Chelsea, Antonio Conte reach 'agreement in principle' — report

Front page news out of Italy, courtesy of well respected (as far as "well" respected can be applied to any source in the Italian rumor mill) Gazzetta dello Sport, Chelsea have agreed a deal "in principle" with Antonio Conte to become our next manager.  Look towards the top right corner:

@DavidAmoyal Gazzetta dello Sport front page: Conte-Chelsea. Agreement in principle. pic.twitter.com/u9O7LVJ91N

— Samir Asllani. (@samir_samki) February 23, 2016

Secondary reports do not carry much more detail than that headline.  "In principle" should mean a handshake agreement with nothing official, but I suppose it's something to get excited about.

We do know that Conte's current contract with the Italian national team will end after Euro 2016 and there doesn't seem to be much momentum behind a renewal.  Conte had talked before of wanting to get back into club management, and the Chelsea job would be one of most high-profile ways of doing so.

Now, granted, Gazzetta put Allegri front and center just a couple weeks ago as far as the Chelsea job's concerned, but the Juventus manager had moved to emphatically deny any such stories multiple times since (as has Simeone over yonder in Spain).  So while their names will no doubt keep getting mentioned, it sounds like Conte is the true front runner, and, if these latest rumors are true, might already have an agreement to take over this summer.

Sounds good to me.