Luis Enrique lands in London for Chelsea talks

Luis Enrique has flown into London for talks on taking up the supervisor’s job at Chelsea, sources have informed ESPN.

The former Barcelona and Spain coach arrived in London on Wednesday morning for discussions over the place — vacant since Graham Potter was sacked on Sunday after seven months in cost — with Chelsea eager to listen to his evaluation of their squad.

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Luis Enrique just isn’t the one choice to take over at Stamford Bridge, sources mentioned, with different names in the body, however the membership have seen him as a precedence candidate for a while.

Over a month in the past, sources informed ESPN that Chelsea had him in thoughts in the occasion that Potter misplaced his job earlier than the top of the season.

Chelsea are in eleventh place in the Premier League — 11 factors off the highest 4 — after a 0-0 house draw with Liverpool on Tuesday, after vital funding in the squad in the final two switch home windows.

They play Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals this month, with the primary leg to come back on the Bernabeu on April 12.

Luis Enrique, 52, has been out of labor since leaving the Spain job following their disappointing displaying on the Qatar World Cup, the place they had been eradicated on penalties by Morocco in the spherical of 16.

He had been Spain coach since 2018, taking them to the Euro 2020 semifinals — overwhelmed by Italy on penalties — and the 2021 Nations League last, the place they misplaced to France.

The Spaniard gained the Champions League with Barcelona in 2015, in addition to two LaLiga titles and three Copas del Rey, together with a historic 2015 treble.

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Sources informed ESPN that Luis Enrique had been monitoring the conditions at Chelsea and Atletico Madrid — the place coach Diego Simeone has come beneath stress this season — as he awaits his subsequent transfer.

With Atletico’s kind enhancing, his consideration turned to the Premier League and the prospect of taking cost at a high membership, sources mentioned.

Despite hyperlinks with the supervisor’s job at Tottenham after Antonio Conte left by mutual consent final month, sources informed ESPN that he was centered on Chelsea.

“I follow the Premier [League] above all, because I would like to go to England to work,” Luis Enrique informed Cadena SER radio final week. “I wouldn’t go to any team, but one that could do important things, which greatly reduces the number.”