Godfather’ pulls the strings again
ONE of Antonio Conte’s players wept when the former Italy coach boarded a plane bound for south-west London.
Another christened him ‘The Godfather.’ But wasn’t brave enough to say that to the 47-year-old’s face.
But if the tears of Andrea Barzagli, and Leonardo Bonucci’s unconditional respect are anything to go by, we should not be in the least bit surprised that it is now very much business as usual at Stamford Bridge.
Let’s be honest: If you are a Chelsea fan, it was a summer to forget.
And, after the highs of early May, the waves of goodwill that were washing down upon players, staff and management following the success of last season had been slowly drowning the club.
Internally, there have been squabbles with wantaway striker Diego Costa and a rumpus over the £40million sale of Nemanja Matic to major rivals Manchester United.
Three players this summer have rebuffed the club’s attempts to entice them to the Bridge – Alex OxladeChamberlain, Fernando Llorente and Romelu Lukaku all snubbing overtures from the reigning champions.
The Italian himself has been haggling over a contract, leading to yet more disquiet and rumours of a rift between him and paymaster Roman Abramovich.
It didn’t look good, either, after the opening 45 minutes to the campaign when Burnley stunned a shirt-sleeved crowd, expecting to see the Blues picking up where they had left off. That defeat even l ed to questions being asked of Conte about leaving £ 60m striker Alvaro Morata on the bench. Was he losing the plot? Little more than one month after Chelsea appeared to be unravelling before our very eyes, the answer has been a resounding, ‘No’.
The former Juventus chief has masterfully turned around the situation.
Where predecessor Jose Mourinho lost his players, leading to a situation where Chelsea were in freefall, Conte has allowed no such situation to develop.
He has been helped by the fact that one of the chief protagonists in the Portuguese’s downfall – Costa – has been out of sight. At least on a day-today basis.
Unfortunately for the striker, if he is currently sitting in his Brazilian home sticking pins into a doll of a man wearing a black suit with a white shirt and black tie, then he needs to think again. It simply isn’t working.
Whatever the reasons for it, there can be no doubt that the players had downed tools under Mourinho.
There isn’t the faintest suggestion that history is repeating itself.
And the key to that will be Conte’s man-management. When football expected Chelsea to come an almighty cropper, one week later against despised rivals Spurs, the club regrouped.
And since then, there has been no confusion.
Of course, Costa has done his best to unsettle the situation, complaining about his treatment, moaning about his manager and generally alienating himself still further from the club.
But the manager and players have ploughed on regardless, helped by a late plunge into the transfer market that saw Leicester City’s Danny Drinkwater (above) arrive on deadline day.
That has helped partly fill the gap left by Matic’s exit to Old Trafford – a move which may yet come back to bite those at Chelsea who were a party to it.
But even though the faces have changed, the system remains and the manager himself is bang on track.
Chelsea look strong again. Their earlyseason wobble is slowly being replaced by a confident swagger.
In the words of former Italy great Andrea Pirlo, “Antonio Conte is a genius”.
If he continues to pull this one around and land silverware again after such a poor close- season, the evidence will certainly be stacking up in his favour.