Antonio Conte | Chelsea Manager 16/17

Some are talking as though we have a whole queue of top managers banging at our door.
Or that Pochettino will join us at the drop of a hat once he turns Spurs into real title contenders, so let's hold on to Van Gaal for another year even if it sucks.
Or we must not lose Rashford or Lingard because they are nailed-on to become world-class players, which is clearly what will happen once Mourinho comes on board.

A lot of assumptions are being made to justify why Mourinho should not be our manager. But the truth is, we don't know if any of these will happen.

Right now, he's the best choice at the moment to bring back a bit of the "fear-factor". We have lost a lot of that, and teams are having a go at us, and getting lots of success.

I do not want to see a repeat of this season. Our current football is less inspired than anything I've seen from Chelsea under Mourinho, Arsenal under Graham, the German teams of the 90s etc. And all these teams had lots of success while being really tough to beat. We're a far, far way from that at the moment. In the face of all this, I'd give Mourinho a chance.
 
Some of the backtracking on Mourinho by Chelsea fans is hilarious. I don't want him here but some of the Chelsea fans are slating the man after portraying him as a god before that.


Not that I'm looking forward to him becoming our manager, the Caf always had a weird love in with him.
 
KM said:
Some of the backtracking on Mourinho by Chelsea fans is hilarious. I don't want him here but some of the Chelsea fans are slating the man after portraying him as a god before that.


Not that I'm looking forward to him becoming our manager, the Caf always had a weird love in with him.
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We're agreeing on too many things this morning. :D

Agree with everything there, don't want him here and it's hilarious seeing some of the bile being spouted now by the chavs
 
Great appointment for them, will look forward to seeing how they go next season with the re-build. We are probably getting more and more down the hole of needing a heavy hitting manager next season if Van Gaal leaves.
 
It's a good appointment but I still think Simeone would've been the ideal manager for them.
 
Gol123 said:
I have no doubt he wanted to stay long term. The fans love him and he had as much power over the first team as possible. The thing is, I don't think he is capable of it and I don't think his management style is suitable for any stretch longer then a couple of seasons. Everything he did at Chelsea showed zero long term thought. From signings to man management. He just cant do long term.

We did try and sign them. There isn't much more you can do when Everton straight up decline £45m for Stones, when a €60m bid is accepted for Koke and he refuses to even talk with the club and when you offer more money then United for Martial and Monaco still reject your offer and he goes to United. What else could we do with those targets? None of them wanted to play for us under Mourinho, simple as that. Only Griezmann was maybe attainable but we didn't think £43m was good value for him. Something I believe we got totally wrong. Instead we bought Pedro to do a similar job for half the money.

Also, why did we need to spend nearly £200m on players for Mourinho to have another title winning season and not implode? Isn't that the sign of a bad manager if they have to constantly spend a small fortune every season to be competitive? Plus the fact that spending absurd amounts every year isn't a suitable long term solution.

Another point, the problems we had when Mourinho first took charge (Blunt attack, lack of control in midfield and a slow aging defence) we still had two years into his reign despite him spending a load f money every transfer window. That's because he bought short term quick fixes rather then long term solutions.

Funnily enough, a lot of our problems could've been solved if Mourinho had just given the youth players a chance like he said he was going to. Christensen has shown himself to be as talented as Stones ever was and equally good on the ball this season in CB, Loftus-Cheek would've given the midfield much more solidity playing a box to box role in a midfield 3 and Traore would 've offered more threat going forwards then either Remy or Falcao coming from the right or playing as a striker. He showed them no faith though and wanted 5/6 top class players added to the team, when he could've just given them the chance they deserved and only bot 1/2 top players.
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If you ask me there's no hero and villain in this story. Chelsea's meltdown is down to many people which include Roman and the past managers. Mou has part of the blame too, however I don't think he's got the majority of the blame, far from it. This is how I see it.

a- Chelsea had an ageing team made up of players who would probably sell their mum to keep hold to their fat cheque (such thing is becoming common not just with mercenaries but also with players who supposedly love their club like Gerrard, Keane and our lovely Gaz). The process of trying to drop the team's age should have started earlier. There again, no one would have dared doing that because they knew that they wouldn't survive a transition period under Roman. Its so easy to do your time and move on.

b- The hot potato finally ended up in Mou's hands. After winning the league title, proving once again his worth, he tried to address the problem by bringing in new blood to the team. Chelsea failed to bring him the player he wanted and he was left leading a team which relied heavily on players Mou wanted to get rid off. No manager, not even SAF can survive that. TBF to Chelsea Mou should have looked at the youth academy and try to spare some money to Chelsea. You're also right in saying that good managers wouldn't need to spend 200m to build a title winning squad either. There again, Chelsea are not known for their patience and no Chelsea manager would survive a SAF's like transition period (which is necessary if you want a successful transition period based on Lidl/youth academy type of transfers).
 
Higuain, Cavani, Cuadrado and Lukaku are all rushing to Chelsea as Conte arrives, says the Daily Fail ;)
 
Adisa said:
If this is true, I don't want him anywhere near the club.
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It's the thing about Mourinho that makes me most wary. Youth development isn't on his agenda at all. He wants the kid to be super-convincing before giving him a shot, whereas the managers who are great at it, always give it a certain degree of importance as part of their overall management, and often give young players a bit of leeway and infact, self-belief, rather than merely demanding from them a certain level of excellence.

As for Conte, based on his time at Juve, Chelsea have made a very good appointment. Hopefully he doesn't do as well as he did there.
 
AshfordLad said:
Bollocks. There were no bids made for Koke and Griezman. Marquinos bid was made only once Stones bid had failed, so sount one at max.

Essentially Mourinho wanted Stones and Pogba thats 100-120m. Atleast half of which would have been recouped by player sales. He even gave the club second, third and fourth fall back options incase the primary targets were ungetable.

Any more cute stories that you want to make up. The most likely version of truth is that club didnt want to sign any new first teamers and pushed Jose to play more youth players than is reasonable.

Regardless of whatever numbers you make up, the fact remains that club has spent just over £60m is 3 seasons. Thats massive underinvestment compared to city, United, liverpool and even arsenal. What Jose achieved last season was nothing short of brilliance.


Falcao was thurst upon him by the club. If you honestly think that someone like Jose (who does not like to leave anything to chance) will take such a gamble then youre deluding yourself.


And terry proved to be our best defender for those two seasons. Would you rather us not have won the league last season and brought through Kalas instead. Loftus-Cheek is a lazy fecker, the kind of player who needs that periodic bollocking to keep him on his toes. Jose was handling him just fine.

"Nothing to this club" haha. Youre not a game goer are you. TV fans like will sadly never know what Jose is to the real supporters.


Piss-off mate. This is the problem with you bandwagoners.

Go look at pre-abrahmovic history. That should make you look less shallow. The club never wronged its legends ever.

For me Chelsea have won more in the last 12 years than I expected them to win in my entire life time when I first started supporting the club. So trophies dont matter nearly as much as doing right by the man who couldnt wait to thump the Chelsea badge on his chest on any given occasion.
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http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation....-fc-transfer-rumor-koke-atletico-madrid-offer

Marca reported it, so I'm sure it has some truth to it.

Griezmann there were numerous reports saying we had bid for him but Atletico told us to pay his release clause (£43m) which we didn't see as value for him. Something I didn't agree with but if that's the clubs prerogative (Not to spend nearly £50m on a player when our finances were at a loss that year) then I'm not going to shit on them and side with Mourinho because of some disgustingly misguided support for a "legend".

I'm not saying the club weren't to blame. The pursuit of Stone was amateurish IMO and we left it too late to get his replacement. But to say we didn't even go in for Mourinho's targets is ridiculous. We did and we failed at every single one of them. If that's the clubs fault for not trying enough (Griezmann and Marquinhos) or Mourinho's for setting targets that weren't obtainable (Koke, Pogba, Stones and Martial) I'm not 100% sure but I believe its a bit of both.

Your talking out your arse when you say he gave them "4/5 backups". After berating me for exagerrating (Despite the fact that I backed up my claims) you go and throw BS like that around. There is no basis for Mourinho having 4/5 backups other then him sending a squad report at the end of April. That's not proof at all.

Again, £60m? Where the feck is this BS coming from? We spent nearly £60m in the train wreck season.
http://www.transferleague.co.uk/chelsea/english-football-teams/chelsea-transfers

Unless you mean net spend which, being honest here, is very RAWKish thinking. The net spend had nothing to do with his ability. Its the backroom team getting the best deals possible for players Mourinho didn't want. And yet he still wanted Mikel and blocked his sale last summer. So stop with that crap as well about him wanting to get rid of Mikel.


Terry was/is a big part of why we are so tactically deficient. He is slow and old when we want to play a high pressing offensive game. Its not possible to do that with him in the team and leaves us very exposed at the back when we do go more attacking in games (As seen in the first half of last season when we were shipping goals all the time). So yes, I would rather watch great football from Chelsea with no Terry then some of the tumescent shit we put up with him in the side (Case in hand the pathetic title run in performances). Also, this where Mourinho gets you. He makes fans believe that they should make sacrifices for what he wants. I was fine with him not winning the league last season and continuing to naturally develop the squad. He was the one who made it all about winning the league in season two with his talk in the first season, he was the one that was desperate for the title and sacrificed long term planning for it. He also made you think that not playing youth was the only way to win the league. Lots of teams have won the league whilst playing youth players, Ferguson, Wenger and even Pep (Who I know Chelsea fans love to put down any chance they get). So why is it that Mourinho couldn't win the league whilst playing the youth players?

I'm sorry but, his treatment of RLC was appalling. Hiddink has dealt with him well. He wasn't happy with his effort against MK Dons, so he took him from the first team, likely said a few words to him, still kept him in the subs bench and gradually brought him back in. He was rewarded with a full 90 minutes of running and effort from RLC.

Compare to Mourinho. Bigs him up prior to a game, proceeds to only play him for 8 minutes, then doesn't play him until the end of the season when nothing is on the line. Continues to big him up all summer before verbally stripping him down completely to the press. Then slowly giving him 5/10 minutes here and there, playing him for a CL game where he gets MotM and show's the effort asked for. Then Mourinho proceeds to drop him al together until the Aston Villa game where he is given 45 minutes before being taken off and never being seen again in the first team sheet. You don't play a youngster then freeze them out for months at a time. LVG is getting shit for doing it to Januzaj and Mourinho was fine when he did it to RLC. Most of our youth wanted to leave due to not getting any opportunities under Mourinho. Its only because he was sacked they signed up.

I'm a game goer. I go to every game possible. Problem is, tickets are sold out for most games and it costs at least £200 for every trip for me and my dad to go watch Chelsea. I'm not going bankrupt to go up and watch football, if that's what you deem enough support. I know the match going fans too and they blame the players, then the club and then Mourinho. So no, they don't have too much attachment to him other then fondness for what he achieved with Chelsea. They are quite fickle though as a lot of them have recently started to say that Hiddink may be their favourite Chelsea manager. Lots of match going Chelsea fans are really liking Hiddink Inna similar way to Mourinho. Just Hiddink doesn't play up to it like Mourinho did.

I also think you are deluded if you believe Mourinho has some deep rooted feelings for Chelsea. He likes the ego soothing he receives from Chelsea fans and the support he gets. He doesn't care much beyond that and would happily burn our club to the ground if it meant he continued to win trophies with another club. That's why I never had this cult like obsession with the man.


Also, any "fan" who wishes Mourinho success at the expense of Chelsea is no fan for me. That's just not right in my head. I could never wish anybody success over Chelsea. Even if a paraplegic boys life was on the line, I would choose Chelsea winning.

Me a bandwagoner? Far from it. I actually supported Chelsea because my dad did (He himself was a fans since the early 60's) and didn't really think much else of it. Its just a nice coincidence that a few years after I start supporting them they get bought by a Russian billionaire and start winning things. By a few years, I mean I was 4/6 years old when he bought them.
 
Orc said:
Why won't we win the league? Can't see us winning it up against a Pep with unlimited funds or a Mou at United with unlimited funds in the first season under a meager that plays a completely different style than our players are used to.
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Chelsea have pretty much as much money as anyone else, and FFP doesn't seem to be a big factor anymore. Didn't you bid big for Stones last summer as well as Martial?

Conte's style of play will be different to Jose's but then again so will Jose's be from LVG's and Pep's from Pelligrini's. Most of the top clubs will have to build chemistry as the season goes on. Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal probably have the edge in that respect. What Chelsea do have is a very recent title win, and IF Hazard and Costa stay and get their act together (Costa already has?), you'll have two attacker as good as any.

Orc said:
True, we did sign Pedro. He's been the only decent signing we made. The club went over José's head and sold Petr Cech to bloody Arsenal after he publicly said he didn't want that to happen. The club signed a defender from a small French side in Djilobodji who even the manager had never heard of. The club singed a random Championship defender who none of us had heard of in Michael Hector who will never play once in a Chelsea shirt. They signed Falcao who I forgot was even in the squad and then signed Pato who just made his first appearance 3 months after signing.

What I'm saying is that if the board continues to be the talent evaluators the ones who decide which players to sign rather than the manager we'll be in trouble.

Mourinho has come out and said himself since he was sacked that the club essentially told him to "do it again with the same squad." Like I said, if the same happens here and he has to persist with average players like Cahill we won't make the necessary improvement.
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Jose says a lot of things, and half of them seem to be to serve to maintain/defend/enlarge his own image. Maybe that is true, you'd know more than me being a Chelsea fan, however, as I stated above, weren't you in for Martial and Stones? You didn't get them but shit happens. It doesn't suggest that the plan was to sign noone.
 
Mourijhonisnthe biggest liar out there too. He said that Lampard rejected a new deal with Chelsea when it turns out we didn't even offer him a new contract.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
It's the thing about Mourinho that makes me most wary. Youth development isn't on his agenda at all. He wants the kid to be super-convincing before giving him a shot, whereas the managers who are great at it, always give it a certain degree of importance as part of their overall management, and often give young players a bit of leeway and infact, self-belief, rather than merely demanding from them a certain level of excellence.

As for Conte, based on his time at Juve, Chelsea have made a very good appointment. Hopefully he doesn't do as well as he did there.
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That comment about needing only five minutes to know if a young player is good enough gave him away. He just doesn't have the patience with young players.
The idea that his record with young players is because of the clubs he's been at is clutching at straws IMO. We have seen it time and time again, if a manager believes in giving youth a chance he will do it regardless of pressure.
I don't want us to employ a manager and make him do things he's not willing to do and what he's not comfortable doing. If Mourinho doesn't give a shite about giving youth a chance (history shows he doesn't), it would be pointless for us to seek guarantees that he will change is approach here.
 
Whats all this about being involved in a match fixing scandal indirectly a few years ago and as a result could face a six month prison sentence?
 
RDCR07 said:
Whats all this about being involved in a match fixing scandal indirectly a few years ago and as a result could face a six month prison sentence?
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There were alligations that while managing Siena in a game vs. albinoleffe he told the dressing room that the game was fixed dueing the pre-match talk.

One person who was later charged with the fix claimed that Conte had knowledge of it and said those words, but the claim was unsubstantiated and no one else supported him. Conte was regardless punished with (i guess) a 4 month ban while managing Juve.
 
RDCR07 said:
Whats all this about being involved in a match fixing scandal indirectly a few years ago and as a result could face a six month prison sentence?
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20 players said he had no knowledge of a fix and 1 player said he did. Result was a 1 year ban later reduced to a 4 month ban.

Basically they took 1 players word over 20 players saying otherwise, that's just how Italy works.
 
Vialli_92 said:
20 players said he had no knowledge of a fix and 1 player said he did. Result was a 1 year ban later reduced to a 4 month ban.

Basically they took 1 players word over 20 players saying otherwise, that's just how Italy works.
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I've read his ban was based on the fact his assistant was proven guilty of fixing one of Siena's matches and the judge found it impossible to believe Conte would not have had some knowledge of it. That player's testimony was not so important in the end. Regardless it does not seem like he actively did anything to be fair.
 
BobbyManc said:
I've read his ban was based on the fact his assistant was proven guilty of fixing one of Siena's matches and the judge found it impossible to believe Conte would not have had some knowledge of it. That player's testimony was not so important in the end. Regardless it does not seem like he actively did anything to be fair.
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You could be right but I definitely remember that players testimony saying he knew about it being a big influence on the decision.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
Chelsea have pretty much as much money as anyone else, and FFP doesn't seem to be a big factor anymore. Didn't you bid big for Stones last summer as well as Martial?

Conte's style of play will be different to Jose's but then again so will Jose's be from LVG's and Pep's from Pelligrini's. Most of the top clubs will have to build chemistry as the season goes on. Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal probably have the edge in that respect. What Chelsea do have is a very recent title win, and IF Hazard and Costa stay and get their act together (Costa already has?), you'll have two attacker as good as any.


Jose says a lot of things, and half of them seem to be to serve to maintain/defend/enlarge his own image. Maybe that is true, you'd know more than me being a Chelsea fan, however, as I stated above, weren't you in for Martial and Stones? You didn't get them but shit happens. It doesn't suggest that the plan was to sign noone.
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We made a concrete offer for Stones, yes. If I remember correctly we were very interested in Martial and inquired about his availability with Monaco and were told firmly that he wasn't for sale. Then you guys came in with an astronomical offer that couldn't be refused.
 
KM said:
Some of the backtracking on Mourinho by Chelsea fans is hilarious. I don't want him here but some of the Chelsea fans are slating the man after portraying him as a god before that.


Not that I'm looking forward to him becoming our manager, the Caf always had a weird love in with him.
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This is common.

I love how Everton fans backtracked on Moyes. Yeah he was shit for us but he was a great manager for their level. It is satisfying seeing them being mid table mediocres now!
 
Ramshock said:
We expecting much out of Conte?
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Solid 4th place team until chelsea manage to rebuild their shitshow of a squad that can ebb and flow dependant on how much of a bunch of cnuts they decide on a whim to be that day.
 
Oo0AahCantona said:
Solid 4th place team until chelsea manage to rebuild their shitshow of a squad that can ebb and flow dependant on how much of a bunch of cnuts they decide on a whim to be that day.
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This seems so sadly true.
 
Honestly, I'd snatch a 3rd or 4th place finish now if I was offered. Like United in LvG's first season we just need to get back there at all costs.

Long as Arsenal or Spurs don't win the league I couldn't care less.
 
I've not really paid him much heed until now, and quite enjoyed his celebrations at times, but he was a fecking embarrassment tonight to the extent that Mourinho would have been sent off for.

I don't think I've ever seen a managed so vociferously demand someone get booked every single time before, and can only assume he's been like that every game.
 
NinjaFletch said:
I've not really paid him much heed until now, and quite enjoyed his celebrations at times, but he was a fecking embarrassment tonight to the extent that Mourinho would have been sent off for.

I don't think I've ever seen a managed so vociferously demand someone get booked every single time before, and can only assume he's been like that every game.
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Enemy number one, Klopp, you have been demoted to enemy number two.
 
NinjaFletch said:
I've not really paid him much heed until now, and quite enjoyed his celebrations at times, but he was a fecking embarrassment tonight to the extent that Mourinho would have been sent off for.

I don't think I've ever seen a managed so vociferously demand someone get booked every single time before, and can only assume he's been like that every game.
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I love it. Good on him. After 2/3 fouls you should be calling for a yellow. It's only in England that this seems 'cheating'.
 
Honestly, he is a madman but I cannot bring myself to dislike him. I kinda like his passion and aggression, it's entertaining. I don't get bothered by manager antics anyway, it is part of football.
 
Why, yes, he's a twat for protesting to the ref after several deliberate aggressive fouls on Hazard before Herrera's eventual red card. I mean, he had just told Jones (I think it was) off, with Smalling trying to save Jones from a booking on Hazard and 10 secs later, Herrera brings him down again. He was clearly being targeted. Nothing wrong with Conte protesting that.
 
Done an excellent job and I think they could keep it up, especially when you consider Chelsea can still massively upgrade at Moses, Cahill and Pedro's spot in the starting XI if they spend big money (say Semedo, Laporte and Dybala/Griezmann).
 
Love his passion. All his ex players adore him. He must be a joy to work for.

Anyone slating him for screaming at refs etc is a hypocrite coz our manager is just as bad.

I like Jose but some of his comments are so tiresome and I think his prime is behind him
 
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