Luis Enrique is ‘no longer a leading candidate’ to take over at Chelsea after face-to-face talks with the Blues bosses.
The former Barcelona boss was thought to be in a two-horse race with Julian Nagelsmann to become Chelsea’s next permanent manager, but is now thought to be ‘increasingly an outsider’, according to Evening Standard.
The report claims Nagelsmann is now ‘the frontrunner in the eyes of Chelsea sporting directors and at least one member of the board’.
Pochettino, whom Chelsea spoke to last year before Graham Potter was appointed, is thought to be through to the ‘next round’ of talks.
But, as per the report, ‘Chelsea insist the process remains completely open, and that an appointment is not imminent and no candidate is preferred at this stage’.
Chelsea are also thought to be keen on Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim, Napoli’s Luciano Spalletti, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Oliver Glasner and former River Plate manager Marcelo Gallardo.
Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid on Tuesday and Blues players are set to lose out in millions in wages.
Several of them have clauses in their contracts which mean their wages are reduced should the club fail to qualify for the Champions League.
And after the defeat, Thiago Silva offered some advice to the Chelsea owners, suggesting they made a mistake in signing so many new players this season
“I think the first step has been made. An incorrect step, but it has been made,” Silva said.
“We can’t be blaming the managers if we don’t take responsibility. It’s a hard period for the club, with a lot of indecision.
“Change of ownership, new players arriving – we had to increase the size of the changing room because it didn’t fit the size of the squad.
“A positive point is that there are amazing players in the squad but on the other hand there are always players that are going to be unhappy.
“There is always going to be someone upset because not everyone can play.
“The manager can only pick 11 from a squad of 30-something – that’s tough.
“Some can’t make the squad, we signed eight in January, we need to stop and put a strategy in place otherwise next season we could make the same mistakes.”
And the Chelsea defender also put a lot of the blame at the door of the Blues players with Lampard losing all four of his matches in charge.
“Everybody talks too much about replacing managers. I think we, as players, must also take responsibility,”…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…