Chelsea has wasted all the time they had available to hit the reset button. It is time to start entertaining what a Conte stay might mean.
The Chelsea board has been a procrastinators dream the last few seasons. Oh, the teams needs reinforcements? Wait till the last day before giving up on the primary target and scrambling to go for Plan B. Rinse and repeat until oblivion or sacking.
So goes transfers, so goes the managerial saga. It was rumored almost as far back as January that Chelsea were looking to split with Antonio Conte in the summer regardless of results. Failing to reach the top four and infighting at the club solidified that. Now preseason is on the brink and nothing has changed.
Conte remains in place. The Maurizio Sarri deal is in a perpetual state of “in the next 48 hours”. Preseason starts on Monday 9 July and some manager will need to show up and represent. And as of right now, that man is going to be Conte. It is time for the players, fans, and staff to prepare for what that might mean.
Many players will be disappointed. No player wants to be at a club so poorly run that they cannot replace the manager they have supposedly wanted gone for months. Players that fell out with Conte, such as every Brazilian, will push for a move. Players that were on loan because Conte did not believe they were ready will push for a move. Who comes in to replace them is another issue.
If players do not want to be at a club with an image of being poorly run, players surely will not want to come to the club. Chelsea has pursued several targets throughout the summer, many of whom have told the Blues they want to see clarity in the managerial situation first. Chelsea, for their part, has done nothing to alleviate anyone’s fears on that front.
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The fans will also have to readjust to a Conte stay. Many wanted him gone after last season which is perfectly understandable. A Chelsea manager that cannot make top four does not remain Chelsea manager, simple as that. But there is another section that believes the board’s lack of support for Conte last season was a bigger factor in the club’s decline. After all, 2016/2017 under Conte saw Chelsea play some of their most exciting football in recent memory.
But it is incredibly unlikely that Conte gets the support he needs to succeed at Chelsea for another season. Even if he stays, he will be a dead man walking when his contract runs out. The relationship is too broken beyond repair to make work for long term. And the chances of it falling apart before the season ends are astronomically high.
The staff and board will have to look like fools internationally. Few clubs have ever had such an issue sacking their manager and replacing him. Everyone on the board will suffer criticism because of how singular the search became and how penny pinching it always was. Roman Abramovich will be less than pleased.
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But as Monday approaches and the season’s start looms, Conte staying becomes ever more likely. Chelsea waited and waited to close that book and start the next, but they are still stuck on how to write the ending. If this continues and Conte remains, it will be hard to see next season as anything but a horror.