Chelsea already have a key advantage when it comes to beating the competition to appointing their next manager. The Blues are currently searching for their third head coach of the season after dismissing Graham Potter on Sunday evening.
Following the 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday the 47-year-old's position became untenable after once more feeling the brunt of fan anger turn his way during the game with cries of 'sacked in the morning' and 'you don't know what you're doing.' Not much later and many of their wishes had come true.
The next stage is to find the next permanent coach with Potter's assistant and former Brighton legend Bruno Saltor set to take interim charge. There is no time period on the next appointment with the club statement saying: "We have 10 Premier League games remaining and a Champions League quarter final ahead. We will put every effort and commitment into every one of those games so that we can end the season on a high."
READ MORE: Chelsea's Graham Potter tipping point and who will take charge amid Julian Nagelsmann interest
There is pressure to be savvy with the next appointment though due to the cost of Potter financially and in terms of the waning trust of the fanbase on new owners that have moved on a Champions League winning head coach, spent £600m and still see their side in the bottom half.
Potter was handed a five-year contract in September and didn't make it three quarters of the way through a single year of that. The early favourite to replace him is 35-year-old Julian Nagelsmann. Fresh out of a job after being sacked by Bayern Munich last week, the German is more than just the next hot thing on the market to Chelsea.
According to Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg, the new hierarchy at Stamford Bridge have a long-standing relationship with the former Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig man. "[Christopher] Vivell and Nagelsmann have a strong connection since years," he wrote on Twitter.
"They have worked together in Leipzig. They share the same ideas of football. Usually Nagelsmann wanted to make a break until summer. Things and plans could change now."
Both Vivell and Nagelsmann were at Leipzig together in 2021 whereas Laurence Stewart, another key director for the Blues, was there from 2018 to 2020 and overlapped in the latter part of his time at the Bundesliga side.
These relations and connections are part of the reason why Chelsea were keen to add the two sporting directors to the club's new structure. After a busy January window they have already made a big call here but could use their previous experiences in Germany to help their new side out once more.
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