Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will sack Antonio Conte next summer

Blues owner Roman Abramovich has decided to sack Chelsea boss Antonio Conte at the end of the season, according to reports in Spain.

In relaying the facts, the Daily Star says that the Chelsea squad have become “disillusioned with life under Conte and are unhappy with his intense training methods”.

That would certainly seem to be the case judging by results on the pitch this season, with the Blues failing to reproduce the form of 2016-17 that saw them clinch the Premier League title and suffering the ignominy of a 3-0 thrashing by Roma in the Champions League on Tuesday.

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Already ten points behind leaders Manchester City, Chelsea play Manchester United on Sunday and defeat to the Red Devils may even hasten the departure of the Italian gaffer.

Metro claims, via the Spanish paper Marca, that Conte’s relationship with Chelsea’s board has deteriorated and that he’s “no longer on speaking terms with the club’s billionaire owner”.

Instead the pair communicate through Marina Granovskaia, a Chelsea director, who also plays a large part in Chelsea’s transfer dealings. And it appears transfers are at the heart of the alleged animosity between the pair, in particular the drawn-out saga involving Diego Costa last summer

The report suggests that the fall-out between Conte and Abramovich can be traced back to the handling of Costa’s future during the summer. Apparently the Russian considered it “disrespectful” of Conte to tell the Spanish striker by text that he was no longer required at Stamford Bridge.

Furthermore, says Metro, Abramovich has already begun putting out feelers for a successor to the 48-year-old and Conte is “fully aware of the situation”.

Meanwhile relations between the manager and the squad remain strained. The Spanish media claims that in the recent matches against Watford and Roma, Chelsea’s dressing-room experienced “tension” at half-time as grievances were aired.

The Daily Express goes further, claiming that when the squad returned to training on Wednesday they were subjected to a “rant” from their manager with the Italian giving his players the “hair-dryer treatment” following their abject display against Roma.