Luis Enrique, a former manager of FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team, arrived in London on Wednesday to begin negotiations with Chelsea regarding the open managerial position at the team.
Graham Potter was fired by Chelsea after only six months as the club’s manager, leaving Chelsea without a permanent head coach. Due to a bad stretch of games, the English tactician was forced to leave the team.
Since Potter’s departure from Stamford Bridge, his former backroom staff, Bruno Saltor, has been serving as the club’s interim manager. However, reports claimed that Saltor is not willing to remain at the club until the end of the season due to his loyalty to Potter.
Hence, the club’s co-owner Todd Boehly and his team have stepped up the search for a permanent coach and are also considering an interim manager if they fail to get a top coach to take charge of the club before the season ends.
Earlier reports claimed that Chelsea have shortlisted six managers for the job which include Julian Nagelsmann, Mauricio Pochettino, Ruben Amorim, Oliver Glasner, Luciano Spalletti, and Luis Enrique.
However, Luis Enrique, and Nagelsmann who was just sacked by Bayern Munich are the club’s top two favorites, and the Premier League side have made contact with them.
Amidst that, Enrique is the first candidate to travel from his country, Spain to London to meet with the club’s board over the coaching job.
The 52-year-old Spanish tactician has been without a job since he resigned from Spain’s national team after the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Even though he couldn’t achieve much with the national team, he established himself as an A-list coach at FC Barcelona where he won the treble in 2014/2015 season, lifting La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League.
While Chelsea are busy hunting for a permanent coach, they are also considering bringing in the club’s former player and coach, Frank Lampard to serve as the club’s caretaker coach until the end of the season.
Note that Chelsea are currently sitting in the 11th spot on the league table which means that they don’t stand a chance of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Hence, winning this season’s Champions League is the sure bet for them to return to the competition next season. Unfortunately, they must knock out the reigning champions Real Madrid in the quarter-finals to achieve that.