E-Paper
Sacking Antonio Conte cost Chelsea Rs 244 crores
The first year at Chelsea was a massive success as he revolutionized the way the club played and won the Premier League by a huge margin. Great things were expected of Conte in his second season in charge of Chelsea as his plans were finally coming to fruition.
Antonio Conte came into Stamford Bridge with much fanfare. He was a title-winning coach in Italy with Juventus and reformed the Italian football team. The first year at Chelsea was a massive success as he revolutionized the way the club played and won the Premier League by a huge margin. Great things were expected of Conte in his second season in charge of Chelsea as his plans were finally coming to fruition.
However, it all unraveled for Conte. Things were so bad that there were calls to sack him midway through the season. But Chelsea persisted with him throughout the season and Conte managed to win the FA Cup in his final game for the club. After a lot of deliberation and bad blood between the two sides, Conte was finally sacked by Chelsea.
Chelsea replaced Conte with another Italian, Maurizio Sarri. Things did not drastically improve for Chelsea as they struggled their way to a third position.
Now it has emerged that the sacking of Conte put a significant dent in Roman Abrahomivic’s pocket. It has been revealed by a report that the decision to part with Conte and his support staff cost Chelsea a sum of £26.6 million ($35m). This equates to around Rs 244 crore.
There were still 12 months left on Conte’s contract and Chelsea had to pay a big amount to part ways with him. Chelsea had finished fifth in Conte’s final season and an FA Cup win could not guarantee a seat for the Italian in the Stamford Bridge dugout. Maybe constant arguments between Conte and the board proved detrimental at the end.
This was Chelsea’s statement:
“Exceptional items in the current year of £26.6million relate to changes in respect of the men’s team management and coaching staff, together with associated legal costs.”
Chelsea reported a loss of almost £100 million ($130 million) last year. But the club did not spend any amount in summer window due to a transfer ban and sold Eden Hazard to Real Madrid for 100 million euros.
