Maurizio Sarri to sign nine players despite not being in charge at Chelsea yet.

According to various reports, Maurizio Sarri is eyeing NINE players this summer with a view to giving the Chelsea squad a complete revamp - even though he isn't in charge at Chelsea yet!

OK, if you want to believe reports (and I do say that loosely!), the press would have us all believe that Chelsea have agreed a compensation fee with Napoli of around £4m to release Sarri from his contract with them. Napoli have wasted no time and have already appointed Carlo Ancelotti as his "replacement" with Sarri still on their payroll which is something we very rarely see in football but it goes to show that the Italian side are holding on for what they can get from Roman Abramovich. 

As for Antonio Conte? Well he's on his holidays and you would imagine sitting there happily knowing that if Chelsea do want rid of him, they are going to have to pay him off to the tune of £9m so he's in no rush to go anywhere at the moment. Despite the fact that he is still officially in charge, has re-iterated that his personal intention is to honour the improved contract he signed last summer, there continues to be this relentless coverage of Maurizio Sarri and the targets he wants to sign for when he turns up at Cobham for the start of pre-season. 

So far the players that have been linked with Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri are:

Daniele Rugani, Juventus - Defender - Who cannot get himself a regular game - £35m. 

Matias Vecino, Inter Milan - Midfielder - Described as having an inconsistent season in Italy. 

Dries Mertens, Napoli - Attacking Midfielder - The most realistic signing for EUR 30m. 

Gonzalo Higuain, Juventus - Striker - Has been linked numerous times - could this be the season. 

Elseid Hysaj, Napoli - Defender - EUR 40m to replace Davide Zappacosta who is expected to leave.

Jose Callejon, Napoli - Forward - Another name being linked purely because he was at Napoli. 

Kostas Manolas, Roma - Defender - £32m release clause - A possible replacement for David Luiz?

Jean Michel Seri, Nice - Midfielder - Hot prospect and ready for a move to the big leagues. 

Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich - Striker - It's not going to happen as no Champions League.

As you can see it's pure speculation in my view and people are just clutching at straws this summer because there has been nothing from Chelsea in an official capacity. Nothing of the manager and nothing of the players. You would be better off checking out btts and win tips at the moment than trying to predict what is going to happen.

Every summer is a joke really with the amount of cock and bull we have to put up with reading but World Cup year always take it to the next level. The best advice I can ever give you is stick to reading the respectable Blogs and Websites that you know by now and can trust. Don't click on the stories written by people out there just looking for web traffic. If I wanted that, I'd do it every single day!

There is also the newspapers and reporters to trust and those to not give any time of day to. You all know the ones I am referring to!

The thing is, despite who will be our manager/head-coach when the players turn up for pre-season next month, they will realise that we have a good squad of players with one or two others back from their loan spells that should be implemented into the first-team squad from this season and beyond - to not farm them out again for another year. 

As for little from the club this summer so far? There could be a number of reasons for that and it's important to not panic but to chill out. Roman Abramovich has always had the best interests of the football team first and so far most have worked. Whether that means Antonio Conte stays or Maurizio Sarri comes in we will have to wait and see. 

Expect plenty more names being linked with Chelsea between now and the end of the transfer window. As I say it's relentless at the moment and will only get worse.