Roman Abramovich Tells Antonio Conte To Drop Five Chelsea Players

The true dysfunctional state of Chelsea has been laid bare in recent days with a number of stories and rumours emerging in the wake of their poor form.

Antonio Conte’s side have collected just one point from the last nine on offer, and their performances in the recent defeats to Liverpool ad Arsenal were so abject that alarm bells have been ringing around Stamford Bridge ever since.

However, where before Roman Abramobich would simply respond to this by handing the manager his P45 and sending for Guus Hiddink, the reports this week have been keen to stress the point that Abramovich is this time siding with the manager and is instead finally turning his anger on the underperforming players.

To that end, the Times are today reporting that the Chelsea owner has told Conte to begin phasing out some of the first team squad, insisting that their best days are now behind them and that their decline is having a negative impact on the rest of the team.

Of the players named, Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill have been absolutely rancid lately and will be lucky to even keep their spots in the short term, while Oscar and Cesc Fabregas, neither of whom has been successfully nail down the central midfield spot ahead of the other, are also reportedly to be slowly sidelined.

So too will Nemanja Matic, who has looked a shadow of his former self in the past eighteen months.

That Abramovich is influencing team selection like this should be a worry. Indeed, there are some allegations that he has become a regular presence on the training ground – but then Conte should consider himself lucky that the Russian has sided with a manager for once.

Interestingly, the report also claims that of the club’s four summer signings, the only one that Conte picked out himself was N’Golo Kanté, with Michy Batshuayi chosen by sporting director Michael Emenalo, and David Luiz and Marcos Alosno quite clearly panic buys.

Considering their failure to land Conte’s top defensive targets in the summer, there is no guarantee that January will go any better for the Blues.

That the squad will need to be stripped down and rebuilt means that Chelsea have already accepted that this will be a transitional season – with at least five teams in the Premier League looking better than them right now, they may have to wait for that Champions League return they have been desperate for.

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