CHELSEA BACKROOM STALWART GARY STAKER AGREES DEAL TO LEAVE THE CLUB

Chelsea backroom stalwart Gary Staker agrees deal to leave the club


Chelsea's longest serving member of the back-room staff, player liaison officer Gary Staker, has left the club after his position was made redundant.

The veteran ally of numerous Chelsea managers including Gianluca Vialli, Claudio Ranieri and Jose Mourinho had considered legal action after the club suggested a change of role earlier in the summer.


But Sportsmail has learned that he has finally accepted a redundancy package and departed last Friday.


Chelsea are understood to have given Staker a bonus on top of the notice period in his contract in order to go quietly, after he rejected their offer of a part-time role looking after the club's ambassadors on match days at Stamford Bridge.


Staker was told before the start of the season that he would not be working with the first-team under Frank Lampard, although the new manager was not party to the decision, leading to a stand-off with the club's hierarchy which has now been resolved.


Staker's first job at Chelsea was as a match-day steward in the Stamford Bridge tunnel in the mid-1990s, where he forged relationships with more senior staff members, which led them to seek out his language skills as a fluent Italian following the appointment of Vialli as manager.

He became an increasingly visible presence when Ranieri took over two years later and went on to work with 13 Chelsea managers, as well as being a trusted confidant for long-serving players such as John Terry.

Staker was one of the few Chelsea staff who pre-date the Roman Abramovich era, although Lampard and his assistant Jody Morris were players when the Russian bought the club in 2003.