Antonio Conte is Chelsea’s primary managerial target should Roman Abramovich pull the trigger on José Mourinho’s second spell as Chelsea manager, according to Mark Ogden of the Independent.
The report claims that Conte has a number of admirers within the Chelsea hierarchy, who have so far backed Mourinho only because of the lack of credible, or available, candidates to replace him.
Now manager of the Italian national team, Conte is understood to be open to a move to the Premier League after Euro 2016, with his contract set to expire next summer.
Aside from the UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup, otherwise known as the UEFA Super Cup, Conte has won all possible top tier titles as a player and his progression to management has seen similar success including three Serie A title, of which include an unbeaten season in 2011-12.
Mourinho goes into Wednesday’s Champions League crunch match against Porto, the club he guided to the European Cup in 2004, with Chelsea having lost 10 games in all competitions, seven more than the entirety of last season.
Saturday’s shocking 1-0 home defeat to newly promoted side Bournemouth represented a new low for Chelsea this season, with Stamford Bridge no longer the impregnable fortress Mourinho had once established.
Mourinho’s side currently lie fourteen points adrift of the Premier League top four and look almost certain to miss out on Champions League football next season.
Defeat against Porto would see Chelsea suffer group-stage elimination assuming Dynamo Kiev beat bottom-placed, Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Such a defeat may prove too much for Abramovich to swallow, spelling the end for the ‘Special One’ at Chelsea.
