If Chelsea’s board wants Antonio Conte to fail, they are on the right track
By George Perry
Chelsea are halfway through the summer transfer window with little movement towards filling significant gaps in the lineup. The board are doing Antonio Conte’s long-term prospects no favours.
Between loans, transfers out and free agents Chelsea have cast off what could be a mid-table starting XI. In return the Blues brought in four players. One of them is injured. One is a distant backup. And the other two had minimal time to train and meld with the team before taking the pitch in pre-season friendlies.
Two rumours on Monday summed up the state of Chelsea’s transfer activity. SkySports reported that Chelsea are considering a move for Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater. Drinkwater is a poor man’s Ross Barkley, who in turn is a foolish rich man’s Nathaniel Chalobah, whom Chelsea sold for £5 million.
If Chelsea sign Drinkwater, Lewis Baker should lead the rest of Chelsea’s youth – academy, loan and squad – in a mass request for transfers. There would be zero reason to continue at Chelsea if they are going to sell Chalobah, loan Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mario Paslic, cast off Nemanja Matic and overlook Baker to buy Danny Drinkwater.
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The second snippet from Monday came from Simon Johnson of the Evening Standard. The notion that the board hope to “appease” Antonio Conte by closing transfer deals shows that they fundamentally misunderstand their role and relationship with the manager.
Antonio Conte is not a child crying in the backseat of a long car trip. He is not a schoolyard bully. He is not a bellicose tin-pot dictator. Conte is not someone who needs to be appeased. If they truly believe that they should appease him, then transfers are just a bone thrown to the manager rather than a critical part of a club’s strategy and success. More so, this belies the lack of communication that has haunted Chelsea’s managers for years.
Chelsea’s adversarial way of doing business has cost numerous managers their job while the front office maintains theirs. The club’s successes come despite this relationship. Immense efforts by the players and coach overcome the needless obstacles, and managerial burnout precedes the fallout and eventual sack.
Johnson notes that the Blues are “only” three or four signings away from a complete squad. Any transfers at this point in the summer will only have an impact on paper. As Michy Batshuayi learned last year, Alvaro Morata is learning now and Tiemoue Bakayoko will learn in a few weeks, no player immediately slots into an Antonio Conte squad.
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Conte needed these transfers in early July, on the first day of pre-season. Players need time to adapt physiologically to a training regimen like Conte’s. They also need time to learn his tactics, which he expects them to know before he puts them in the starting XI. And the entire squad needs the time to bond on and off the pitch, as a team as well as a tactical unit.
A new transfer will not be “Conte ready” until September, at the earliest. They may end up in the squad by default, though, given injuries and lack of options. Conte will take the blame for any failures that result. If he succeeds in spite of those circumstances, plenty of Chelsea pundits will say “See? You got all worked up and things turned out OK.”
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life. Smarmy, complacent and lucky is no way to support – let alone run – a football club.
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The board is setting the perfect conditions for a repeat of 2015/16. At this rate, they should cut to the chase and ask Guus Hiddink what his winter plans look like.