Romano exclusive rules out three impressive European candidates for Chelsea job | OneFootball

Fabrizio Romano’s exclusive column for Caught Offside today starts with a really juicy chunk about Chelsea’s manager search following Tuesday’s sacking of Mauricio Pochettino.

The Blues are being linked with every coach under the sun, so it’s lucky Romano is on hard to shoot down some of the rumours right away.

Today he ruled out three European managers whose names have been mentioned: the Blues “never made contact” with Vincent Kompany, who is closing in on a move to Bayern Munich.

They also “haven’t made contact” with Sergio Conceicao, despite some chatter on that front. It’s the same story with Antonio Conte: “this was never an option,” Romano says.

None of those coaches really fit the supposed model we want – a young and dynamic manager who will be happy to work with whatever the sporting directors give him.

That leaves open the swathe of English-based managers who seem like front runners: Kieran McKenna and Enzo Maresca chief among them. But there is competition for them, as well as doubts about their credentials at the very top level. None of them can say they can match Conceicao or Conte’s CV, and even Kompany has at least got a Premier League season under his belt.

Vincent Kompany with the Chelsea logo

More dominoes falling as Chelsea race to appoint a new man

What we want to know is why Ruben Amorim isn’t mentioned here at all, or by any of the other insiders. It’s especially curious given fellow Portuguese coach Conceiceo’s name is on the list. The Sporting boss seemed a popular choice not long ago, now he’s disappeared.

Is he really out of the race entirely, or is this all a massive smokescreen to distract everyone while Chelsea work on the deal behind the scenes? We won’t have to wait long to find out it seems.