Sports

Sabatini To Replace Emenalo At Chelsea

Published

8 years ago

October 18, 2016

Former Roma director, Walter Sabatini is being called to Chelsea, presumably to take over Michael Emenalo’s job as Director of Football.
Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte is “pushing hard” for this move.

Emenalo, who has been Chelsea’s Director of Football since 2011, had even offered to resign (supposedly) a few years ago, when Mourinho came back, but was told to get back to work. It’s clear he’s highly valued within the organization.

Sabatini had built himself a great reputation at his previous job with AS Roma, where he was credited with revitalizing an aging, overpaid side with smart signings — many of whom he then had to sell, which supposedly frustrated him and led to his resignation earlier this season. The 51-year-old has also served as Director of Football at Palermo and Lazio previously, and was linked with Chelsea throughout the summer already.

Meanwhile, Chelsea still hold faith in technical director Michael Emenalo despite Antonio Conte’s admiration of Walter Sabatini.

Fresh reports in Italy over the weekend suggested former Roma transfer guru Sabatini was London-bound to take up a recruitment-focused role at Stamford Bridge.

But Emenalo’s position is not in immediate danger after surviving several managerial changes and staff shake-ups in his nine years at Stamford Bridge.

The former Notts County defender is highly rated by owner Roman Abramovich, who values his work and experience in heading up the club’s complex system of loans and recruitment across Europe.

Conte, though, would like to find a way to work with Sabatini, credited with the emergence of Miralem Pjanic, Erik Lamela and Radja Nainggolan at Roma.

One option would be to change Emenalo’s role to make room for the Italian but no decision has been taken on such a switch-up.