Chelsea are giving consideration to appointing Marcelo Gallardo and the Argentine has been given the seal of approval by Enzo Fernandez, according to reports.
The London side sacked Graham Potter last month and appointed Frank Lampard as caretaker manager until the end of the campaign while they conduct a thorough search for a permanent successor.
Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique are the two frontrunners to take over at Chelsea, with the latter even believed to have held face-to-face discussions in London last week.
But now reports in Argentina claim former River Plate manager Gallardo is confident of landing the job, with UOL reporting that he is ‘close’ to being appointed.
They even went as far as to claim that Fernandez has played a key role in the process, with the 22-year-old midfielder having ‘given the go-ahead’ to Chelsea’s hierarchy.
Fernandez, who became the Premier League’s record signing when he left Benfica for Chelsea in January in a £107m deal, came through the academy at River Plate while Gallardo was still in charge.
He was handed his first-team debut by Gallardo in 2019 and still sees him as a ‘father figure’, and he is eager to be reunited at Stamford Bridge.
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Gallardo has been without a club since leaving River Plate in November, but he has now informed his coaching staff that he will return to the dugout this summer window.
The 47-year-old has enjoyed some time away from management but is now ready to return and is attracted to the possibility of managing in England.
Gallardo, who won the Copa Libertadores twice, wants to test himself against the best managers and has even been learning English since leaving River, while he even contemplated living in the United States for a while to improve his language speech even further.
The Argentine coach has been linked with other teams, such as Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, though has not received any proposals or contact from either club with both likely to appoint a European manager with more experience.
Chelsea are believed to be meeting with a number of their managerial targets over the next couple of weeks and conducting thorough background checks before deciding who to appoint.
