With Chelsea no closer to securing a new manager, Antonio Conte is still very much at the helm at Stamford Bridge. Of course, he is expected to leave by the end of this month and will be replaced by Maurizio Sarri, as per the general consensus of reports.

Sarri to Chelsea is being held up due to a number of reasons, the blues have yet to agree on a fee with Napoli to release Sarri from his current contract at the club, which runs until 2020. They have of course already replaced him as head coach with Carlo Ancelotti. But bizarrely, Sarri is still employed and under contract with Napoli.

There is also the issue of paying off Conte. Roman Abramovich is reluctant to continue paying the weekly wages of the Italian until the end of his contract, as well as around £2 million compensation (around £9 million in total). Chelsea were hoping that Conte would be approached and accept a position to manage elsewhere, meaning they would avoid having to pay him off, but that now appears unlikely to happen.

There are increasing reports from Italy however stating that the deal is ‘close’ for Sarri to Chelsea. But we’ve heard that many times. I believe it wont be resolved just yet (even though it absolutely should be), but will be done and completed by the end of the month.

The Chelsea board will pay Conte off, otherwise they will very much risk a season of discontent amongst players and fans. His relationship with the board is in bits and has been for the majority of the season. He has lost the trust and faith in many of the players including Thibaut Courtois, Willian, Eden Hazard and David Luiz who have all publicly stated their frustrations. It’s highly likely that star player Hazard will ask to leave this summer if Conte stays, a number of key players could follow.

I simply believe that Conte staying just cannot be an option here. But the waiting is far from ideal, the reluctance to pay the fee’s for Conte and to pay to get Sarri has gotten to the risky point, the negotiating has already taken far too long with pre-season starting early next month. Players want their future’s sorted, new signings want to know who will be in charge of them, and the fans want to know what’s going on. It’s been a shambles in all honesty.

On the subject of new signings, Chelsea have a genuine interest in signing Anthony Martial from Manchester United, who has recently stated he will be leaving Old Trafford this summer through a statement via his agent. His club have quickly reacted and already stated that he’s not for sale, so there may well be a stand off here.

But United want Willian, Chelsea want Martial. There may well be something that can be done here to suit all parties. But with the Chelsea managerial situation up in the air, is a player really going to agree to joining a new club when he doesn’t even know who the manager is yet? No, absolutely not.

With that said, reputable Telegraph journalist Matt Law has stated that despite the situation, Chelsea are still in contact with a number of clubs and agents regarding summer targets, and will be working on these in the background. Although I do believe this to be the case, I’m still sceptical that any one player will commit to joining Chelsea until the manager has been confirmed. The situation must be resolved as soon as possible.

The blues are also talking to the agent of a number of other targets, most realistic right now being midfielder Jean-Michael Seri from Nice, who they have been in talks with for a couple of weeks now.

@SiPhillipsSport