Last week’s Chelsea “storm” has passed and conditions have returned to “serene” — that’s the latest from Sky Italia (also reported on Gianluca Di Marzio’s website), who were one of the major sources to drive last week’s rumors to the opposite.
They’re now calling those rumors a “cooling of relations due to a misunderstanding about strategy”, but regardless, calm has been restored after a meeting Sunday night between Conte and Granovskaia, the Emperor’s Hand.
Chelsea-Conte: rinnovo più vicino, i dettagli https://t.co/A2M8DjKKx2 #CalcioMercato #Calcio #news
— Calciomercato (@ApCalciomercato) June 19, 2017
As also reported by the Guardian, there’s renewed confidence about progress on Conte’s new contract as well. Sky Italia puts the new salary at £9.5-10m, matching the Guardian’s figures, and claims that there is no termination clause — i.e. if Conte were to be fired, Chelsea would pay out the full value of the remaining years, just as we used to in the good old days. Chelsea changed that policy after back-to-back sackings of Villas-Boas and Di Matteo, and thus Mourinho only got one year’s worth of compensation.
After the Granovskaia meetings, Conte “could” also meet with Abramovich this week — Conte’s on vacation, so I’m assuming these meetings are actually just phone calls — to finalize the new deal.
Either way, after last week’s drama, these are more than welcome rumors.