Antonio Conte finally sacked - the way this whole situation has been handled is a joke.

Chelsea have issued a statement this morning confirming that they have "parted company" with Antonio Conte in short statement which clearly indicates the complete breakdown of their relationship. 

The statement reads:

"During Antonio’s time at the club, we won our sixth league title and eighth FA Cup. In the title winning season, the club set a then-record 30 wins in a 38-game Premier League season, as well as a club-record 13 consecutive league victories.

We wish Antonio every success in his future career." - Chelsea FC.

I have to start by saying that no-one deserves to be treated the way he has despite what happened last season and for me personally, it leaves a very sour taste. I cannot believe that the club have allowed this ongoing story to be played out through the media for virtually the whole of last season, through this summer and to this point. The fact that he has also prepared, planned and started pre-season training with the players not involved in the World Cup makes it even worse in my view.

If the club wanted rid of him they should have acted as quickly as possible after the FA Cup Final. I am saying that this does not seem to be a knee jerk reaction does it? It's clear the club were planning to make a change and would have been prepared for a legal battle. Why let everything come this far? Why let things be played out in public? Chelsea have lacked real class here and that's the most disappointing thing.

When Antonio Conte arrived at Chelsea he came at just the right moment because it was clear that the squad needed a strict disciplinarian to take over and calm things down after a tempestuous season that had started under Jose Mourinho.

He is a winner and that mentality quickly flourished throughout the squad but to his credit, he wanted to see what he had to work with first. After a bright start, it became clear after defeats to Liverpool at home followed by Arsenal away, that he had identified what needed to change. Switching to a back three in the second half at the Emirates seemed to be the answer having conceded three first half goals with none in the second.

So the switch in formation was made, a back three with wing backs and two number tens operating behind the striker was implemented and gave me personally, one of the best seasons ever going to the Bridge. I will never ever forget that season as one of the most enjoyable especially the best team performance I have ever seen from us beating Everton 5-0 at home.

We waltzed our way to the Premier League title with a then record thirty wins from thirty-eight games and we were once again looking forward to Champions League football, we had our swagger back.

Now, at that moment, once his first season had ended, it's my view that it was exactly the right moment for the board to decide to back the head-coach with the players he wanted, to invest in him bearing in mind what he had achieved but we all know what happened.

Instead, the club decided that if he could achieve what he did with the players he had inherited, then why couldn't he do it again? The likes of Danny Drinkwater, Ross Barkley, Toni Rudiger and Emerson Palmeiri were all brought in by the club with only Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Davide Zappacosta and Olivier Giroud actual Conte signings. He had also seen Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic leave - players he wanted to keep but with both showing a lack of commitment to the Chelsea cause, sold by the club.

The season started with a home defeat to Burnley and there were already signs that the Italian was unhappy with the summer transfer window and kept asking the media to speak to the club - indicating that they were the ones who decided deals and not him. This continued throughout the season and only got worse with Antonio Conte demonstrating a frustrated figure in press conferences and on the sidelines.

Without question this filtered through to the players and our performances/results suffered. We no longer saw the Italian being as passionate and exuberant on the sidelines diving into the supporters to celebrate, at times he stood there looking like someone who had no energy and someone who did not want to be there.

Don't get me wrong here, there were at times some excellent performances in the beginning of the season with Stoke away and Atletico Madrid away being ones of note but, as we all had to bear witness, the performances in the big, big games were in stark contrast to what we had seen just 12-months beforehand.

Antonio Conte seemed to not spot what we all could, he was determined to stick with under performing players, his substitutions were made far too late and at times the incorrect ones but his tactics away at Manchester City were atrocious and a complete embarrassment. That was when I turned on him because it was totally unacceptable. I have never seen us play so badly in such a vital game. That for me was the moment when we all knew in our hearts that the writing was on the wall.

Antonio Conte produced a final demonstration of his ability to win a football match with his tactics against Jose Mourinho and Manchester United to win his second trophy here - the FA Cup but it wasn't enough. Too much had been said in the public domain, there had been too many public battles with players and a complete breakdown with the relationship.

So we come to this stage and I would like to thank Antonio Conte on record for what he did for our football club in his first season. He brought us back from the dead with a style of attacking football that was a joy to behold. We were incredible and that was all down to him.

As I said, I just feel the way this been handled by the football club is a joke.