Luis Enrique Martínez, 52 years old and 15 years of experience on the bench, is applying to coach Chelsea next season. The Asturian coach met yesterday in London with club blue to present his sporting project and, when the time has come, to join the bench at Stamford Bridge. However, Chelsea prefers an old man known as Frank Lampard as a bridge coach until the end of the season, as reported yesterday by the English media, who took his reinstatement for granted. Luis Enrique's future option is getting stronger... although the German Julian Nagelsmann will be a tough opponent, fired a few days ago from Bayern and who sounded like the first choice.
Luis Enrique traveled to London yesterday morning to negotiate his joining the English club, accompanied by his friend and agent Iván de la Peña and his son Pacho. In the middle of the afternoon I returned to Barcelona airport.
During the meeting with the Blues leaders, Luis Enrique explained his attractive project of promoting young values - as was evident in the Spanish team he led in the World Cup - as well as his game plan based on high pressure and the intensity The proposal would have pleased the managers of Chelsea, who, however, gave a steering wheel and are more interested in trying to save the season with a coach of the house, former player Frank Lampard, who already managed the team for a year and a half (from July 2019 to January 2021), and gets to know the club and part of the staff.
So Bruno Saltor, interim coach since Graham Potter was sacked on Sunday, will hand over the bench to Lampard this Saturday at Wolves' camp. The ex-midfielder is the third blue coach in two years, since he was fired; he was succeeded by Tuchel and Potter.
In this way, the incorporation of Lampard frustrates Luis Enrique's fourth stage as a club coach (after Roma, Celta and Barça) and the most morbid premiere he could have as a blue coach, with the visit at Real Madrid on Tuesday in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. Without a doubt, the Bernabéu is the stage where the Asturian coach is most hated, who was a white player (from 1991 to 1996) before signing for Barça in 1996.
So, Luis Enrique will continue to be unemployed. Since the Spanish Football Federation announced on December 8 that it was not renewing him as coach following the round of 16 elimination from the World Cup against Morocco, the Asturian had taken a period of reflection and had begun to plan the his future, making it a priority to train in the Premier League.
His original idea, as he himself expressed to Ser Gijón a few days ago, was to start a project from scratch next season. However, events were precipitated by the sacking of Potter on Sunday, a circumstance that made the Asturian reconsider his plan and travel to London.
The possibility of taking charge of a very powerful squad, full of stars (the most strengthened in the world with 9 players for 400 million euros in the winter market) and the challenge of lifting a poor performing team were enough arguments for Luis Enrique to accept the challenge and try to convince Todd Boehly (49), the American businessman co-owner of Chelsea since May 2022.
If, after Lampard's interim, Chelsea decide to give Luis Enrique the reins, the Asturian will have a titanic task: to turn what is now a mere collection of international stars without a cohesive, solid and competitive team no collective sense.
Chelsea is 11th in the Premier League, 33 points behind the leaders, but in 11 of the last places that give access to the Champions League (they are occupied by Newcastle and Tottenham), so it is feasible to save the course. He could also do it in Europe, but for that he would have to eliminate the reigning champion.
