Mauricio Pochettino PA Images/Alamy Images

We have been hearing reports such as this one for the last 2-3 weeks now, but Chelsea are once again apparently in the ‘final stages’ of hiring their next permanent manager.

It seems there has been a lot to do in these final stages of talks to get Mauricio Pochettino confirmed as the next Chelsea manager, but Fabrizio Romano reports once again in the last 24 hours that there has been positive contacts between Chelsea and the former Tottenham boss.

He is keen to stress that still nothing has been signed or done yet, but it sounds like we might actually finally be close this time. Of course, we have heard this all before, but the reality is Pochettino negotiates for himself without an agent, and also for his whole team of staff, so these final bits were always going to take some time.

Anyone surprised by this might well be new to football transfers and negotiations!!

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