Farewell Antonio, it was fun - most of the time

Antonio Conte bade farewell to staff at Chelsea’s Cobham training complex this afternoon and so ends a year of turmoil for the Italian and club.

Conte will be remembered by fans as a passionate and disciplined personality with a winning habit.

Chelsea were happy with the later characteristic but struggled with the first and second espcecailly these past 12 months which saw the Blues win the FA Cup but tumble out of title contention and out of the Champions League.

Ultimtely it was the prosp3ct of no top European competition this season that led to his downfall. But he had signalled that possibility very early last season.

He felt the club did not give him the players needed to go to the next level after they surprisingly won the Premier League two seasons ago - the club felt the squad they complied was good enough to get in the top four.

something had to give. There is an old Irish saying - He who pays the piper calls the tune. Chelsea pays Conte, he had to comply.

The humourless and biz are circumstance that saw Conte tale pre-season trining this week, does no side ny good t lol.

Chelsea kept Conte until they had his replacement in place nd Maurizio Sarri is expected to be appointed tomorrow.

Sarri gets his honeymoon period with the club and will seek to maximise that by getting Gianfranco Zola on board.