Chelsea boss Antonio Conte picked up both the Premier League and LMA Manager of the Year awards on Monday night in recognition of an excellent debut campaign in England in which his side won the top flight title.

After a disappointing 10th-placed finish last season, Blues fans would have been more hopeful than expectant of their chances this term following the appointment of the Italian, and they would certainly have been worried following a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates in October.

However, a change in formation led the west London outfit to embark on an incredible run that saw them wrap up the title with two matches to spare, eventually finishing with 30 wins from their 38 fixtures and 93 points.

Chelsea supporters were quick to have their say on the news via social media, and while some believe they have got the best manager in the world, others were wondering what former Blues boss Jose Mourinho must be thinking right now with Manchester United only able to finish in sixth.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

Southampton sacked manager Claude Puel on Wednesday night after just a year in charge at St Mary’s.

The Frenchman had moved to the south coast outfit from Nice last summer but despite securing an eighth-place finish and reaching the final of the League Cup, it wasn’t deemed to be enough for the club to keep the faith with him for another season.

Of course, the fact that the supporters had criticised the style of football and that the side only scored 17 home league goals all season certainly paid a part, and Saints will now look to make a long-term addition that will play an attractive brand of football.

His dismissal will be met with interest by a number of Southampton players who became frustrated with life under the Frenchman last season, with a change of boss potentially saving their careers at St Mary’s.

Here are three Saints players that will be happy Puel has been sacked…

Shane Long

Despite enjoying his best ever Premier League season under the leadership of Ronald Koeman before the Dutchman left to join Everton, Long found opportunities to start up top hard to come by under Claude Puel with many of his outings coming from the substitutes’ bench.

The Republic of Ireland international scored 13 goals in 34 appearances in all competitions during the 2015/16 campaign but he ended last season with just five in 42 with first Charlie Austin, and then Manolo Gabbiadini, preferred in the striker’s position.

Long will hope he is given more of a run in the side when the new man comes in.

Jay Rodriguez

The forward is still looking to recapture the form that saw him on the brink of going to the 2014 World Cup with England before he suffered a serious injury against Manchester City a couple of months before, but he has struggled to do so.

The 27-year-old certainly wouldn’t have been happy that he often found himself behind Charlie Austin and Long in the pecking order at the start of the season, or with Claude Puel’s rotation policy.

A fine case in point is when Rodriguez scored one and assisted the other in Saints’ 2-1 win against Middlesbrough in May, before he was left on the bench for the following game at home to Manchester United.

If he does stay at St Mary’s this summer, he will be another hoping for time on the pitch next term.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg

Southampton fans would have been excited last summer when Hojbjerg arrived in a £12m deal from Bayern Munich and showed what he was capable of during pre-season.

Comfortable in possession and with the ability to take players on and get himself out of tight situations, the midfielder looked to have a bright future.

However, the 21-year-old started to lose form towards the end of 2016 following Claude Puel’s rotation and spent the majority of the second half of the campaign on the bench, or sometimes even failing to make the squad.

Hojbjerg clearly needs a run in the side – something that James Ward-Prowse was given and benefitted from last season – and he will hope to get that next term.

Do you agree, Saints fans? Let us know below.

According to reports in The Telegraph, Southampton are reportedly on the verge of sacking manager Claude Puel, once they have a replacement lined up.

Despite finishing in eighth position and reaching the EFL Cup final in his first season at charge, fans became disillusioned at the style of football that saw them score just 17 times in 19 Premier League home games, ending the campaign 17 points worse off than when they finished sixth last term.

The likes of former Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel and former Leeds United boss Garry Monk have already been linked with the post, but no decision seems to be close on who will replace the Frenchman, with the story also suggesting that he could still yet stay if the south coast outfit don’t find a suitable successor.

Southampton supporters were quick to have their say on the rumour via social media, and many were unsurprised and relieved that he is set to leave St Mary’s.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

Chelsea’s idiosyncratic loan system has always divided opinion; for its size, its global scale and its perception of young footballers as little more than financial assets. Yet, everybody once recognised its shrewdness in helping the west London club circumvent Financial Fair Play laws, something that has affected their freedom to spend in the transfer market far more than divisional rivals Arsenal and Manchester United.

The theory behind it is simple enough; Chelsea sign young players whose values are almost guaranteed to rise, farm them out across Europe to ensure they do, and then cash in for more than their original investment. The profit then creates a net spend surplus, which allows Chelsea greater room for manoeuvre when recruiting for the first-team without having to fear UEFA’s wrath. It’s football’s equivalent of hedge funds, albeit in the process taking advantage of the naïve ambitions of young footballers who dream of playing for one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs.

Moral correctness aside, however, the first significant returns from Chelsea’s loan operation were hard to argue with – over £35million made on Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku, at that time two Belgian youngsters who may or may not have gone on to come good on their much-heralded potential, after making just 24 appearances combined for the first-team. Instead, De Bruyne and Lukaku gained their value on loan West Brom and Everton, and Werder Bremen respectively.

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The prophecy was that becoming the norm for Chelsea; that level of profit being turned around on most of their youngsters despite hardly kicking a ball, simply by signing the right ones, sending them out on loan to the right clubs such as Vitesse Arnhem – nowadays, Chelsea’s official feeder team – and selling them at the right time.

Yet, fast forward to present day and the tide is turning. Not only have Lukaku and De Bruyne gone on to establish themselves as the amongst best players in the Premier League – in fact, the Blues could reportedly spend as much as £100million to bring the former back to Stamford Bridge this summer – but the surplus-driving sales of those levels have been few and far between, whilst those frustrated with the many blockades to the Chelsea first-team are beginning to leave of their own accord.

Take the last six members of Chelsea’s farming out brigade who were sold after several stints out on loan; Mohamed Salah, Stipe Perica, Bertrand Traore, Nathan Ake, Christian Atsu and Patrick Bamford. On paper, Chelsea bought all six for just shy of £21million and sold them for just shy of £57million – essentially, a £36million profit. But almost exactly two thirds of that was generated from the sale of Ake alone – when his £20million move to Bournemouth is taken out of the equation, Chelsea’s profit stands at just £16million from five players.

Any profit is profit, a businessman would say. But how much of that £16million is actual profit remains a contentious subject; in total, those five players spent a combined 19.5 years on the books at Chelsea – one can only assume, therefore, a significant chunk of that £16million was eaten up in wages, agent fees, signing-on bonuses and the general costs that accompany footballers in this day and age – employing coaches to train them, the support staff to look after them, buying residencies to house them and so on.

The actual cost of those additions unfortunately remains unknown, but if we estimate at £1million per footballer, Chelsea’s profit drops down to just £11million. Once again, profit is profit – but for the work involved and time consumed, not to mention careers potentially ruined for players like Bamford who have struggled to live up to their potential, £11million just doesn’t seem worth it – especially when the transfer market’s ever-escalating inflation is taken into the equation. In real terms the selling fees probably weren’t worth much more – if at all – than what Chelsea paid in the first place.

At the same time, deals offsetting that modest sum like Ake’s departure to Bournemouth have been much rarer than many would assume – in fact, that’s the biggest profit Chelsea have made on a single farmed out player since their loan system got off the ground, and one of just four occasions – alongside Lukaku, De Bruyne and Ryan Bertrand – in which the overall profit has exceeded the £10million mark.

Of course, the more acceptable byproduct of Chelsea’s loan system is the idea that every now and then, a true top-class entity will shine through, impressing enough on loan to force his way into the first-team. But from the countless players involved to date, only one has managed to establish himself at his parent club – goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who benefitted from Petr Cech being the wrong side of 30 when he began to make waves at Atletico Madrid.

In the process, the Blues have wasted De Bruyne, one of the top creative midfielders in world football who Man City forked out £33million more than Chelsea sold him for, Bertrand, an England international who could also end up at City this summer, Ake, a fantastically versatile young defender whose career will surely reach bigger heights than Bournemouth, and Lukaku, a 24-year-old striker with 85 Premier League goals under his belt already. In fact, if Chelsea buy back Lukaku for £100million this summer, they’ll wipe out practically all profits their loan system has made.

There’s also the suddenly vast collection of youngsters who might not make Chelsea any profit at all, having struggled to develop to the levels expected amid a raft of loan spells; Kenneth Omerou is now 23 years of age and spent last season out on loan at Alanyaspor, Lucas Piazon, signed for nearly £6million, is 23 as well and endured an unspectacular season at Fulham last time out, £5.2million acquisition Tomas Kalas also spent last term at Craven Cottage and will be 25 before the end of 2017/18, Matej Delac, albeit signed for free, has just come to the end of his 10th loan spell courtesy of Belgian outfit Royal Excel Mouscron – his Blues contract is now due to expire in twelve months.

But perhaps the real sign of the system failing is that Chelsea no longer seem to be calling the shots in the same way. Whilst they clearly felt Everton and Wolfsburg offered fair prices for Lukaku and De Bruyne respectively – once again, who couldn’t be guaranteed to reach the top of the game at the time – it now feels as if disgruntled youngsters are forcing their own moves.

“It was time. Considering my age and for my development, it was time for me to leave the club. I could have stayed at Chelsea and played a few minutes in every game, fighting every day for a spot, knowing that I’ll never get a spot, I trained at the club, I did everything. Two seasons ago, I challenged the starters but we all know what happened last year.

“I was there during pre-season and then I was sent out on loan. So this year, I did not want to re-live the same scenario. It was time for me to find a stable club where I could play first-team football, where I could be one of the key players in the team.”

Bertrand Traore on why he left Chelsea for Lyon

Bertrand Traore has revealed he joined Lyon because he didn’t want to spend another season out on loan and although Dominic Solanke was never actually farmed out in the same way he’s decided to join Liverpool of his own accord in a compensation deal because of limited first-team opportunities. All of a sudden, Chelsea’s treatment of young players and first-team tunnel vision is beginning to catch up with them. Whilst that may not have been much of a problem five years ago, the quality of young player at Stamford Bridge is now significantly greater.

These days, Financial Fair Play is no longer as stringent as it once was. The punishments are less severe, the oversight is less vigilant, allowances are far more common. Which makes you wonder what the point of Chelsea’s loan system now truly is. £11million-£16million profit spit over five young players? The occasional £20million return at the cost of sacrificing a future top-class footballer? Hoarding youngsters to keep them out of reach of divisional rivals? Or simply to crush the dreams of young footballers who won’t get genuine opportunities at Stamford Bridge?

Whilst Chelsea’s farming out operation once had a clear aim and purpose, the negatives are now starting to outweigh the positives. The numbers are struggling to add up and Chelsea are wasting more talent than they’re producing. In footballing and financial terms, the system is failing.

Manchester United tend to get the players they want under the Jose Mourinho regime. During his first summer at Old Trafford the former Chelsea manager landed all four of the names he handed to chief executive Ed Woodward, and it looks as if it could be the same story this summer.

Having already brought in both Victor Lindelof and Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku, the Special One is now looking to bolster his midfield, and the club seem to be closing in on one of their top targets.

After reports from the Manchester Evening News claiming that Tottenham’s Eric Dier is keen on a move to Old Trafford, the odds have been slashed to 7/4 on Sky Bet for the England international to be a Red Devil come the close of the summer window.

The £21.25m-rated former Sporting Lisbon man, who has excelled under the guise of Mauricio Pochettino, lost his favoured defensive midfield slot at Spurs last season due to the form of both Mousa Dembele and Victor Wanyama.

With Mourinho looking to find a natural successor to the newly named captain Michael Carrick, Dier would surely be assured of a midfield role in Manchester.

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Manchester United have certainly caught the imagination this summer, signing one of Europe’s most exciting young defenders in Victor Lindelof and paying a huge fee for prolific front-man Romelu Lukaku – easily one of the deadliest strikers in the Premier League.

But on the outward front, the Red Devils have incurred a massive loss in the form of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish striker may have only been at Old Trafford for one season but he was so vital to results during Jose Mourinho’s debut campaign in charge and clearly had a huge say in the dressing room.

Likewise, although United have made two major signings, a number of their divisional rivals have been equally if not more proactive in the transfer market this summer.

So, United supporters, bearing not only your club’s swoops but also those of the rest of the top seven in mind, is Mourinho’s side actually in a stronger position now than at the end of last season?

Let us know by voting below…

In a bid to land Inter star Antonio Candreva, Chelsea are willing to offer defender Andreas Christensen in a player plus cash deal.

According to Tuttosport (via the Daily Express), Conte is keen to land the 30-year-old, who is valued at £17million by Transfermarkt, and sees him as the perfect right wing-back for his now famous 3-5-2 system.

Andreas Christensen, the man who could reportedly be sent to Inter in exchange for Candreva, has spent the last two season on loan in Germany, at Borussia Monchengladbach. The 21-year-old was a regular feature in the Bundesliga and performed with the maturity and confidence of a player far beyond his years of experience.

However, for some reason, the Danish international is not deemed to be part of Antonio Conte’s plans and it seems that Inter could well be his destination this summer.

Upon hearing the news, Chelsea fans took to social media to express their thoughts…

Liverpool’s former captain Steven Gerrard is feeling confident that the club will be part of the Premier League title race this summer.

Manager Jurgen Klopp has recruited three new players this summer so far, in the form of Dominic Solanke, Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson.

The transfer window has not gone that smoothly for the Reds, though, with rumoured targets Naby Keita and Virgil van Dijk still at their respective clubs, while the future of Philippe Coutinho remains in doubt. With the Brazilian’s exit looking likely, SportNation.bet have boosted the price of Liverpool to win the Premier League to 20/1.

Despite this, Gerrard has decided to stay positive and believes that the new signings and the current crop of stars can finish second behind Manchester City in the league this season.

The Mirror quotes Gerrard as saying:

“Liverpool look really dangerous on the counter. If they can learn how to break teams down at home and defend a bit better, I think they are a force.”

The ex-England captain believes that Liverpool’s arch rivals Manchester United will claim third place, while reigning champions Chelsea will sneak fourth.

Liverpool, who secured the final Champions League spot in the 2016-17 campaign, will begin the new season with a trip to Watford on Saturday and you can keep up to date with all the Liverpool in comings and outgoings at SportNation.com.

“We met at Stamford Bridge. I took them into one of the Millennium Boxes and within about 15 minutes we’d done the deal.”

That’s how former Chelsea Chief Executive Trevor Birch recounted the seminal moment in 2003 when he took Roman Abramovich and his advisors into a room and agreed the outline of a deal to sell the club to its current owner.

It only took 15 minutes, but that may well have been the most important quarter of an hour in English football’s history. Within a year, Claudio Ranieri had been replaced with Champions League winning manager Jose Mourinho, and Chelsea were never to be the same club ever again.

When you look at the history of billionaires taking over English football clubs, Chelsea is the first in a long line, but even with their success over the last decade it is almost impossible to match that first season under Jose Mourinho.

In many ways, that is Mourinho’s most underrated achievement. From winning two European titles in two years with unfancied Porto in the unfashionable Portuguese league, to dethroning the fabled Barcelona of Pep Guardiola to win an unprecedented treble with Inter Milan, perhaps it’s not surprising that the Portuguese coach’s first season at Stamford Bridge is neglected when the laurel wreaths are being handed out.

He may have won the Premier League, and even the League Cup, but failure to progress past February in the FA Cup and losing out in the Champions League semi-final to a Luis Garcia ‘ghost goal’ perhaps mean that Mourinho’s first great Chelsea team go somewhat under the radar.

There are a few reasons for that. Just the previous year, Arsenal had gone the entire Premier League season unbeaten, and so the sight of Chelsea winning the league having started the campaign with a Champions League winning manager and seemingly infinite money was less than edifying. Perhaps some – in the Arsene Wenger mould – might have seen it as morally dubious. And given their inability to go unbeaten, well, money can’t buy you love.

The other reason it might not be held up as the Mourinho pinnacle is that Chelsea won the league once again the next year, but by then the coach had continued his squad overhaul.

It was a team which wasn’t yet built in Mourinho’s image, and comprising of players like Scott Parker, Jiri Jarosik and Alexey Smertin, all of whom left the club at the end of the season. That’s in fitting with Mourinho’s normal timetable.

The overhaul comes after the first season, and the second is when the masterstroke really happens: as a manager, he’s so good at identifying weaknesses – both in his own team and the opposition – but although the team he had in the second season is probably a better one than he had in the first triumph, the first title victory was better.

Not only did Chelsea win the league, but they did with the best defence the Premier League has ever seen, conceding just 15 goals and winning by a 12-point margin. They were almost unstoppable – certainly barely penetrable.

A settled side has always been a Mourinho hallmark. The accusation that he doesn’t know his best team will rarely be levelled at him, even if his tactical pragmatism sometimes leads to selection choices with the opposition rather than his own team in mind. That settled side saw five players make over 50 appearances for the club that season. One of them was, unsurprisingly, Claude Makelele, who carved out a new position which is now named after him.

That immovable defensive unit is why Mourinho’s first season in English football is in the record books having conceded 15 goals in 38 games, and it’s why it will be remembered, even if Arsenal’s victory the season before gets the glory of being invincible.

Arsenal fans have a song about that season, and the world knows the team as the Invincibles. They are revered and respected; they are legendary. But few remember that Mourinho’s Chelsea went so very close to the same feat. They lost only once.

It shows the price of one failure when the margins are that tight. One rainy day in Manchester, when Chelsea were felled by a Nicolas Anelka penalty and Mourinho lost his first game in English football to Stuart Pearce: that’s the only reason that 2004/05 Chelsea aren’t widely seen as the best team in the history of the Premier League with not only the best defence, but the invincible one.

That defeat, though, may just have been what they needed to achieve such high levels in Mourinho’s first season. In the next game they faced Blackburn Rovers and won 4-0.

In the nine games immediately after the defeat in Manchester, Chelsea scored four goals on six occasions. It was as if they knew the chance at immortality had departed and Chelsea blazed to whatever glory they could grasp in a whirlwind of fury at the injustice of the world.

It’s not that Chelsea don’t get the credit for a near-perfect season. Nor is it the case that Jose Mourinho and his initial Chelsea machine is overlooked in the Pantheon of the great teams of history.

But Manchester United’s 1999 treble-winning side and Arsenal’s Invincibles are often held to loftier heights, not because the teams were obviously better, but because their achievements are more symbolic, more seminal. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Roman Abramovich era is the Champions League victory in 2012, one that eluded Mourinho at the club.

It shows how difficult an unbeaten season is. And it shows how difficult a treble is. Those feats are worshipped for a reason, and Chelsea – despite coming incredibly close to doing both – didn’t quite make it.

And it also shows that, whatever happens in football’s future, and however much is spent by clubs, there are still some things that may never be repeated – United’s treble, Arsenal’s Invincibles and Chelsea’s 15 goals conceded are feats which will likely never be repeated again. Or if they are, we’ll be witnessing a very special team indeed.

Chelsea’s original Premier League winning side deserves to be spoken of in the same vein as those other greats, and they should be considered Chelsea’s greatest side.

And even if Trevor Birch’s 15 minute meeting in 2003 changed the face of the Premier League forever, it was only a year later when his club’s defining season took place.

Tottenham Hotspur are the latest Premier League side to show an interest in Werder Bremen midfielder Thomas Delaney, Weser Kurier reports.

What’s the story?

The summer transfer window may have only just closed but numerous Premier League clubs are already plotting up early plans for January and the end of the current season, with a number of top-flight sides eyeing the same signatures.

Tottenham Hotspur, along with Everton and Burnley, are reported by German outlet Weser Kurier to be tracking the services of Werder Bremen’s Danish international Thomas Delaney- a compatriot of SPurs star Christian Eriksen.

The 26-year-old is said to be ready to swap the Bundesliga for the Premier League, though The Sun claim he rejected the chance to join Burnley this summer, and that opens the door for Mauricio Pochettino’s side to swoop- although a deal won’t happen until the end of the season.

How will he fit in?

Tottenham have enjoyed a remarkable few years but Pochettino’s side are under pressure to continue their rise. Fortunately, a vastly talented squad means that’s very achievable and their midfield is bursting with talent- which raises questions as to where Thomas Delaney would fit in.

A creative midfielder who boasts a strong record of five goals for club and country in the past three games, Delaney would give Pochettino’s side more depth in the attacking third; where the club are often reliant on Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen.

Having Delaney would add a new dimension to Spurs’ attack and would bolster the depth within the squad, which will be crucial as the Lilywhites are aiming to become regulars in the latter stages of the competition and that will test the squad.