Massimiliano Allegri Comments on Rumours of Potential Chelsea Move

Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri has laughed off rumours he's set to become Chelsea's next manager, stating he has a contract with the Bianconeri and is happy in Turin, while club chief executive Giuseppe Marotta has also denied the link. 

Luca Borioni of Calciomercato.com previously claimed Allegri had agreed to a four-year deal with the Blues, and the British press gladly ran with the story, with the Sun's Antony Kastrinakis even reporting the deal could be worth up to £30 million.

It now seems those reports were a little premature. Speaking to reporters ahead of Juventus' clash with Frosinone, the former AC Milan boss couldn't help but laugh when he was asked about the rumours.

ESPN FC's David Amoyal provided a translation of his answer, originally shared by sportswriter Massimiliano Nerozzi:

As shared by Serie A writer Marco Messina, the Italian literally burst out laughing:

Marotta also indicated that Allegri is going nowhere, per Simon Johnson in the Evening Standard:

We have a great rapport with Allegri. Contracts are not as important as the relationships between people. 

With Allegri, the conditions are all there to continue. The team is doing well and improving a great deal. Now the crucial moment of the season is coming up, so we should focus on that. 

I believe that in a corporate structure such as ours the role of coach is of very high importance, so I am opposed to having a coach who is set to leave the club.

The 48-year-old manager is in his second year with the Bianconeri and guided the club to the Italian double and a spot in the UEFA Champions League final last season. He previously won a Serie A title with Milan as well but was sacked in January 2014 following a string of poor results.

Allegri's appointment as Juventus boss in the summer of 2014 came as a major shock.

Former manager Antonio Conte, the man behind the Bianconeri's return to the summit of Italian football, suddenly resigned ahead of the 2014-15 campaign, and with few options available to them, the Turin giants turned to Allegri.

Per Amoyal, he was extremely unpopular with the fans when he got the job, but that's no longer the case:

Where Conte failed to do much damage in Europe, Allegri took the team to the final of the Champions League, beating European heavyweights Real Madrid along the way. Juventus suffered a dreadful start to the 2015-16 campaign due to the departure of a ton of stars, but once again, Allegri found a way to turn things around.

He replaced Carlos Tevez, Arturo Vidal and Andrea Pirlo with Paulo Dybala, Sami Khedira and Claudio Marchisio, who shifted back into a central role, and after a shaky start, Juventus have won 16 of their last 17 matches overall and 13 straight in Serie A, per WhoScored.com.

Allegri has now proved himself with two of Serie A's most storied clubs, and it's easy to see why he could be interested in an adventure abroad. There's little left to prove for him on the Italian peninsula, and if Juventus fail to win the Champions League this year, he may feel it's time to move on.

He's still under contract with the Bianconeri until 2017, however, so any reports of him agreeing to a deal with Chelsea before he leaves his current club should be treated with scepticism.

An extended stay with Juventus seems far more likely, however. In Turin, Allegri gets to work with a squad filled with star veterans and a vast amount of young talent, including the likes of Dybala, Alvaro Morata, Paul Pogba and Daniele Rugani.

Juventus have an incredibly bright future to go with the financial means and prestige to keep hold of any coach.

Managing in the Premier League would be a fantastic challenge for anyone, but Allegri may be one of the few coaches who finds himself in the kind of setting that seems more appealing than a move to Britain.

Meanwhile, Chelsea will in all likelihood not qualify for the Champions League and may even miss out on European football altogether.

The Blues have a lot of quality but some serious question marks as well, and with Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool all expected to enter the 2016-17 campaign with managers hired since the end of the 2015 summer transfer window, a host of Premier League clubs will be rebuilding their squads at the same time.

That means the amount of targets will be limited and prices will soar, so Allegri would have limited opportunities to bring in exactly the players he wants. A move to the Premier League may be appealing to the Italian, but the summer of 2016 hardly seems like the right time.

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