Chelsea: How Antonio Conte can sustain success at Stamford Bridge

By Chris Bevan BBC Sport

Antonio Conte is enjoying a spectacular first season as Chelsea manager, but can he follow it up by bringing sustained success to Stamford Bridge?

The 47-year-old Italian has the Premier League title in the bag, could soon get his hands on the FA Cup as well - and his side will compete in next season's Champions League.

He says this is only the start for his Blues team, but where do they go from here and how will he do it?

Former Chelsea players Ruud Gullit, Pat Nevin, Chris Sutton, Graeme le Saux and Mark Schwarzer tell BBC Sport what they think could happen next.

Will Conte stay? 'I would be stunned if he left now'

Reports in Italy suggest Chinese-backed Serie A club Inter Milan are prepared to offer Conte £250,000 a week if he leaves Stamford Bridge one season into a three-year deal. Conte's wife and nine-year-old daughter stayed in Turin when he moved to London last year

Ruud Gullit (former Chelsea player and manager 1995-98): "From a football point of view, of course he will stay. His next challenge is to win the Champions League and he can do that with Chelsea.

"If he feels he has a team that can win it, why would he leave in order to start all over again somewhere else?

"It is different if it is a decision about his family. His personal life is important as well.

"If his family are not in London, it is a little bit odd because I think it is the best city in the world, so why are they not coming?

"It is understandable if people are very attached to their own customs, however. And, if his family want to be in Italy, then it is an easy choice for him to make."

Pat Nevin (played more than 250 games for Chelsea 1983-88): "After spending a couple of hours talking to Antonio a few weeks ago, I would be stunned if he left.

"It would have to be an unbelievably spectacular offer to take him away from Chelsea and the only thing that usually means managers move on from positions like that is that they don't have the level of control they want.

"I don't think his own finances are a big deal for the guy and he told me he is enjoying London now.

"The other thing to consider is that when you stand at Stamford Bridge and you hear the fans singing 'Antonio, Antonio' then you realise the adoration he has got from everyone. That is hard to walk away from."

Chris Sutton (broke Chelsea's transfer record when he joined for £10m in 1999): "The only way I see Conte leaving is if he does not get the players in he wants this summer.

"I don't think he will prioritise the Champions League because he will want to win everything, but I expect him to go really hard at it."

Premier League favourites and Champions League contenders?

Conte won three successive Serie A titles with Juventus between 2012 and 2014 but his Champions League record is less impressive - Juve lost 4-0 on aggregate to Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals in 2012-13 and failed to get out of the group stage the following season.

Graeme le Saux (made more than 300 appearances for Chelsea in two spells 1987-1993 and 1997-2003): "Any success going forward depends on the personnel and if they can retain the quality players they have got.

"Eden Hazard and N'Golo Kante are both 26, and they are young enough to make Chelsea a force going forwards.

"Diego Costa has been linked with a move to China, but it is important for Chelsea they keep this group of players together.

"If they do that, I think they will go into the next season as favourites to win the Premier League again."

Mark Schwarzer (part of the Chelsea squad that won the Premier League in 2014-15): "The potential is there for back-to-back titles, and Chelsea can win the Champions League too.

"There are players in that squad who have played in a number of Champions League games and been successful in that competition.

"Conte is very good at winning domestic competitions. Clubs like Chelsea, their number one priority is to win the Premier League and then look beyond that to try and win the big one, the Champions League.

"With the right additions, and a little bit of time, Chelsea can really challenge for that title but next season it is going to be a huge burden on them.

"We don't know how they will deal with the physical and mental side of having more games to play and less time to recover."

Pat Nevin: "Conte has over-achieved domestically this season but, even so, the Champions League is a big jump - look at the lack of success by English teams in recent years.

"If he got Chelsea out of the group stage and into the latter stages that would be a success in his first season with the club in the Champions League.

"But that is predicated by one very important thing - who is he going to get in, and who will leave in the summer?"

Lukaku in? 'Conte needs four or five really quality signings'

This Chelsea team started 11 out of 22 Premier League matches from 1 October to the end of March after Antonio Conte switched from a 4-1-4-1 formation to start a league game with a 3-4-3 formation for the first time. Only two other players have started league games for the club in that period - Willian (eight starts) and Cesc Fabregas (six). Over the course of the whole season, Conte has made only 38 changes to his starting line-ups over the course of the Premier League season - fewer than any other top-flight team.

Pat Nevin: "With the current group, he cannot do next year what he has done this season. There is just not enough numbers there."

Chris Sutton: "Conte is clearly not big on rotation but he still had to change the make-up of his team around at times this season.

"He is fortunate he has got a lot of intelligent footballers who can play in numerous positions, but next season he will need more strength in depth and that means four or five really quality signings.

"Wing-backs would one of the areas where Conte will think he needs more cover and, whether Costa stays or goes, there is lots of talk about Everton striker Romelu Lukaku coming back to the club.

"Does Lukaku fit the Chelsea style? Absolutely.

"He likes to play between the two centre-halves and is not going to come deep to get the ball but, if he joins, I can see him being very successful playing that Costa role."

'Maybe Drogba can tell me' - Koeman on Lukaku's future

Ruud Gullit: John Terry is definitely leaving so they need someone in defence who can take David Luiz's position if something happens to him.

"But in every area they do not want a situation where they are depending too much on one player.

"Even when you have success, you need to change little things to keep people on their toes - look at what happened to Jose Mourinho after winning the title in 2015 - all of a sudden they went from champions to nothing."

Pat Nevin: "Conte will want a bit more strength and power in midfield - but if he can keep Hazard, Cesc Fabregas, Pedro and Willian then he does not need any more creativity.

"The biggest question is at centre-forward. I watched Michy Batshuayi when he was playing in France and he is a real player, a goalscorer - someone who will do very well. I don't know if it will be at Chelsea though.

"Considering I believe that Conte wants to play two up front, he might want to go for a different type of centre-forward.

"As well as Lukaku, Alvaro Morata has been talked about. What has impressed me most about Conte, though, is he does things you do not expect - those are the names we are thinking about, but he might know about someone completely different."

Can the successful youth team play a part?

The Blues won the FA Youth Cup for a record fourth successive year but no players from any of those teams started a league game for them this season. Nathan Ake and Ruben Loftus-Cheek featured from the bench, however, and striker Tammy Abraham could follow them into the first team after his successful loan at Bristol City.

Chris Sutton: "Conte is not going to take his foot off the gas, if anything he will put his foot down harder. If any youth players get a game, it will not be down to him doing them a favour.

"Tammy Abraham has got something about him, and it will be interesting to see if he gets a chance. Ultimately, though, things have not changed since my day so it will be down to him - he will have to show what he can do in pre-season and hope it is enough."

Pat Nevin: "Chelsea fans will tell you we have got these good young kids and they will come in and make it.

"Really? Hopefully they will, and it would be the perfect situation if they did but people make the mistake of thinking the jump from the under-21s to Chelsea's first team is one step - it's not, it is about 47 steps.

"Abraham is going to be a great player, and he is coming back to the club for next season but I would be shocked if all Chelsea did was stick with what they have got, and drafted more youth players in."

Costa out? 'If he wants to leave, then let him'

Costa's goals have earned more points than any other Premier League player this season

Graeme Le Saux: "When you look at the balance and blend that Chelsea have you think it would be a shame to lose any of those players as they are all playing so well and understand their role perfectly."

Mark Schwarzer: "You could argue all of them would be hard to replace but Kante and Hazard probably stand out.

"Leicester tried to replace Kante and failed miserably. Yes, Chelsea are on a different level to Leicester but it would still be a huge void to fill.

"As for Hazard, he is an incredible talent. You just don't know what you are going to get from him - his ability to score goals and assist is quite remarkable."

Ruud Gullit: "Even when Costa has not been scoring goals, he still does an important job for the team. He is an example of someone they have depended on too much - he is up there with Hazard as one of their most influential players.

"But if Costa feels he wants to leave because he want a different challenge, then let him go. If that's his state of mind, it is better to sell him."

Chris Sutton: "Cesc Fabregas only has a year left on his contract and has not played as much as many of their players, but he will get more games next year.

"Arguably the biggest challenge for Conte was keeping him happy this season, but he has had that kind of harmony with his entire squad."

'Conte is adaptable, pragmatic - and not frightened to change'

Nevin: Fabregas sums up Conte's success

Conte began the season using a 4-1-4-1 formation but switched to a 3-4-3 formation during their 3-0 defeat by Arsenal on 24 September. They started a game playing that way for the first time in their win against Hull on 1 October and went on to win 13 straight league matches.

Pat Nevin: "I suspect Conte will be using different systems, systems that will suit Fabregas a bit better.

"You think of the way Conte's Juventus team played with Andrea Pirlo, and that would suit Fabregas absolutely.

"People said he was a 3-4-3 man when he arrived at Chelsea but that was never the case. If you look back, he often played with four at the back and very frequently with two up front.

"He has already started to show he can change things around, when he left Costa and Hazard on the bench for the FA Cup semi-final. So the sort of thing he will need to do next season is already happening now.

Conte will continue to 'raise the bar' in Premier League

Chris Sutton: "He changed things once, at the start of last season after some bad results.

"He seems an adaptable, pragmatic manager and I don't think he is frightened to change. You would not rule out him returning to four at the back if he sees fit.

"I don't think he is going to slacken off, though. Yes, he works the players hard in training but when you are successful it makes that treatment easier to accept."

'I don't think we have seen 50% of his capabilities yet'

Conte interrupts news conference to eat journalist's cake

The last time Chelsea were champions was 2014-15, and they finished 10th the following season. No team has defended their Premier League title since Manchester United won it in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

Graeme le Saux: "It bodes well for Chelsea that they now have a culture of achieving and setting very high standards for themselves and each other. The players clearly love playing for Conte and giving him everything as well.

"You would like to think all those values he is building at the club would hold the team in good stead going forward. I hope their success this year means there is some continuity there."

Pat Nevin: "Financially, Chelsea are in a great position. Obviously they are already very wealthy but it is almost forgotten they got £60m for Oscar in January and they have not spent that.

"So Conte will have an enormous amount to spend in the summer and the other thing he has got in his favour is that he is young for a manager - he turns 48 in July. So the passion, the hunger that he has, it is natural - and he is still on the upward curve.

"I don't think we have seen 50% of his capabilities yet and I am dead keen to see him up against Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, who will both be stronger next year."

Ruud Gullit: "Even if Conte does lose some of his players, the structure of his team is already there and he can build from the back.

"There are five teams challenging for the title in England but Conte does not have to start from scratch this time.

"It is just a question now of what he can add for next season and, after his first year in England, he will also have learned a lot."

SOURCE: bbc.com

Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions

The manager inherited a mess but has glued together a title-winning side with his tactical nous, fierce work ethic and by bringing back the fun

Barney Ronay

And, breathe again. After an extended, processional run-in that started as a head-down sprint away from the peloton and settled into an imperious push from the front, Chelsea are once again champions of the Premier League. Friday night’s crowning victory at The Hawthorns was the 25th in 30 league matches since Antonio Conte’s decisive re-gearing of his team in September, the tactical switches that have coaxed such a thrilling run from this team of bolt-ons and upcycled squad players, most notably Victor Moses, who was dredged out of the laundry bin in the autumn to become a key part of the title surge.

This feels like a significant league title in more ways than one. It is now 14 years since Roman Abramovich emerged as an spendthrift presence in west London. Five titles and a Champions League win have now sealed Chelsea’s place as the dominant English club of that period. For all the glories of the Ferguson end-game, Manchester City’s rise and Arsenal’s unflinching desire to finish in the top four and occasionally win the FA Cup, this is now Chelsea’s mini-era.

Not to mention confirmation if any were needed of elite English football’s main subtext since the turn of the century, the transformational dominance of overseas billionaire investment. Just as significant in the long term, Chelsea were also granted permission this season for their new on-site mega-stadium, a 60,000-seat upgrade that will mean the current Stamford Bridge is razed and replaced by something that looks like a vast alien space yurt made of giant Martian redwood stems.

It is another pointer toward Abramovich’s vast capital expenditure. But also a firm move towards the oft-promised sustainable future. Such talk chimes with the season just past and with Conte’s own kitchen-sink achievement in taking a team with net spend of £20m this season to a dominant league title.

It is Conte’s part in this that shines through, not just as an example of ruthlessly detailed coaching and man management, but as something new also. There have been 11 changes of manager during that run of Chelsea trophies, with the implication always that the structures and hierarchy are what really keep this club rolling on.

In Conte Chelsea have something different, a manager who inherited a messy, enervated squad fresh from the worst title defence in 25 years and threw a lightning bolt through pretty much the same group of players to create a fresh champion team.

Conte has broken the mould further with the suggestion he might escape the Abramovich cleaver, becoming the first of his line to leave by his own volition. Those recurrent noises in Italy about a move to Internazionale have resurfaced this week. It seems overwhelmingly likely Conte will stay, pay rise pending. But it is a feat of rare political skill to have made himself so unusually vital to the current success.

Antonio Conte: Winning the Premier League is a dream come true – video

How has he done it? Attention has focused on the much-celebrated switch to playing a back three after the defeats by Liverpool and Arsenal in September. Chelsea were crunching about in reverse gear at the time. Reports have suggested senior management were underwhelmed by performances. Conte had arrived a week early despite spending his summer with Italy at the Euros. Exhausted, he went home during the international break to see his family and brood. On his return the team that faced Hull City had been reconfigured. Moses wasn’t overly drilled, just told he would be playing right wing-back, that Conte had seen enough to know.

It will be tempting to compare that switch to the shift Conte made in his first season at Juventus, when he rejigged his formation to find a way of placing Arturo Vidal at the heart of his team. This was different, a profound resizing of angles and personnel that has made every part clunk into place, with key players given roles that emphasise their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.

A moment of wider clarity, but one that Conte had been working towards. “It takes time to accept the sheer amount of work he is asking of you,” Luca Marrone, an Italy Under-21 midfielder who played under Conte at Juve told the Guardianthis year. “Everything he does, in preparation or tactical organisation, is done with maniacal precision and attention to detail. It can be overwhelming at first. But when you realise by buying into it you can win things, you follow.”

Senior players were sceptical to begin with, startled by Conte’s aggressively interventionist training sessions, practice constantly stopped by that barking voice, points of positional detail brutally drilled. In part Conte pulled this off because his manner and his own playing record demand respect. But also he brought back the fun, encouraging a familial atmosphere with barbecues, bottles of wine handed out, and bonding sessions with players and club staff.

N’Golo Kanté embodies both sides of this, a player whose early scratchiness was soothed with glorious results in the new 3-4-3 formation, allowed simply to be his best, most wonderfully mobile, diligent, destructive self. Plus Kanté is something new. Get this: Chelsea have the most popular player in the league, a man nobody could seriously boo, albeit even the notably lovable Kanté is perhaps a little fetishised in his humility, his scooter-riding, the Premier League’s own friendly, scuttling Bilbo Baggins.

The system locked David Luiz into his perfect role, given protection by that meaty wedge in front. Both wing-backs are allowed simply to steam up and down their flanks following the line of possession. The attacking three have also been allowed to bloom. Liberated from deep defensive duties Eden Hazard has become more expressive, more obviously, flashily complete. Not to mention more saleable too, his role closer to the way Europe’s monied giants in Spain and France allow their stars to function.

 Eden Hazard, scoring here against West Ham, has been liberated from deep defensive duties and thrived in attack. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Where to rank this Chelsea team, even among recent versions at the same club, is another question. Six months old, a half-season project, they are already more watchable and more coherent than the second phase of the title-winning team of two years ago; but not at the level of the luminous, steamrollering Mourinho Mk1 team, a rare concurrence of prime-cut talent and a manager in the sweet spot of his own powers.

But then this is essentially a pop-up team, glued into place brilliantly, with certain parts already chafing and smoking. Chelsea’s two top goalscorers could be off in a month, Diego Costa to cause an international incident in China, Hazard to the usual summer suspects. Plus of course for all the excitement at Conte using only 18 different players in the starting XI in the league, rotation has been stilled only because Chelsea haven’t needed it, often playing only one game a week.

When the team might have tired from that hard-running style they have had days to rest. When first Sam Allardyce and then José Mourinho exposed a certain weakness against a two-man attack, and also when the “supply” players, Hazard and Pedro, were man-marked, Conte had a week to drill his team and patch this up.

Next season will, as ever, be a different matter, another problem for Conte to solve as he looks to extend his personal record of four straight league titles in club football across England and Italy. Given his hunger for more – more time, more detail, more work – only the brave or the foolish would bet against him.

SOURCE: theguardian.com

Chelsea can break Premier League wins record with victories over Watford and Sunderland

Chelsea players and manager Antonio Conte celebrate becoming Premier League Champions

Chelsea can make Premier League history this week despite already securing the title.

If Antonio Conte's men beat Watford and relegated Sunderland on Sunday's final day, Chelsea would become the first team in the Premier League era to win 30 games in a season.

They already hold the record with Jose Mourinho's title-winners recording 29 in both 2004/05 and 2005/06.

After completing the Premier League triumph with last Friday's 1-0 win at West Brom, Conte faces another challenge in the final week of the league season - balancing sentiment with planning for the Wembley showdown with Arsenal in the FA Cup final.

John Terry will hope to lift a 16th and final major trophy with Chelsea at Wembley and will have bid farewell to Stamford Bridge by then.

The 36-year-old has 715 appearances and could make three more, if he features in the remaining three games at the end of his 22 years of service.

Head coach Conte sees Terry as understudy to David Luiz in the centre of his three-man defence. And Luiz knows Chelsea must maintain momentum.

"If I say I'm not thinking about winning the double, I am a liar," he told the club's official website. "Of course we think about this, but we need to think day by day, rest well, keep ourselves very good in these next two games to have a top performance against Arsenal.

"It will be a difficult game against a fantastic team, so we need to be at a high level."

SOURCE: independent.ie

Antonio Conte: Chelsea's new Special One? – video

Antonio Conte has been nothing short of a revelation in his first season in charge at Stamford Bridge. The Italian appears to have the entire Chelsea squad pulling in the same direction and is now celebrating his first Premier League title – only 10 months after moving to England. Have Chelsea found their new Special One?

SOURCE: theguardian.com