Enrique may play hardball on what the Blues will pay

LUIS Enrique’s hopes of succeeding Antonio Conte at Chelsea could rest on whether or not he is prepared to accept a significantly lower wage than he was paid by Barcelona.

Enrique is keen on joining Chelsea and would like to restart his managerial career in England.

But it is believed he earned in the region of £16.5-million-a-year (R268 million) by the time he stood down from his Barca role at the end of last season, having won two La Liga titles, the Champions League and three Copa del Reys.

That is far in excess of the £9.5million (R154-million) a year with which Chelsea rewarded Conte for winning the league title last season and is even more than Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho earn at Manchester City and Manchester United.

Enrique’s wage demands, therefore, could provide a stumbling block and offer hope to former Borussia Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel and Napoli’s Maurizio Sarri, who are both interested in the Chelsea job and would be much cheaper.

Conte is the highest-paid manager in Chelsea’s history and the club will not want to pay his successor more than £9.5-million a year before they have achieved anything.

It is still expected that Conte will leave Stamford Bridge with one year remaining on his contract in the summer, which means Chelsea would also have to pay the Italian compensation until he found a new job.

Given the fact he is out of work, Chelsea would not have to pay any compensation to appoint Enrique but a compromise over wages would have to be negotiated.

Chelsea hired Conte on £6.5-million (R105-million) a year with the promise of a big increase if he won trophies.

They are likely to try to offer achievement-based incentives to their next man, particularly if the club fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League. Although it is far less than what Enrique earned at Barca, Conte’s Chelsea salary complicates any prospect of a return to his old job as manager of the Italian national team.

Italian federation vice-commissioner Alessandro Costacurta has confirmed Conte is his top target for the vacant position, but it is highly unlikely they could get anywhere near to matching what Chelsea pay or what might be on offer at Paris StGermain or either of the Milan clubs.