Antonio Conte asks Chelsea to delay contract talks with himself and the players — report

Although the season is far from over with Chelsea still competing for two trophies, much of the talk around the club has been about contracts and transfers and all other such premature nonsense. In an attempt to stem that ever increasing and noisy tide, here comes a report from The Times about Antonio Conte “asking” the club to delay contract talks not only with players, but with himself as well in order to allow everybody to concentrate on their current jobs of winning the league and the FA Cup.

This all makes plenty of sense, and it also matches previous stories (before all the international break let loose the rumor mill hounds) of the club waiting until the summer to do its business.

Chelsea have reportedly already agreed to Conte's demands for the contract extension, and we are supposedly keen on tying Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois down to new (and improved) contracts, as well as spending big in the transfer market, especially if Costa decides to go to Spain or China or wherever.

Since Chelsea are not running a risk similar to Arsenal of having key players entering the final year of their contracts, delaying talks for a month or two should not be detrimental. Focus at all levels of the club must remain on confirming our Premier League title and hopefully having a FA Cup trophy to lift by the month of May as well.