Grazie Antonio Conte: Chelsea’s king in an era of vassals

Antonio Conte is part of a dying breed of manager that demands rather than accepts. His time at Chelsea was too short but there is no other way.

A king rules their domain with total control. They want something; they get it without questions asked. They want to do something; they do it with no one to stop them.

A vassal is appointed to rule but does not have the same type of power. They take what they are given and know they can ask for more, but nothing is guaranteed. They can ask permission to do something, but they rarely make the earth shattering decisions.

Football used to be dominated by the former. Increasingly, it is home to the latter. Clubs no longer want to throw all in for a manager. They want someone who will work with what they are given. The kings are a dying breed of manager. Antonio Conte is a king.

Conte’s big break came at his former club, Juventus. For three seasons, he turned the also ran club into champions. His dominance in Italy was so strong that Juventus are still winning the league every single season. He departed for his nation’s team where he had total control over everything. But international management is an old man’s game. Conte grew bored and looked for a new challenge.

Related Story: Chelsea: Rating the France and Belgium Blues through the knockout rounds

That challenge was Chelsea. The Blues hired him knowing that he had left Juventus when they failed to meet his demands. Conte is the type of manager who will tell you what he wants and the best thing to do is to get it for him. Then, he can make a team champions.

Though Conte was not given the proper pieces in his first season, he won the league in then historic dominant fashion. Of course, Il Sarto wanted more.

But then Chelsea started to slowly turn against the Italian. When Conte demanded new signings, the board obliged, after selling key pieces to the side. Where Conte wanted players out of the club, the board hesitated.

The demands from Conte caused an increasingly strained relationship with not just the board, but the players. Conte would enter press conferences and say his team was not good enough. He was right, but players do not want to hear that these days. Players do not want to be challenged like they used to; they want to be praised. Arms around the shoulder now work better than screaming and criticizing.

The negative spiral eventually ran out of control. Chelsea embarrassingly failed to qualify for the Champions League again for the second time in three seasons.  The board began to look for Conte’s replacement.

Chelsea could have supported Conte last summer and kept him happy. They could have avoided the negativity that followed the entirety of last season. Relationships could have been saved and the club could have defended their title better.

But clubs no longer want managers like that. Clubs are often happy to listen to their manager, but a manager’s demands are no longer gospel. Look at Jurgen Klopp, for example. He has gotten everything he has wanted at Liverpool. But it happened over years. He had to be patient. Conte had no such patience. Nor was he ever likely to have it.

Conte, much like Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, needs the support of his club. He can win when given the pieces to win. His high demands wear on the squad, causing it to need refreshing. If it is not refreshed, it stagnates and what once worked starts to fail.

Maurizio Sarri will come to Chelsea and be a vassal. He will take what he is given and wait patiently for the next gift. Though older than Conte, he represents the modern style of manager who works with what they are given.

Meanwhile, Conte will likely take some time off, waiting for a big club to come in and snap him up. It would have to be a club willing to throw everything at Conte that he asks for. That could be back in Italy where clubs apart from Juventus are being bought up by rich owners. It could be elsewhere. But regardless, Conte needs a club that will give him the world if he is to succeed for longer than a season.

And it should not be lost in all the negativity surrounding Conte that he was a fantastic manager for Chelsea, even if it was just for a year. The 2016/2017 season was nothing short of a tactical revolution following the dourness of 2015/2016. Conte made Chelsea believe again. He made Chelsea fun again. It is merely unfortunate that everything that followed so destroyed all that good and replaced it with darkness.

Next: Chelsea: Five blue things to look for in World Cup's final matches

For the Premier League title and the FA Cup, the only thing to say is “grazie Conte” and to wish him luck wherever he chooses to manage next.