Luis Enrique Is Reportedly Chelsea's Choice To Replace Antonio Conte

According to reports in today's papers, former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique is top of Chelsea's wishlist to replace Antonio Conte at the end of this season.

The Spanish coach has been without a job since leaving Barca at the end of last season and is apparently the Blues top choice to take over from Conte, who is believed to be on borrowed time after several disagreements with the Chelsea hierarchy.

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Conte may have led the Blues to a rampant Premier League title victory during his first season in charge, and to an FA Cup final, but a poor defence of their title and a disappointing start to 2018 has seen the former Juventus boss come under increasing amounts of pressure.

The Italian coach is believed to have fallen out with Roman Abramovich and other higher ups at Stamford Bridge regarding transfers, with Conte bemoaning the fact he's not been able to sign the players he's wanted during his spell as manager, instead settling for whoever the board prefer.

Conte

After a terrific debut season, Conte has come under fire at Stamford Bridge during his second term. Images: PA

Now, with the Blues well and truly out of the Premier League title race, eliminated from the League Cup in the semi-finals by Arsenal and facing a mountain of a challenge in the form of runaway La Liga leaders Barcelona in the Champions League, Conte has a huge task ahead of him to convince Abramovich that he's worth keeping.

Instead, Abramovich is now convinced Enrique, who led Barca to a treble in 2015, is the man to take over from Conte.

The Mail are today reporting that the Spanish coach has overtaken Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri and Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone as the favourite for the job.

Luis Enrique

Luis Enrique and his very good jackets could be making their way to the dugout at Stamford Bridge, very soon. Images: PA

Abramovich does not want to go through the lengthy process of recruiting a manager from a club where they have time left on their contract, which both Allegri and Simeone do, and instead hire Enrique who is currently not attached to anyone.

The Mail also suggest Conte could resign at the end of the current campaign, such is his disillusionment over the way business has been conducted at Stamford Bridge over the last two years.

Would Chelsea be making the right move in replacing Conte with Enrique, though?

Have your say in the comments section, below.

(H/T The Mail)

Topics: Football News, Luis Enrique, Chelsea, Football, Premier League, Antonio Conte

Joe Baiamonte

Northerner. Assistant Editor of SPORTbible. Studied Journalism and Broadcasting in a portakabin on a car park of Salford University for three years. Believes football peaked with Serie A in the '90s and strong-arms pro wrestling references into as many articles as possible. Neymar once took 50 euros off me during a game of poker.

@JoeBaia