Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has long looked unlikely to be at Stamford Bridge beyond the end of this season due to his very public falling out with his clubs board over transfer policy and a horrific run of results in 2018.
The Blues did pull off a superb comeback from 2-0 down against Southampton last week to win 3-2, although many observers have pointed to their abysmal first-half showing as further evidence that many of the Blues players are no longer responding to their managers methods.
According to a report by Matt Law in the Telegraph Chelsea’s players have become tired of Conte’s intensive training regime.
“His repetitive training sessions, which worked so well last term, and preference for keeping his players on their toes by refusing to share his plans, has caused annoyance.”
“Conte has picked up on the frosty atmosphere. Last week he spoke to individuals to try to find out whether there were any grievances he could address.”
“Having tried to stress morale was still good in his pre-match press conference, Chelsea fell two goals behind against relegation-threatened Southampton and put in a woeful first-half performance.”
Despite comfortably winning the Premier League last season Chelsea are currently in fifth place in the table and have little of no hope of finishing in the top four.
Conte’s side face Southampton again this weekend in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley in what is their last chance to salvage some respectability out of an otherwise thoroughly disappointing campaign for the Stamford Bridge club.
