Roman’s main woman driving deal for Conte
CHELSEA have held talks with Antonio Conte’s representatives in London over the past 48 hours, with the meetings led by Roman Abramovich’s righthand woman, Marina Granovskaia.
The Russian, who has worked as a senior adviser to Chelsea’s owner for 18 years, is leading the search for Jose Mourinho’s replacement. She was instrumental in the return of Mourinho as manager in June 2013 and also handles transfer negotiations.
Conte, 46, wants a three-year contract worth £6million a season, which the club are willing to pay. He is the favourite to take over ahead of Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri and Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone.
Talks have progressed well between Conte (below) and Chelsea, and an agreement is expected to be approved and signed in principle next month.
Potential Chelsea signings were discussed on Thursday and Conte could be allowed to spend £150m. Despite that vast kitty, however, Chelsea are keen to make sure their next manager takes an interest in youth development, which the Italian is willing to do.
Reports in Conte’s homeland yesterday suggested he wants to bring his former Juventus backroom team to Chelsea. That includes assistant manager Angelo Alessio, fitness guru Paolo Bertelli and coach Mauro Sandreani.
He will also go for Massimo Carrera, who stepped in as caretaker at Juventus in 2012 when Conte was banned for 10 months in relation to a match- fixing investigation.
Conte will confirm to the Italian football federation at a meeting ahead of Euro 2016 in June that he plans to step down as national team boss.
They are aware that he wants to return to club management when his contract expires at the end of this summer’s tournament.
Sportsmail has been told that July 14 and 15 have been earmarked as dates for Conte’s unveiling by Chelsea — the week after the Euro 2016 final in Paris.
Granovskaia, 39, tries to keep a low profile despite being a trusted aide to Abramovich.
The billionaire owner met Conte in Monaco earlier this month, with the meeting brokered by agent Federico Pastorello.
Abramovich needed convincing to hire an Italian coach, having expressed doubts about the country’s notoriously defensive style, but he was talked round. Juventus are prepared to offer Allegri a new deal to stay in Turin, while Simeone is committed to Atletico. The club are about to move into a 69,000- seat stadium and continue to compete with Barcelona and Real Madrid for the Spanish title, as well as in the Champions League. Chelsea missed out on Pep Guardiola, who will take over at Manchester City this summer.