CONTE HAS BANISHED GHOST OF MOURINHO
WE were obsessed last summer. Before the season began we couldn’t stop talking about Pep Guardiola’s arrival, the return of Jose Mourinho and the charismatic Jurgen Klopp.
The Premier League had become the centre of the world in terms of football managers and those three figures dominated nearly every conversation, even though another new face was joining the argument.
We allowed Antonio Conte to slip under the radar.
Conte had an outstanding record in Italy with Juventus, taking them from seventh place in the table to winning Serie A three years in row.
He went on to lead Italy at Euro 2016, where his standout results came against Belgium and Spain as they reached the quarter-finals.
But he had no special pedigree in the Champions League, the competition we fixate on in England. So without that on his c.v. we allowed him to come into our game unheralded. It was our mistake.
Back in August, in just my third column of the season, I argued that it would be foolish to write off Chelsea completely, despite their dreadful defence of the title in 2015-16.
But did I expect them to be running away with the title in mid-March? No.
This was supposed to be a shootout between Guardiola and Mourinho. Both had more time to prepare their teams and both spent more than £100million to try to keep their rivals in the shadows.
CHELSEA shelled out, too, on N’Golo Kante, Marcos Alonso, David Luiz and Michy Batshuayi, but I don’t think Conte secured all the players he wanted.
Luiz was the prime example, given Chelsea failed with bids for Leonardo Bonucci and Kalidou Koulibaly, two defenders Conte knew well from Serie A.
If I was a Chelsea supporter, I’d have been worried in the opening weeks of his reign, particularly after those back-to-back defeats by Liverpool and Arsenal in September. The team were not functioning, Conte was dour in interviews and he looked permanently downcast.
Would there have been a point in those early months when a section of the Chelsea support hankered for Mourinho still being their manager? You always felt after Mourinho left the first time, in September 2007, that Stamford Bridge yearned for him to come back. When he returned with Inter Milan in March 2010 and knocked Carlo Ancelotti’s side out of the Champions League, they pined for him even more.
The hankering continued last season even after Mourinho was sacked, as the crowd turned on Chelsea’s players.
Now the yearning is over. Monday night was the line in the sand.
Mourinho had tested Conte before, goading him and sniping at him. It all started on the afternoon Chelsea dismantled Manchester United 4-0 in October, when Mourinho shouted down the Italian’s ear at the end of the game and accused him of lacking respect.
There were other issues, not least on February 11 when Mourinho said: ‘Chelsea are a very good defensive team and defended well with lots of players.’ There was another dig last week, when Mourinho said he was ‘surprised by the way Chelsea play’.
It is nonsense to say Chelsea are defensive. Only Liverpool have scored more goals so far in the Premier League, but they have played an extra game. There is a huge difference between being a defensive team and being very good defensively. Conte’s Chelsea are the latter.
Mourinho should know that better than anyone. He had to contend with the same arguments when he arrived at Chelsea in 2004-05, and they won 11 of their 38 games 1-0, conceding just 15 goals en route to the title.
Conte has not allowed himself to be bullied and it felt like a huge moment on Monday when he stood up to Mourinho on the touchline as Chelsea knocked United out of the FA Cup. In many ways, it could be the moment Conte cemented his place in the affections of Chelsea’s fans.
What Conte has proved in the last six months is that it was naive to think he would play second fiddle to the battle for supremacy between Guardiola and Mourinho. This, make no mistake, is one of the finest managers in the business.
Every question that has been asked of him, Conte has responded positively.
His three big signings have all become mainstays in the team: Kante has been remarkable and should win the PFA Player of the Year, Alonso is vital to making the 3-4-3 formation work — that system shows Conte’s tactical acumen — and Luiz has been outstanding.
ANOTHER thing you want a manager to do is improve players — and look at Victor Moses. I never expected him to have a future at Chelsea, given he had been out on loan so much, and the levels he has shown have taken me by complete surprise. He has been excellent in his new role of right wing back.
Then there is the way Conte has rejuvenated men such as Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, Nemanja Matic and Pedro, all of whom looked to be drifting 12 months ago. His tough stance with Diego Costa, when a bid from China arrived in February, was also impressive.
Being absent from Europe and getting knocked out of the EFL Cup in the fourth round have clearly benefited Conte. He has used the free time to improve Chelsea’s fitness — they do two intense sessions of running each week — and help them understand his methods.
The extra downtime has also enabled him to pick a settled team. It will be fascinating to see how they cope with Europe next season and the demands of squad rotation. To highlight how settled Chelsea have been, Conte has made just 24 changes to his starting line-up so far. Mourinho made 78 changes in his first year, Ancelotti 107.
Another Italian Chelsea manager, Ancelotti, won the Double in his first year, but that success — along with all the rest between Mourinho’s first spell ending and his second starting — felt like it had something to do with the Portuguese.
The spine of that team was his team. Now, though, Chelsea are moving into a different era and never did change feel more in the air than when the Stamford Bridge fans had a go at Mourinho during the FA Cup quarter-final.
This feels like Conte’s Chelsea now. Not only has he shown himself to be a special manager but he has banished the ghost of Mourinho.ho.