Chelsea have finally dismissed manager Antonio Conte.

The Italian’s departure was acknowledged in a three-sentence report on the club’s website, although his exit had been predicted for months.
Former Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri is set to take over, with an announcement expected in the coming days.

Barcelona have offered £60m to sign Willian from Chelsea, according to media reports.

The Daily Mail and Sky Sports claim the La Liga champions have already offered £50m for the Brazilian World Cup winger, but Chelsea are apparently demanding a larger free for the player.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has also been linked with a move for the player, who he coached during his days as Chelsea manager.
Barca coach Ernesto Valverde is keen to add Willian to his attacking options with Andres Iniesta and Paulinho departing the Camp Nou.
The latest offer for the player is said to be £55m plus around £5m in add ons.

29-year-old Willian joined Chelsea for £30m from Shakhtar Donestk five years ago. He has made 166 appearances for the Stamford Bridge club.

Barcelona have signed French defender Clement Lenglet from Sevilla for 35.9m euros (£31.7million) on a five-year deal after paying his release clause, the La Liga champions said on Thursday.

"The player will sign a contract with the club for the next five seasons, until June 2023, with a buy-out clause of 300 million euros," Barca said in a statement.
Lenglet, 23, joined Sevilla from French side Nancy in January 2017. He has played for France at under-21 level but has never been called up to the first team.

Lenglet is Barca's second signing of the close season after midfielder Arthur Melo.

The deal means Barca now have five centre backs on the books in Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti, Yerry Mina and Thomas Vermaelen.

Manchester City have completed the signing of Riyad Mahrez for a club-record fee of £60m from Leicester, the Premier League champions have confirmed.

The Algeria international handed in a transfer request in January, but having failed to seal a move to the Etihad Stadium, the 27-year-old was initially told to stay away from first-team training for a 10-day period by his employers.

Mahrez returned to the fold under Claude Puel on February 9 to enjoy another impressive individual season for the Foxes, and he has now been granted his wish of joining up with Pep Guardiola for the start of the new season.

Mahrez, who eclipses the previous club record of £57m when Aymeric Laporte joined from Athletic Bilbao in January, was announced immediately after the full-time whistle in France’s 1-0 victory over Belgium in the World Cup semi-final.
City posted on their Twitter account a short video featuring Mahrez with the caption: “The best things come to those who wait… #welcomeriyad to Manchester City!”

Mahrez was the subject of four failed bids from City in the mid-season transfer window, but he went on to score 13 goals in 41 appearances for Leicester last campaign.

The exciting winger has successfully completed his medical and will wear the No 26 shirt next season, previously worn by Martin Demichelis.

The announcement comes after City had seen a cash-plus-player offer of £65m rejected seven months ago, when Leicester were only willing to listen to offers of £80m to let him go in the middle of the season.

"Riyad is a hugely talented player. He beats defenders and creates space," City director of football Txiki Begiristain said. "Over the past few years, he has established himself as one of the Premier League's most exciting players."

Mahrez was named PFA Player of the Year in 2015-16 when Leicester were crowned Premier League champions, with him scoring 42 goals in 158 appearances across all competitions during his time at the King Power Stadium. With two years remaining on his current contract, Leicester have opted to no longer stand in his way.

"I am so pleased to have joined City, a side playing great football under Pep Guardiola," Mahrez said in a club statement. "Watching them from afar has been a pleasure. Pep is committed to playing attacking football, which is a perfect for me, and City's performances last season were outstanding. They're redefining the English game and I wanted to be a part of it.

"I think we can be successful over the coming years and I believe my own game can develop under Pep's management."

World Cup, Semi-Final – France 1 (Umtiti 51’) Belgium 0

France delivered a ruthless performance to reach the World Cup final with a 1-0 win over Belgium in St Petersburg.
Samuel Umtiti delivered the knockout blow with a flicked header shortly after half-time, beating Marouane Fellaini to the corner deliver.

But it was PSG star Kylian Mbappe who was the real star of the game, running Belgium ragged with his remarkable mix of pace and skill.
France will face either Croatia or England in Sunday’s final.

TALKING POINT
Is that the last throes of the golden generation? Belgium's squad have oodles of talent and big stars - was this their last chance to really impress on the biggest stages?

MAN OF THE MATCH
Kylian Mbappe (France). Another sparkling display from the young man, teasing out absolute frustration from the men attempting to mark him.

PLAYER RATINGS
France - Lloris 7, Pavard 7, Varane 8, Umtiti 8, Hernandez 7, Pogba 7, Kante 8, Mbappe 9, Griezmann 7, Matuidi 8, Giroud 7. Subs - Tolisso 7, N'Zonzi 7

Belgium - Courtois 7, Alderweireld 7, Kompany 7, Vertonghen 6, Chadli 6, Fellaini 7, Dembele 7, Witsel 7, De Bruyne 7, E Hazard 7, Lukaku 7. Subs - Batshuayi 7, Carrasco 7, Mertens 8.

KEY MOMENTS
15' CHANCE! France lose possession again, and Hazard is at an awkwardly acute angle and drags his shot wide of the far post.

22' SAVE! Another great save as Alderweireld turns on the edge of the box and hits it with his left foot, and Courtois gets his fingertips to it.

31' CLOSE! Pavard sweeps the ball in towards Giroud, just a touch behind him, and he can't quite get the connection he wants.

45'+1 CHANCE! De Bruyne gets the ball in early, Umtiti deflects it just out of the path of Lukaku, who looks thoroughly confused.

51' GOAL! Umtiti gets the goal to break the deadlock! It's a great header as he leaps alongside Fellaini and nods the corner home.

56' CHANCE! Matuidi falls backwards as his shot is blocked by Alderweireld, and it then falls to Giroud after a smartly impudent roll from Mbappe, but his shot is flicked away by Courtois.

90'+1 CLOSE! Tolisso keeps his shot low and Courtois once again comes to the rescue, tipping the ball round the post.

KEY STATS
Four of the last six goals for France in the World Cup semi-finals have come from defenders: Marius Trésor in 1982, Lilian Thuram (2) in 1998 and Samuel Umtiti in 2018.

Didier Deschamps is the first ever manager in France history to reach the final of two major tournaments (EURO 2016 and World Cup 2018).

Arsenal have completed the signing of Uruguay midfielder Lucas Torreira from Italian Serie A side Sampdoria, the Premier League club announced on Tuesday.

"The wait is over... it's #TimeForTorreira. Welcome to Arsenal," the North London club tweeted.

"In Lucas Torreira, we have signed a young player who is a very bright talent in the game," coach Unai Emery told the club's website https://www.arsenal.com/news/lucas-torreira-join-arsenal.

"A midfielder with great quality, I have enjoyed watching his performances for Sampdoria in the past two seasons, and we all saw him do very well for Uruguay in the World Cup."
The 22-year-old played all five of Uruguay's World Cup matches in Russia, as they crashed out in the quarter-finals following a 2-0 defeat by France.

Torreira joined Sampdoria in 2015 and made 71 appearances for the Italian club.

"He is a young player already with good experience, but who wants to keep on growing. We welcome Lucas to Arsenal and look forward to him joining us soon for pre-season," Emery added.

Arsenal did not provide financial details of the deal but it was reported last month that the fee agreed would be around 30 million euros. Torreira will wear the number 11 shirt vacated by midfielder Mesut Ozil. Ozil recently switched to number 10.

Real Madrid have confirmed the news that Cristiano Ronaldo will leave the club after agreeing a deal with Juventus.

In a statement released by the club, Real said:" In response to the will and request expressed by the player Cristiano Ronaldo, he has agreed to transfer to Juventus FC. Today, Real Madrid wants to express its gratitude to a player who has proved to be the best in the world and who has marked one of the brightest times in the history of our club and world football. Beyond the conquered titles, the trophies and the triumphs achieved in the playing fields during these 9 years, Cristiano Ronaldo has been an example of dedication, work, responsibility, talent and improvement."
The news brings to an end Ronaldo's remarkable nine-year stay at Real Madrid that saw him become the club's top scorer witha remarkable 451 goals in 438 games and winning 16 titles, among them four Champions Leagues.
Madrid's statement concluded:" Real Madrid will always be your home."

The new season kicks off today for Chelsea. And the main issue is no clearer than it was when the last one ended, writes Dan Levene.

If you bet on England being out of the World Cup before Chelsea had their managerial wranglings sorted out, then this probably wasn't what you were expecting.
“Just over two weeks now until the Blues are back in match action,” announced the Chelsea Twitter account on Sunday, in what looked very much like a club being trolled by its own social media function.
Move along, nothing to see.

Monday 9th July is the long-held date upon which pre-season was to recommence for any Chelsea players without a recent Russian working visa in their passport.

And, still, the name of the manager for the coming season remains clear as mud.

Antonio Conte, for his part, has shown all the willing in the world: the briefing says that he has a full Stamford Bridge training plan for 2018-19 in his locker.

Though, as yet, nobody is quite sure where that locker might me.
The club's possession of his tax code is no guarantee that he'll actually be 'in charge' (as much as any manager can ever claim that amid his job description) for the coming campaign.

The long lenses will, no doubt, be trained on Cobham.

Will it be his usual parking space: the one located beneath the precariously positioned sheets of glass on the training centre roof? (Surely they've had a maintenance man on that job by now).

Or will his Nissan Juke be in the U21s car park: alongside the ghosts of Florent Malouda, Alex and Nicolas Anelka's vehicles past?

It is not just the lone remaining year on his deal that has led to all this speculation about his immediate future.
The tetchiness displayed on both sides of the club-boss relationship last term, accelerating to a fever pitch as the season ended, was impossible to ignore.

And Chelsea's barely concealed summer search for a replacement first-team coach seems only to have failed to reach a conclusion... because it failed to reach a conclusion.

A manager who looks like he doesn't want to be here; and a club that looks like it doesn't want him here.
Chelsea have to be in Perth, Australia for the kick off of an exhibition match on 23 July.

Take half a day off that for time difference; and then another two or three days off it for travel and acclimatisation; and they should probably be putting their miniature toiletries into little polythene bags around now.

Friendlies follow in Nice and Dublin; and the FA Community Shield is less than four weeks away.

Still, at least the programme of summer signings is underway: veteran third-choice non-playing keeper Eduardo having been re-signed from his status as a (brief) free-agent, in order to be sent on-loan to Vitesse.
All of which should go some way towards explaining why the odds are so long (if rapidly shortening) on Conte being in the technical area's main seat come kick off v Huddersfield on 11 August.

Put it this way: if he is, we're all in for fireworks.

In terms of rocky rides for a Chelsea boss, you'd have to cast your eye back to Andre Villas-Boas' abortive attempt at the Paris-Dakar Rally for a comparison.

Chelsea is a club which seems to thrive on chaos. But even here, there is a level beyond which it becomes counter-productive.

The tolerance of many fans seems to have been reached some weeks back. Time to find out how the players get on with it all...

Brazil midfielder Paulinho is leaving Barcelona after one season to rejoin Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande, the Spanish champions said on Sunday.

“FC Barcelona and Guangzhou Evergrande have reached an agreement for the loan transfer of Paulinho Bezerra for one season, with a mandatory purchase option for the Chinese club,” Barca said in a statement on their website.

Paulinho, 29, scored nine goals in 49 appearances for the Catalans after signing for €40 million last August, helping them win the La Liga and King’s Cup double.
He was part of Brazil’s World Cup squad, scoring in their 2-0 group-stage win over Serbia.

It is reported that this transfer back to China could be worth €100 million.