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Other than the madness of the Coppa Italia semifinal between Juventus and Internazionale, the big story on the front page of Thursday's edition of Corriere dello Sport is that Roman Abramovich has made his choice and has named Antonio Conte the next Chelsea manager.
Obviously this is not an official announcement, so whether you believe or not comes down to just how much you trust the source. CdS seem confident enough though I'd put them below Gazzetta dello Sport and slightly above all the other rumormongers in Italy like CalcioMercato or TuttoMercatoWeb, etc. But, most importantly, the development fits with the Conte-Chelsea narrative, with an in-person meeting supposedly having taken place in Monaco this week, in addition to all the negotiations last week.
It's done. Roman Abramovich tells Chelsea staff Antonio Conte is the new boss [CdS] https://t.co/mtY6XrbWcX pic.twitter.com/gmkKbffytW
— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) March 3, 2016
Other stories have already talked about who might and might not be on his coaching staff (Lollichon, Holland expected to "survive") and of course the whole sideshow of the match-fixing legal case still hanging over him. But we'll have plenty of time to get into those issues later. For now, let's see if other sources come out of the woodwork to confirm this. Supposedly, the Chelsea squad and staff have already been told, too, so come on, spill the beans, kids!