We are about to witness the start of the 2018 World Cup. Everything is in place and the competition promises to be a good one. If nothing else it relieves the boredom of having no Premier League football to watch!

So why haven’t Chelsea sorted out their management situation? They currently have an unhappy Italian who is expecting, (wanting?), to be sacked at any minute. They don’t appear to have anybody to replace him.

Most clubs want the majority of their transfer business carried out early in the summer. This is so that the new players can become acclimatised to their new surroundings and team mates and can also go on any pre-season tours with them.

It is unavoidable that, occasionally, players will sign late and miss out on all the niceties, having to settle in very quickly just before the season starts.

What is inexcusable is a club not making any signings before the start of a World Cup because they don’t appear to know who the manager will be.

Even if Chelsea appoint somebody to the post tomorrow, he will have an impossible task making any signings before the World Cup and anybody he does sign will probably join his new team after a holiday following the World Cup. Hardly an ideal situation!

The solution, of course, is to sign players not involved in the tournament and, with some high profile absentees, there are some decent players kicking their heels at present. Maybe this is what Chelsea intend doing.

The perfect solution would have been to sort out the manager situation as soon as the season ended. Arsenal managed to do so as did many other clubs so what was the problem at Stamford Bridge?

Could it be that the owner isn’t quite as interested as he used to be? Having grown fed up with the wait for a British visa, Roman Abramovich decided that becoming an Israeli was the answer. Since he made that decision and moved himself to Tel Aviv the club seems to have entered an almost cryogenic state.

Nothing is happening, not on the surface anyway. Do the current hierarchy need Abramovich to sign off on a new manager or sign off on sacking the old one? If so, and it is this which is holding things up, then he needs to get a move on and do something. Even if his presence or signature isn’t required he should do something as the owner of the club.

Just allowing the situation to fester, along with Antonio Conte and the fans, will not result in anything positive for the club.