Chelsea spent £26.6m on pay-offs to Conte and his staff
Conte won the Premier League title with Chelsea in 2016/17
Written by Simon Austin — January 7, 2020
CHELSEA spent £26.647m paying off manager Antonio Conte and his coaching staff, their latest accounts have revealed.
The Italian and eight of his staff were sacked by the club in July 2018. Following a lengthy legal dispute, Chelsea were ordered in May 2019 by a Premier League manager’s arbitration tribunal to pay £9m compensation to Conte, who had 12 months remaining on his three-year contract when he was fired.
The staff who were sacked were assistants Angelo Alessio, Paolo Vanoli, Davide Mazzotta and Gianluca Conte; fitness coaches Julio Tous and Costantino Coratti; goalkeeper coach Gianluca Spinelli and fitness/ nutrition consultant Tiberio Ancora.
In total, Chelsea are estimated to have paid more £90m in compensation to sacked managers and their staff since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.
Their accounts for the year ended June 30th 2019 list “exceptional items of £26.647m in the current year related to changes in the men’s team management and coaching staff, together with associated legal costs.”
The club made a net loss after tax of £96.6m for the year. When Conte’s successor, Maurizio Sarri, left Chelsea in June 2019, seven staff departed as well - assistants Luca Gotti, Marco Ianni and Gianfranco Zola; goalkeeper coach Massimo Nenci; fitness coaches Davide Ranzato and Davide Losi; and scout Gianni Picchioni.
This time Juventus had to pay compensation to Chelsea though - a unique situation during the Abramovich era - as Sarri had 12 months left on his contract.
There are also signs that the club is learning the lessons of its hugely expensive pay-offs. When Frank Lampard was appointed manager in July 2019, he brought only two new staff with him onto the payroll - assistants Chris Jones and Jody Morris.
His other staff were made up of coaches who were already at the club - assistant Carlo Cudicini, goalkeeper coach Henrique Hilario, Eddie Newton, who was promoted from loans technical coach, and Joe Edwards, who stepped up from Professional Development Phase Coach, .
Two staff members that Lampard had taken with him to Derby the previous summer - goalkeeper coach Shay Given and Head of Performance Analysis Stephen Rands - did not make the move.
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