CHELSEA have not ruled Roberto De Zerbi out as a potential candidate to replace Mauricio Pochettino in the dugout ahead of next term.
The Blues are looking for a new manager after Pochettino suddenly left Stamford Bridge after only a season in charge despite leading the club to European qualification.
According to The Telegraph, the West Londoners have narrowed their search down to four candidates.
That includes Leicester’s Enzo Maresca, Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna and Brentford’s Thomas Frank.
There has been no confirmation whether or not De Zerbi, 44, is officially the fourth unnamed coach.
However, the same source claims the Italian tactician has not yet been chalked off.
Nevertheless, the ex-Brighton boss he is currently considered to be an “outlier”.
If Chelsea signed De Zerbi then the Seagulls could still be due around £5million in compensation, which is much cheaper than the £15m he would have cost if he was still working at the Amex Stadium.
The ex-Shakhtar Donetsk manager would have to demonstrate that he could work within Chelsea’s club structure and cooperate with sporting directors Paul Winstanley as well as Laurence Stewart.
This comes after De Zerbi expressed frustration in the Brighton model last season while many within football view him as a challenging character.
Nevertheless, there is still no clear favourite to replace Pochettino at the helm.
However, Maresca, McKenna and Frank all have internal support within Chelsea.
Director of recruitment and talent Joe Shields worked with Maresca at Manchester City when the Italian was Pep Guardiola’s assistant manager at a time when Cole Palmer played under him.
McKenna’s stunning progress at Ipswich has been tracked by the Premier League giants for some time.
And Chelsea’s incoming set-piece specialist Bernardo Cueva worked closely with Frank at Brentford.
But De Zerbi is well known by director of global recruitment Sam Jewell as they worked together at Brighton.
Moises Caicedo also played under him last season whereas Mykhailo Mudryk and the Italian head coach go way back during their time together at Shakhtar.
