Chelsea favourite Roberto di Matteo believes his former club should stick with Antonio Conte beyond the current campaign. The Blues have underperformed during Conte’s second season in charge of the club and there has been strong speculation that the Italian could be replaced in the summer.

Despite this, Di Matteo believes the 48-year-old should be offered another year at the helm with the opportunity to become their head coach for the long-term, he told Sky Sports: “It’s great, I think it’s good (if Conte is still in charge). I hope he can stay on as well, I hope he stays. I hope he’s going to be the long-term manager at the club.So I think it’s the way forward. But I don’t know really, this is just my opinion.”

Question marks were raised over Conte’s future during the January transfer window where he appeared to publicly complain about the Blues’ transfer policy. Since then, the club have not quite recaptured their form from 2017 and their inconsistent run eventually saw miss out on Champions League qualification for the second time in three seasons.

Despite this, the Blues can resurrect their faltering campaign with silverware this weekend as they contest with Manchester United in the FA Cup final. The Capital outfit succumbed to a rather disappointing 3-0 defeat at Newcastle United in the final day of the season and they need to find some source of motivation to end the campaign with a trophy.

Meanwhile, fresh reports suggest that the Blues have already stepped up their pursuit for a new head coach and it is just a matter of time before Conte is released from his position. Napoli’s Maurizio Sarri is currently the front-runner for the job but the Blues may have to pay an additional £8m sum to trigger the release clause in his current contract.