The FA Cup: Antonio Conte’s last hurrah?

If the FA Cup final turns out to be Antonio Conte’s last match as Chelsea manager, “at least he has gone out on a high”, said Daniel Taylor in The Observer. Last Saturday at Wembley, the Blues beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the trophy for the eighth time. For a tie with two of England’s biggest clubs – and “some of the more celebrated” Premier League players – this was an underwhelming match. But it was an effective performance by Chelsea, and by the Belgian forward Eden Hazard in particular. Conte’s FA Cup now goes with the previous season’s Premier League title; “only at Chelsea, perhaps, could a manager with that return now be cut loose”.

It’s surprising Conte even lasted this long, said Dominic Fifield in The Guardian. It looked as if he might depart last summer, after only one season at the club. An “uneasy truce” was reached, but that could only “paper over the cracks”. The manager’s frustration over the club’s recruitment policy has been understandable – no one can deny that the club failed to “bolster” its ranks between seasons. But his “whingeing” has “lowered the collective mood”, and his clashes with players – among them Diego Costa, who was later sold, and David Luiz – has hurt his standing in the dressing room. All season long, there was “a sense of grumbling disquiet”, and the team finished fifth – 30 points behind Manchester City. But this impasse just seems “so unnecessary”, said Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. Chelsea will struggle to find a better manager than the Italian, who took over when the club had just finished tenth, and won the title in his first season. The Blues can survive without Conte, said Matt Law in The Sunday Telegraph. But they simply cannot afford to lose Hazard. As he showed in the final, he is the one player who can “elevate the team to a different level”. An unhappy figure for much of the season, when he was often played out of position by Conte, he has refused to sign a new contract. But the club must do whatever it can to hold on to him: “with Chelsea unable to outspend their rivals these days, Hazard is irreplaceable”.

United had a much better season than Chelsea, said Oliver Holt in The Mail on Sunday. They came second in the league – their best finish since Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013. But their performance last Saturday, “along with many others of a similar ilk, suggested that progress is stalling”. At a time when City and Liverpool are lighting up the league, United are “a pale, cautious imitation of the team they once were”. For a club that has spent almost £300m on signings in the past two years, that’s unforgivable. The blame must lie with José Mourinho: the Portuguese manager is turning United into “the dinosaurs of English football’s elite”.