Chelsea Football Club has begun a search for a replacement for sacked first-team coach, Graham Potter.
According to The Telegraph, Chelsea plan to interview at least five candidates before making their decision.
Those to be interviewed include Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti and his representatives over the managerial vacancy at Stamford Bridge.
According to reports, it remains unclear whether Spalletti, who is having a successful season with Napoli both domestically and in Europe, would be interested in leaving Italy in the first place, but Chelsea are expected to make a move, regardless.
Chelsea will try to interview at least five candidates to permanently succeed Potter with co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali handing over power to sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley.
Julian Nagelsmann has been made the early favourite for the full-time post and has worked in the past with Stewart and Chelsea’s technical director Christopher Vivell at RB Leipzig.
But sources are adamant that the Chelsea job is not Nagelsmann’s to turn down at this stage, with the club determined to go through what they see as an exhaustive process to find the right man.
Stewart, Winstanley and Eghbali were all at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground on Monday to start work on the search for a permanent successor to Potter, who was sacked on Sunday afternoon.
Other than seeking talks with Nagelsmann, Chelsea are also expected to interview Mauricio Pochettino and Luis Enrique, both of whom are out of work, while talks are likely to be sought with representatives of Napoli’s Luciano Spalletti and at least one more candidate, which might include Eintracht Frankfurt’s Oliver Glasner or Sporting’s Ruben Amorim.
