Conte took over as coach of Italy and qualified the Azzuris for the Euro 2016 in France.
Current Juventus boss Max Allegri is confident “Antonio Conte will certainly do well on the Chelsea bench” next season after recent comment made to Rai Sport that “Italian Coaches are the best in the world.”
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