If Chelsea want a new manager they must first keep Antonio Conte
Yes, you read that correctly.
If Chelsea want to hire a new manager of any esteem or quality, the best thing they can do is keep Antonio Conte. The club needs to do a little bit of damage control regarding their reputation as an impossible club to manage. They are quickly becoming the sort of place where some managers will absolutely not accept the job, or even negotiate simply because of the reputation.
For a long time Chelsea were the club that chased Pep Guardiola with the most feverishness. Roman Abramovich even had a fabled important meeting with Guardiola in Paris before he became Bayern Munich’s boss. Guardiola turned Chelsea down. Chelsea need to learn from that rejection in this next phase with Antonio Conte.
Obviously, this season has not gone well. But the lack of understanding, patience and accountability from the board make the job untenable for many of the great managers. In football, the greatest managers are philosophers. They are more than simply coaches and trainers. It’s why Conte always says: “It takes a while to understand our idea of football.”
The really great managers understand this point, and their clubs must as well. If not, what is the point of a great manager working someplace that does not respect him or what he does?
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Big clubs, great clubs, have philosophies they have built on for decades. Manchester United, Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich all have these philosophies. And they often have managers who reflect that and are steeped in those traditions.
Antonio Conte who is highly regarded amongst his peers. It will not reflect well on Chelsea if they fire him, given his record and reputation in top-flight football. The Blues would be better off accepting some blame for their hilariously poor transfer windows then simply firing a man who – until this year – had won the league every single season he managed in top-flight football.
It’s not Conte who is broken. The way Chelsea do business is.
If Chelsea fire Conte they will dig themselves further down the hole. If they keep him, and he succeeds next season and has Chelsea where they should be, they will have shown the ability to learn from their mistakes, show patience, CLASS and save some money as well.
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It will be better for them now and in the future to let Conte just get on with it, rather than continuing with their insipid and incredulously repetitive pushing of the nuclear button.