Chelsea’s highly-rated coach Anthony Barry will stay away from the training ground and Stamford Bridge while the club haggle with Bayern Munich over his future.
Bayern have now made a compensation offer to take Barry, who wants to join Thomas Tuchel’s coaching staff in Germany, but it is understood to fall well short of Chelsea’s valuation.
Telegraph Sport first revealed that Chelsea were braced for a battle over Barry after Tuchel’s appointment at Bayern and that the former midfielder was interested in working with him in Germany.
Barry has expressed a wish to join Tuchel at Bayern but the 36-year-old is under contract to Chelsea and the Bundesliga giants have not offered sufficient compensation.
Bayern and Tuchel still hope an agreement will be reached and, in the meantime, it has been agreed that Barry will not return to work at Chelsea as Graham Potter prepares his team for the resumption of the Premier League.
Barry will not be at Chelsea’s training ground or on the bench at Stamford Bridge while the matter remains unresolved, but sources have insisted the decision is amicable and makes sense to all parties.
Chelsea announced earlier this month that Barry had been given permission to take up a dual role with Portugal and he has been with the Portuguese national team for the victories over Liechtenstein and Luxembourg before returning to England.
Chelsea were disappointed that the club’s former head coach Tuchel made his interest in appointing Barry public in his first press conference as Bayern’s new manager.
Confirming his plans, Tuchel said: “My coaching staff wasn’t prepared either, so a big thank you to their families for their flexibility. Arno Michels and Zsolt Löw, who have been working with me for over ten years, will be there. We’re hoping to add Anthony Barry, who is currently at Chelsea.”
Tuchel was sacked by Chelsea in September, just three months after the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover, and was forced to leave England just before Christmas because the club did not give him “gardening leave” that would have extended his visa.
Chelsea could come face-to-face with their former head coach before the end of the season, should Bayern and Chelsea both qualify for the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Following the sacking of Lampard, Barry stayed at Chelsea to work with Tuchel and the pair won the 2021 Champions League, before becoming a member of Graham Potter’s first-team staff. He worked for the Republic of Ireland, before joining Roberto Martinez at Belgium for the World Cup and now moving with the Spaniard to Portugal.
Barry was the first student at St George’s Park to have course research published as an academic journal.
Barry may not be the only Chelsea employee subject to interest from Tuchel over the coming months. Midfielder Mateo Kovacic will only have a year remaining on his contract in the summer, which, as revealed by Telegraph Sport, has already alerted Manchester City.
Bayern could also enter the race to sign Kovacic, who has captained Chelsea recently and is well known to Tuchel, who last year said: “He looks like a wonderkid in training in some exercises. A lovely guy, a humble guy, and so interested in sports. He’s so happy to train and deliver for the team. It’s a true pleasure.
“Even at Real Madrid, I was aware of his talent, and I felt there was a next step coming. I’m very happy that he’s my player and plays a lot this season. He is crucial to us on the pitch and off the pitch in the way he behaves.”
Source: News