Costa cannot derail Chelsea juggernaut
Conte’s team will thrive with or without Spanish star
WHEN Antonio Conte gathered his Juventus players together on taking over at the club in the summer of 2011, he was uncompromising. ‘Lads, we’ve finished seventh in the last two years,’ he said. ‘Crazy stuff, absolutely appalling. I’ve not come here for that. It’s time we stopped being c**p.
‘Turning around this ship is not a polite request; it’s an order, a moral obligation. You guys need to do only one thing and it’s pretty simple: follow me. Get it into your heads. We must return to the levels where we belong, the ones written into the history of this club.’
According to Andrea Pirlo, who recalls that speech in his autobiography I Think Therefore I Play, it was enough to reboot the club. Juventus had just moved into their new stadium that summer. Though initially they had seemingly recovered from indignity of being relegated due to the calciopoli scandal in 2006, returning to Serie A and finishing third and second, their progress had ebbed away. They were treading water at best; sinking at worst. Yet under Conte they won the league that year and, in fact, for three consecutive years.
It is hard to avoid the analogies with Chelsea last summer. Conte inherited a troubled club, with fans and players having been driven apart by the whole Jose Mourinho fiasco which had seen the likes of Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas arbitrarily blamed for the demise of a celebrated coach and one who had become hugely divisive at the club. More to the point, mediocrity abounded, as was evident by the 10th place finish.
Forging team spirit appears to be one of the great strengths of Conte. It has been evident at Chelsea: in the family barbecues in the early part of the season and in the club outing to the trampoline park Flip Out in Wandsworth shortly before Christmas. It was also evident with the Italian national team; witness the tears of Andrea Barzagli when they were eliminated from Euro 2016 and the Conte era came to a close. Sources close to the Italian team say that Conte’s bond with the team was so great that had he not already agreed to join Chelsea, he would have found it impossible to leave.
Which is why the fallout with Diego Costa prior to the Leicester game eight days ago was so potentially disruptive. Conte’s team have been a world removed from the dysfunction of last season. Though prominent players who are not in the first XI are fretting about the new regime, that is only normal. In the main, the squad seem united. It was noticeable that all 10 outfield players celebrated together when Pedro scored the third goal at Leicester last weekend.
Conte recognises that need for such momentum to maintain and build on his lead at the top of the table. ‘If you want to win something during the season, it’s important to build this unity in the team. It’s important to create a team, to create a good spirit. I think these is the most important things. To create this unit, this unit between the players, the staff, the club. It’s very important to have a good spirit. I think we are showing this.
‘In every team that I’ve been manager, I’ve always tried to build this spirit. I repeat: the right spirit is the fundamental importance if you want to have a good season. The most important thing, for me. It’s not easy to create and, before creating this spirit, you have to pass different steps.
‘The different steps are when you start pre-season, when you arrive in a new club, it’s not easy. You have to bring your habits, your methods, your philosophy. And also you have to make decisions also with the players: who starts the games, who has to go on the bench, who goes in the stands. There are different steps to understand these different situations, and to arrive in a moment where you have a good spirit. It’s not easy to do this. I think that you create this spirit day by day. With work. With decisions. With behaviour. My behaviour. Players’ behaviour. To try to build this day by day, step by step. But I’m pleased to see this unity in my team. This is important.’
Conte’s words are almost a challenge to Costa. His long-term future at the club may remain in doubt. Chelsea were considering a new £250,000-a-week deal for their top scorer, one which at the age of 28 would see him well into this 30s. Yet, of course, a Chinese club could double that.
Conte, with the help of senior players and with his own firm management seems to have brought Costa round for now and he is likely to start against Hull today. But there seems to be an element of even enticing Costa to reconsider his summer plans, demonstrating to him that were he to stay at Chelsea rather than leave, that things could get even better; that the club are only at the start of fully absorbing the Conte way.
‘I’m pleased that we’ve reached this level only after five or six months,’ said Conte. ‘I can improve our level with more work. I think every team can have a lot of room to improve. For sure, you can improve a lot with time if you continue to work. You can try and put new knowledge in the system for your players. But the most important thing is I have players who want to work. If you want them to but the players don’t want to, it’s very difficult.’ At Juventus Pirlo recalls how Conte turned around their mentality but is wasn’t just a feel-good rallying cry which transformed the club but also a tactical adjustment. Conte is by no means a defensive coach; but his teams are built on certain foundations. The season before he took over at Juve, the club conceded 47 goals in Serie A; they conceded 20 in the first season under Conte. After 21 games last season Chelsea had conceded 31 goals; this season it is 15. ‘The season before I arrived at Juventus, Juventus conceded a lot of goals,’ said Conte. ‘Then we started a path which brought us to three consecutive titles, to be the best defence and to concede the fewest goals in Italy. So it’s important to trust in the work. Only the work can improve the situation. And it’s important to have great players and I think in my team I have great players with great hunger to work and improve technical situations.’ As at Juventus, as with Italy, Conte has players with whom he seems to bond and responded to him. Whether he can bring Costa back into that fold remains to be seen. But Chelsea look likely to thrive, with or without him.
In every team I have managed, I’ve always tried to build this spirit