11 DAYS TO SAVE CONTE?
Chelsea manager faces race against time to bolster his weakened squad before transfer window shuts Llorente and Rose among leading targets as pressure mounts on Italian for title defence
ANTONIO CONTE uses laughter disarmingly well. On Friday he broke into a manic and threatening giggle when Diego Costa’s comments about being treated like a criminal were put to him.
But a month ago, sat in Beijing’s Intercontinental Hotel, having just signed his new two-year contract and insisting he would stay for longer, his mirth was of a less-intimidating kind.
He was discussing John Terry’s ambitions to manage, endorsing his former player’s capabilities. He was asked whether he thought Terry might one day be Chelsea manager. After all, it was suggested, there would probably be a vacancy in two years’ time.
Conte eyed the speaker and broke into one of those broad smiles. ‘Thank you very much!’ he said with a grin. ‘You have confidence in my quality!’
All seemed sweetness and light then, when you could joke about the end of the relationship between club and Conte. But that was before Nemanja Matic was sold and just after Alvaro Morata was purchased. There have been no additions since. On current trajectory Chelsea look likely to break even in the transfer window, which would please the Financial Fair Play accountants. There are still 11 days to go, of course; 11 crucial days for Conte and his future at Chelsea.
Conte believes he should be the one trusted by Roman Abramovich to rebuild the club. Technical director Michael Emenalo and Marina Granovskaia, the most important director, might take issue with that interpretation of affairs.
But Conte was in earnest on Friday when, having killed Costa with laughter, he went on to say that he needed four years to build a club that could compete with the best in the world. To his mind, he just about got away with it last season. A team who have lost Petr Cech, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba and Branislav Ivanovic over the past three years need extensive remodelling, certainly more than a year or two and an unexpected title win can provide.
When it was put to Conte that only one Chelsea manager, Claudio Ranieri, has managed four years at the club since John Neal achieved that feat between 1981-85, three seasons of which were in the old second division, Conte applied his broadest smile once again.
‘I want to break this bad record,’ he said. ‘When you start a job with a new club, I hope to stay in this club for many years. It means you have the possibility to work with the same players, to improve these players year by year.’
He even talked of taking Chelsea into a new stadium, which would be 2021 at the earliest. ‘Why not?’ he said. ‘I hope. I hope, because this could be a fantastic challenge for me and also for the club, to stay together and also to play with this team in a new stadium. Honestly, the new stadium will be great.’
That would take him into the territory of Ted Drake, Tommy Docherty and Dave Sexton in terms of longest serving managers. And into fantasy land. For experienced viewers of the Chelsea boxset, we are now in Series 15 and they have long been recycling the best plot lines. This is the one where the manager tries to force the hand of the owner; and we all know how it ends.
The underlying themes are familiar. Abramovich wants academy players to thrive but given that he never lets a manager stay long enough to see through a generation, it is not entirely unreasonable that they do not take him at his word. Hence the departure of Nathaniel Chalobah at the same time that Danny Drinkwater is being pursued for £20million.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Fernando Llorente remain on the agenda but Arsenal will not give way on the former. Conte will have to hope he is around next summer to take him on a free. Given the way Michy Batshuayi played for an hour last weekend, Llorente is as important a signing as ever. Despite scoring the goal that won Chelsea the league, Batshuayi, the biggest signing of last summer at £32.5m, looks as out of place as ever, unable to deliver what Conte requires.
The perennial itch of the summer, though, has been to provide additional wing-backs. Superb though Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso were last season, it is not unreasonable for Conte to argue that his coaching brought the best out of them and to thrive in Europe they will need better players in those positions or, at least, more cover.
The prospect of Alex Sandro coming from Juventus has diminished, leaving Emenalo these 11 days to provide alternatives. Conte has looked on enviously as Pep Guardiola has seemingly hoovered up the continent’s supply of attacking full-backs.
The fact that the club are delaying Kenedy’s loan to Newcastle is encouraging for Conte, as Newcastle have been told he can move as soon as a replacement is identified. What kind of replacement is a moot point. Presumably Conte does not have Cristian Cuevas in mind. Danny Rose is of course the preferred choice but extremely tricky to deliver.
For Granovskaia and Emenalo there are still significant issues to address. Of course, the fact that Costa has gone AWOL is a situation largely of Conte’s making and the reason why sympathy for him has been less forthcoming than it might have been in the Chelsea boardroom. Though Atletico Madrid are under a transfer ban, getting that deal sorted is now in the interest of all parties.
It looks like an accident waiting to happen. But then it has looked like this before. Chelsea have a habit of taking transfer windows down to the wire and redeeming themselves. Conte will have to get used to that if he wants to spend four years at Chelsea. For now, he would be best advised to knuckle down to the next four months and hope for the best.