International manager speaks about the offer from The Blues"

The former Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli has claimed that he nearly accepted Chelsea’s offer to make him the club’s next manager.

Premier League champions sacked Portuguese manager back in December 2015 following a poor start to the campaign and swiftly brought in Guus Hiddink until the end of the season to steady the ship.

However, attention instantly turned to who would be Jose’s long-term successor, with Sampaoli manager strongly linked with the vacancy after his stock rose last summer.

He led his national team to success in the Copa America for the first time in their history, but the 56-year-old Argentinian has confirmed he met with Abramovich before rejecting the switch due to the Russian bil preference for a certain style of play.

“The proposal that the closest I’ve been to accepting was that that of Chelsea,” He told Fox Sports Radio Argentina.

“It was a good project, we met with the president (Abramovich) but it did not work. The offer was for a style of play but I told Angelici (Daniel) in the short term this would not happen.