Jul 15, 2016
Conte prepared for pressure at Chelsea
The man who guided the Azzurri to a surprise quarterfinal appearance at EURO 2016 is ready to make his bow with Chelsea, but Noel Butler writes that Antonio Conte is prepared to take on all comers at Stamford Bridge.
By Noel Butler
LONDON - There was no legion of Chelsea supporters gathered at Stamford Bridge like there was back in early June of 2013 when José Mourinho returned “home.” A far more sombre mood prevailed when Antonio Conte was unveiled as Chelsea’s new head coach on Thursday afternoon.
A token smattering of applause from senior Chelsea executives greeted Conte as he entered the Ron Harris Suite, named for a club legend whose style of football as an uncompromising defender would certainly have received the Conte seal of approval.
This was Conte’s second day on the job. His first day was to oversee Chelsea’s opening of training camp where the players were put through their paces twice. Conte’s double training session method was reinforced when the new manager was asked what his overriding message was to the players. “I’m a worker. I like to work,” was the 46-year-old manager’s response.
Andrea Pirlo, who played and starred for Conte at Juventus, can certainly attest to that. In his recent autobiography, Pirlo described Conte as “a beast with two wives” — his real wife and football. The current New York City FC midfielder disclosed that Conte is often up until the early hours of the morning studying video and opponents, and would think nothing of getting up in the middle of the night to write thoughts down.
Conte spoke of his great passion for football and his desire to transfer that passion to both his players and Chelsea supporters at Thursday afternoon’s unveiling.
Conte would not be drawn into the conversation on if he intended to implement the three-man defensive system that served him so well at both Juventus and, more recently, as Italian coach. He needed time to evaluate the players and placed invoking the correct spirit in the locker room far above settling on a formation.
Chelsea’s new manager confirmed John Terry would continue as captain, despite the fact that, as expected, Terry’s playing time will be reduced under Conte.
“He’s the captain — a great player with a great personality and great charisma,” Conte said. “I like to speak with him because I know he knows this club and the right spirit it takes to play for this club.”
Spirit and passion were the overriding theme throughout the 45 minutes Conte spoke with the media. He said he left the job as Italian manager because he missed the day-to-day interactions with players that are such a part of managing a club side. Although fully aware of the taunting task ahead, Conte has no doubt he can improve Chelsea.
Part of the Chelsea makeover plan Conte revealed was to bring in three or four new players. Earlier this month Chelsea announced the capture of the very promising 22-year-old Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi from Marseilles for a reported £33m ($55 million). It is widely expected Leicester City midfielder N'Golo Kanté will join Chelsea in the coming days.
Although the defending BPL champions will be disappointed to allow the midfielder to leave after they offered him a new much improved deal before Kanté joined up with the French squad at Euro 2016, they can console themselves with the significant profit they will make. Kanté joined Leicester last summer from French Ligue 1 club, SM Caen for a fee of around £6m ($10 million). Chelsea is expected to pay upwards of £30m ($50 million) for a player who moved to Caen on a free transfer only three years ago.
Much has been made in the off-season of the fact that four of the world’s very best club managers in Conte, Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho will all be at BPL clubs this upcoming season. For Conte, that’s inconsequential. He said it’s the payers and teams that will compete and determine the destiny of the title. He also said that the likes of Arsenal, Leicester and Tottenham deserved to be mentioned in any conversation about who were capable of lifting the trophy next May.
None of the Chelsea players who participated in the Copa America or Euro 2016 have reported to camp yet. Only after Chelsea leave for their stateside International Champions Cup commitments — which kick off with a match against Liverpool at the Rose Bowl July 27 — will Conte have the full squad at his disposal.
With the likes of Alexandre Pato and Radamel Falcao already released, and up to four new faces to be added, there certainly will be players exiting Stamford Bridge. Kanté’s signature could well signal the end of Nemanja Matic’s second Chelsea spell. The Frenchman’s arrival will spark comparisons in SW6 to his compatriot Claude Makelele, who joined Chelsea back in 2003 when another Italian, the BPL title winning Claudio Ranieri, was at the Stamford Bridge helm.
Last season represented the worst for Chelsea since Roman Abramovich became the owner back in June 2003. Conte represents the 13th managerial switch at Stamford Bridge over this time. He takes charge of his first match Saturday afternoon in Austria against Rapid Vienna.
This season not only represents a crucial one on the pitch for the club. Off the pitch it will be the most important one in over a century.
Chelsea was formed back in 1905 in a pub directly across the street from Stamford Bridge. Last November the club filed with their local London authority planning permission to construct a new stadium. It will expand Stamford Bridge by an additional 20,000 seats to bring the capacity to 60,000. The application itself contains over 200 documents, calls for the complete regeneration of the Stamford Bridge grounds and is expected to cost Abramovich well in excess of $1 billion.
Paramount to the new stadium succeeding is Conte’s team succeeding on the pitch. No pressure there, Antonio. This for a man who let it be known to all at his unveiling that he was born with pressure.