Chelsea manager Antonio Conte resigned to whatever fate brings
By Travis Tyler
Antonio Conte is a man on the brink and he knows it. He is calm over whatever fate will befall him and Chelsea knowing he did everything he could.
It is always easy to look back in hindsight and say something should have been done differently. That is a particularly common pitfall in football. At the time, in context, most decisions make sense Only in hindsight are they picked apart.
Antonio Conte is not a man that dwells on hindsight. He will be well aware that several matches should have gone better this season. And he will be aware that his future is in the air. But as always, he is focused on the present. But he has also come to an acceptance of whatever fate may befall him.
Chelsea have three massively important matches left in the season. For two of them, their ultimate fate is out of the club and Conte’s hands. The other will be a final against a cup final master. And just in case the reminder is needed, Conte has an incredibly poor record in cup finals.
And even if Conte and Chelsea pull off victories in all three, and perhaps even make top four along the way, Conte’s fate will be on shaky ground. But the Italian has resigned himself to whatever happens. He can do so because he knows he did everything he possibly could to improve the team and win matches. Those around him, those left behind if he is sacked, cannot say the same.
The players that made simple, elementary mistakes will largely remain. Even if they depart, so many players failed Conte and Chelsea at various points this season and it is impossible to move on from all of them.
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The board that refused to support yet another title winning manager will remain. They could have learned from their previous mistakes with Jose Mourinho. Instead, they absolved themselves of blame, convinced themselves that their way was the right way and Mourinho was fully to blame for 2015/2016. Even now, as the common denominator of two seperate slump seasons, they will attempt to pass the blame.
But Conte has trugged on through all of it. He did not mope like Mourinho or lash out aggressively (though it could be argued he at least stuck out a foot on the lack of quality transfer activity). Conte merely gave his all to a club for which he is uncertain to even be at in the coming season.
Conte knows this. Yet he still does everything he can for Chelsea. He has made it clear time and time again that he intends to honor his contract, to which many plugged their ears and said he would quit or get sacked in the summer.
But Conte will not quit. Not simply because he would lose a sizable payout, or that it would be an admission of guilt in a way. Conte will not quit because he does not know how to. Even when the world is against him. Even when his own board fails him and blames him for it. And even when his players revert to their schoolboy days.
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Conte is bleeding for Chelsea. And if he is able to achieve top four, Champions League qualification, and the FA Cup, then the fans, players, and board should all step back and appreciate the work of a man on the gallows. And maybe, just maybe, they bring him down to continue his work for one more year. Because a manager willing to give his all when no one else will give him anything is a manager worth keeping.