CHELSEA TO UNVEIL NEW COACH SOON

Antonio Conte will be unveiled as Chelsea head coach on Thursday afternoon as he begins the job of reviving the Premier League club's fortunes next season. Conte, 46, is the permanent successor to Jose Mourinho, who took over as the new manager of Manchester United this summer after being sacked by Chelsea. The man nicknamed "The Godfather" among the Italy players, according to Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci, will face the British media for the first time in his new role at 2 p.m. local time. He was appointed on April 4 and takes up his role after leading Italy at Euro 2016, where they suffered a penalty shootout loss to Germany in the quarterfinals. With Mourinho at United, Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham and Arsenal still managed by Arsene Wenger -- not to mention Claudio Ranieri at Leicester -- Conte joins a band of elite Premier League bosses sure to make the title race competitive once again. Conte will be expected to make sure Chelsea are among the top clubs again after their 10th-placed finish last term, in woeful defence of the title they won in 2014-15. As well as having a new man at the helm, Chelsea are expected to be more active than usual in the transfer market this summer. Michy Batshuayi is Conte's sole signing to date, but Leicester's N'Golo Kante, Bonucci, Roma midfielder Radja Nainggolan and numerous others have been linked with a switch to Stamford Bridge. Reports in France on Wednesday suggested Chelsea had agreed a fee of around £30million and a five-year deal with Kante. Anyone making the move will not be in the Champions League this season after Chelsea's miserable campaign. Conte has a major job to revive Chelsea, and quickly. The man who won three Serie A titles with Juventus will have to identify why Chelsea fell from title winners to relegation candidates so quickly. He will have to work out which Chelsea players he can trust, which are capable of carrying out his instructions and who is expendable as he seeks to rebuild his squad.   ESPN