Claude Makélélé, Bruno Saltor leave behind-the-scenes roles at Chelsea — reports

Details are sketchy at best, and motivations entirely unknown at this point, but both Claude Makélélé and Bruno Saltor have left their roles at Chelsea in the last few weeks, according to reports from Gianluca Di Marzio and the Telegraph, respectively.

Neither move has been confirmed officially, but Makélélé’s move was by “mutual consent” apparently while Saltor’s contract was “paid up”, whatever that may mean.

The legendary Makélélé had been working as a technical mentor in the youth program since returning to the club in 2019, at the start of Frank Lampard’s non-interim coaching tenure. He was last seen turning out for Team Shevchenko (Blue) in the Game4Ukraine charity match at the start of the month, but apparently that was already after he had left. Prior to his return to us, he had already tried his hand at management once in addition to multiple assistant roles (with ex-Chelsea cohorts Paul Clement and Carlo Ancelotti), so perhaps he’s got something brewing along such lines.

Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, unbeaten interim boss Bruno Saltor had been a holdover* from the brief and weird Graham Potter era, which was a bit of a surprise to begin with. And now, just when it looked like Coach Beard would be staying on to work with Mauricio Pochettino, he’s apparently been shown the exit door after all. Any attempt to explain this sequence of events would be pure speculation, so we’re not even going to try.

*goalkeeper coach Ben Roberts and recruitment specialist / data analyst Kyle Macaulay are still with Chelsea as well from the Potter crew