Chelsea are close to making an offer to Mauricio Pochettino but have added another manager to their shortlist of candidates to take over at the club.
The Lomdon side are making progress in their search for a new manager and former Tottenham coach Pochettino has been identified as the frontrunner for the job.
Todd Boehly sacked Thomas Tuchel at the start of the campaign and axed the German’s replacement, Graham Potter, this month.
Despite the issues at Stamford Bridge – Chelsea have dropped into the bottom-half of the Premier League and are out of every cup competition – the club’s owners have decided to wait until the summer to appoint a new head coach.
As a short-term solution, Chelsea chose to bring back Frank Lampard as caretaker manager until the end of the campaign, though the Blues have lost four matches in a row under the ex-England midfielder.
Pochettino, who has been out of work since leaving Paris Saint-Germain, has impressed the Chelsea hierarchy in multiple interviews and could be offered the job, according to The Guardian.
But it is claimed the Premier League side have also expressed interest in Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou, who has guided the Scottish club to back-to-back league titles.
The Australian’s lack of experience in Europe will likely see Chelsea look elsewhere for their third permanent coach under the Boehly regime, but Postecoglou could well be targeted by other teams this summer.
As well as Pochettino, Chelsea have interviewed Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique but appear to have gone cold on both coaches.
The Blues are also keen on Manchester City legend Vincent Kompany, who has guided Burnley to promotion from the Championship in his first campaign at Turf Moor.
Former Arsenal and England winger Paul Merson says Chelsea should make an appointment now and relieve Lampard of his duties.
He told Sky Sports: ‘I could get the Frank appointment for the Champions League as that’s all they were playing for but they’re out of that now.
‘No disrespect to Frank but they need to get the new manager in now to give him four or five weeks with this team see who the bad eggs are and the ones the manager doesn’t want.
‘He’s going to be coming in July 1 or whenever it is and it’s not enough time. He wants to get this done so when he comes back at pre-season there’s 22 or 23.
‘Say to Todd Boehly to get rid of these ones whatever it takes to pay them off I don’t want them in my squad, this is the 22 go and get me a striker and get me a goalkeeper and we’ll go from there.
‘Something has to be done now and that’s no disrespect to Frank. He was brought in for the Champions League. You’ve got to get rid of these players.’
