Journalist Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Julian Nagelsmann has pulled out of the Chelsea managerial race due to poor timing.
What are the latest Chelsea manager rumours?
The former Bayern Munich has been considered one of the main candidates to take over in west London after Graham Potter was recently sacked.
Indeed, just a matter of days ago, The Guardian claimed the 35-year-old was the frontrunner after "impressing in talks" following a meeting with the club’s sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley.
However, since then, Romano has reported that the German is no longer likely to be hired by Chelsea after he has made himself unavailable to take over.
While speaking in more detail about the whole situation on his YouTube channel, Romano explained just why this had happened.
He explained: "What happened? In the last few days, from what I understand, the situation has changed. What happened is that Julian Nagelsmann… timing is a factor; also, he wants to plan for his future and he knows that Chelsea are taking time to make a final decision.
"At the moment, Julian Nagelsmann, it looks like his final decision looks ready to leave the race to become the new Chelsea coach."
Why won't Nagelsmann join Chelsea?
Judging from Romano's claim, it seems as though Nagelsmann isn't quite ready to take the job at this moment in time.
This could suggest that Chelsea want to hire a manager immediately even though Frank Lampard was appointed as interim until the end of the season.
Seeing as the Englishman has struggled since taking over, with the Blues losing his first four games in charge, perhaps Todd Boehly and co have lost patience and are now pushing to bring in a new face as soon as possible.
But if Nagelsmann doesn't want the job yet, he may have ruled himself out. This matches up with a recent claim made by insider Dean Jones to GiveMeSport.
Before this latest Chelsea development had occurred about Naglesmann pulling out of the race, the journalist wrote: "The German does not want to take up a new job during the season, preferring to come in for the summer to attack pre-season and focus fully on preparing a squad for a full campaign."
And so, it certainly does seem as though the timing just isn't right for Naglesmann, which raises the question of who the Blues go for next.
Mauricio Pochettino seems to be next on the list if the latest reports are to be believed, so perhaps links to the Argentinian will become more prominent over the coming weeks.