Chelsea are reportedly considering an approach for former coach and current England assistant manager Steve Holland should the club decide to part ways with Maurizio Sarri over the coming week.
Sarri is understood to be nearing the sack at Stamford Bridge following an alarming dip in form and results in recent weeks. Despite leading the Blues to the last-16 of the Europa League at the expense of Malmo, the west Londoners have made sub-par performances with supporters increasingly directing their ire towards the ex-Napoli manager’s methods.
With a crucial stretch of matches over the next five days that sees Chelsea clash with Manchester City for the League Cup final at Wembley on Sunday and a derby match against Tottenham Hotspur in the league on Wednesday, defeat in either of these matches may finally see the club hierarchy give Sarri the sack.
In such case, Holland, who has extensive experience working with the west Londoners in a coaching basis, is believed to be considered as the top target of the Chelsea hierarchy to take over at the Stamford Bridge dugout in an interim basis, provided the 48-year-old agrees to juggle his time between the England national team, where he is assistant manager to Gareth Southgate, and club football.
This is something Holland has managed to do before, when he split his time between club and international commitments during the majority of the 2016-2017 campaign. Before leaving west London for the assistant manager role with the Three Lions in 2017, Holland enjoyed an eight-year spell at Chelsea which saw him work alongside the likes of Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink in the Premier League.
The current Chelsea No2 Gianfranco Zola, who is currently suffering from a gallstone problem, is believed to be the favourite to take over as caretaker manager at the club should Sarri be given his marching orders and the club be unable to find any other replacements.
