Conte’s myriad of issues not just of the club’s making

THOSE who know Antonio Conte well were stunned. Put bluntly, they’d never known him like this, or seen him like this. As Watford just kept surging through Chelsea to subject the champions to their second successive three-goal defeat, the Italian stood there stony-faced. There was none of the sideline animation that has come to characterise Conte’s career, none of the vigour.

That did admittedly come later, in the Vicarage Road dressing room and the press conference, but associates of the 48-year-old couldn’t help but wonder whether there was an exceedingly rare sense of resignation about the title-winner – even if he wouldn’t actually resign.

Whereas 2016-’17 saw every Conte decision proved right, this season has seen more go wrong. Those close to the squad feel there are areas where the Italian hasn’t helped himself.

Relationship with hierarchy

IT is something that actually became an issue in his first summer at the club in 2016, and has never really gone away. Fundamentally, Conte

(right) and Chelsea just have different views on the type of players they should be signing.

They have gradually developed a policy whereby they want to bring in the best 20- to 24-year-olds, and he wanted experience. That difference would still have been easily manageable, except it became just another complication when the club failed to get specific targets the Italian had wanted, and Conte responded in what many felt was a needlessly abrasive way.

The hierarchy have not liked how he has approached the situation or some of his media comments, and relationships with some executives are highly strained. There was then the manner his man-management influenced business, given how he dealt with Diego Costa, creating a similarly unnecessary problem.

A lot of this naturally led to the curious situation where he signed a new contract in the summer but didn’t extend the time, something that would have alerted the players to the fact he may not be around for long, with everything that entailed.

Congested fixture list

IF Chelsea’s main problem here is that they haven’t given Conte a big enough squad, many believe he should have adjusted to that by reining some of his more rigorous training. Some players now feel that, given the extra number of fixtures they have this season as they play in the Champions League, the long, hard physical sessions are unnecessary. Worse, what superpowered them last season is just sapping energy in this campaign. Conte has shown a stubbornness there, but his decision to give the squad time off this week may represent a realisation.

Attacking inconsistency

AS last season proved, there probably isn’t a coach in the game as good as Conte at quickly assessing what he’s got in his team, and successfully adapting to maximise their qualities. But no manager can do this indefinitely. More confusing decisions like the role of Tiemoue Bakayoko have been fixed. This is one area where many around the squad have sympathy for Conte because it keeps coming back to that lack of personnel.

Relationship with players

WHILE it’s difficult not to have sympathy for Alvaro Morata, and almost impossible not to have some for Conte in general, so much of this comes back to one issue that brings in a lot of these problems: the treatment of Costa. The Italian’s message to him complicated their transfer business, but also their attack, given how specifically suited the senior Spanish striker seemed to be for the manager’s approach.

Even beyond that, he was so adept at coming up with a goal out of nothing on one of those days when nothing else was happening. Some around the squad think that made Conte’s treatment of him all the more needless. (© Independent News Service)