SUCCESS.. TO BE CONTINUED
Kante says pressure is always on Chelsea but believes manager will deliver more silverware
ANTONIO CONTE has been warned nothing less than winning major trophies is good enough for Chelsea.
Conte’s new contract, improved rather than extended, feels more like a compromise than a ringing endorsement of a manager who led them to the Premier League title in his first season in charge. But Chelsea is a club with a unique ability to turn success into a crisis and it is clear the glory of winning the title in May is forgotten.
Midfielder N’Golo Kante insists the players know the unforgiving demands from the club’s hierarchy and that is what will drive them on to more trophies.
The Footballer of the Year said: “After every game you have to do better in the next game and the season is the same. After last season we have to start in the same way and try to do better.
“We know at a club like Chelsea a good season means winning titles..”
It has been a typically turbulent summer at Stamford Bridge with question marks over Conte’s future and frustrations in the transfer market. They also arrived in China without their star player Eden Hazard and their £40million midfield signing Tiemoue Bakayoko.
With both of them back in London recovering from injury, preparations are hardly going to plan.
But the Conte crisis has at least been averted. The fear was that the passionate Italian would walk out, just as he did at Juventus.
But rather than the big new contract as a reward for the title, it has ended up just being a pay rise rather than a longer-term commitment.
The fact is there has been disillusionment on both sides – Conte fed up after the club missed out on the likes of Romelu Lukaku, and Chelsea annoyed by the manager’s treatment of Diego Costa.
Conte ending Costa’s Chelsea career via text message had left them without a big-name centreforward before last night’s £67m deal brought Alvaro Morata to the club.
Conte finally landed his man but he did have problems last season.
He got off to an unhappy start but turned it around to win the title, although Arsenal upset the Blues in the FA Cup final.
And Kante admits Chelsea they will have something to prove against Arsenal, who they play in Beijing on Saturday and again in the Community Shield at Wembley in the annual curtain-raiser.
Kante said: “Arsenal played well in the FA Cup final, better than us, and they deserved the victory.
“This will be just a friendly game. It is important for our preparation. But the season will really start in the Community Shield.”
The big test for Chelsea this season is in the Champions League and, for Kante, it is to try and win a treble of titles, having won the Premier League with Leicester in 2016 before repeating his success in May.
Kante added: “It will be the first time I have played in the Champions League.
“Chelsea were the last English club to win it and a club like Chelsea needs to be in the Champions League. We have to do very well in it.”