The Conte Thread

[xPetrCechx 13,570]

[milka 3,390]

 

What are the challenges Antonio Conte will face in his first 100 days as Chelsea boss? Dan Levene looks at what is likely to be a rollercoaster ride for the Italian coach.

To say that Chelsea's new manager will have to hit the ground running at Stamford Bridge is possibly the biggest understatement one could make in this pivotal summer for the club. Antonio Conte is under contract with the Italian FA until July 10 – the date of the Euro 2016 final at Saint-Denis - and from then onwards, the Blues' new boss is unlikely to feel his feet touch the ground for some time.

Assuming he will be permitted a few days respite to relocate himself from Rome to London, it is expected he will report for work in his new role on Friday July 15. His first action will be to fly out to Austria with the squad he has inherited – for a training camp that is expected to be low key in media terms, but will help him get to know some of his players.

Some, though not all, as those players that make the latter stages of Euro 2016 are, unlike their new boss, expected to be given a week or two's extra leave to ensure they get at least some break from the routine. With the provisional squad lists released, that could mean as many as six key players not being present: Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard (Belgium), Gary Cahill (England) and Cesar Azpilicueta,Pedro and Cesc Fabregas (Spain).

Conte will, at least, have his transatlantic stars back, with the Copa America Centenario final scheduled for the early hours of June 27. With Asmir Begovic, John Terry, Oscar, Kenedy, Willian, John Obi Mikel, Bertrand Traore and Diego Costa all expected to be on the plane, he will at least be able to get to know some key faces. One or two more may able to join the party ahead of the second match of that tour, against WAC RZ Pellets four days later.

Still, he could go into his first friendly fixture against Rapid Vienna with a slightly odd looking Chelsea.

By the time the squad arrives in Pasadena, California for the first date of the USA promotional tour, Conte will hope to have almost a full squad – perhaps barring those who made it to the Euro 2016 semi-finals. Those three games in the so-called International Champions Cup will be vital for Conte in establishing both the personnel and strategy for assaulting the new season. When the squad returns to the UK on August 5, Day 21 of his reign, Conte will be hoping to have the makings of his plan for the first day of Premier League action.

If previous summers are anything to go by, Chelsea will try to do their transfer dealings early, and there is a good chance new names could even join the squad mid-tour Stateside. Once the group have settled back in London, there is the expectation there will be a yet-to-be announced domestic warm-up match, likely to be against Premier League opposition, either home or away.

Conte will have to run a pretty intense schedule to get his Chelsea ready for their first competitive fixture on August 13 – Day 29. And that is when we will start to learn just how much he has done to repair Chelsea's fractured first team set-up.

Come summer bank holiday, on August 29 – Day 45 – things should be finely balanced. Conte will have taken his side through their first three or four Premier League matches, plus the League Cup second-round tie they have to face for the first time in years, by dint of their poor league finish.

He will then lose his charges, to the first international break of the season, while having 48 hours to consider what final dealings are needed before the transfer window closes on Day 47. And, from then on, he will be pretty much on his own.

There is another international break the following month, but by the time Day 100 falls, on October 23, Conte will have managed Chelsea through 10 Premier League matches. That is likely to include coming up against at least one or two out of PepGuardiola, Jurgen Klopp and – deep breath – Jose Mourinho.

By this stage, the point at which it was clear the wheels were coming off Mourinho's wagon last season, there will be a well-formed indication of how things are playing out. The target will clearly be to muscle back into the top four, at the very least, and that will mean Chelsea needing around 20 points out of the first 30 available by this point.

Conte not only has the biggest recovery job to implement in Chelsea's recent history this summer: he also has one of the tightest schedules any recent Blues boss has ever had in which to implement it.

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

2 hours ago, xPetrCechx said:

That gives me even more reason to believe our signing will be very limited - we usually end up doing the opposite of what the senior figures in the club say we will.

Lichtsteiner will be one, but that could well be it in terms of fresh signings.

[Chelsea4 1,521]

1 hour ago, CurlyHairLikeLuiz said:

That gives me even more reason to believe our signing will be very limited - we usually end up doing the opposite of what the senior figures in the club say we will.

Lichtsteiner will be one, but that could well be it in terms of fresh signings.

These quotes are from 2007.

[Captain Ahmed 528]

Azzuri national Team→ Conte: “I could see the players’ commitment. We know that we have a tough road ahead of us.”

Quote

 

“We were very committed but the pitch wasn’t great and didn’t help us. We are working hard and have to continue on the same path. I liked the way my players applied themselves, they showed a lot of determination and a will to win. There is still work to do and we know that we have a tough road ahead of us. It is important that we acknowledge that,” said Conte following his team’s 1-0 win against Scotland, who are ranked 40th in the FIFA World Ranking, however they were able to beat the Czech Republic and Denmark in their last two matches. There was a number of questions for the Italian coach following the match: “Will my team be ready for the first game against Belgium? I cannot see into the future but we can take many positives, for example, we didn’t concede or even allow them a shot on target. We also finally managed to get back to winning ways. Will I sleep easily after a match like this? I always struggle to sleep after matches like this because of the adrenaline. How will De Rossi pull up after his performance? We will have to see…”

Graziano Pellè scored the winner and his fifth goal for the Azzurri: “I’m happy, I must be lucky in Malta. The team? We have a lot of room for improvement, we are working a lot on both a tactical and physical level and we know what our aims are that we want to reach. However, words don’t matter anymore we have to prove ourselves.  We will try to start the European Championship as well as we can. We don’t like to make excuses but in these next few days we will continue to work hard. We are just missing that little bit of brilliance. We can definitely play better. We have the right mentality and want to stay positive; once we find that bit of brilliance we will be ready. This friendly was an important part of our preparation and we must keep on training to put ourselves in the best possible position to do well.”

Darmian is on the same page: “It was a week of hard work, we didn’t play as well as we know we can and can improve. We will prepare as well as we can to be ready for the European Championship. There is a lot of room for improvement. We are a close-knit group but we still have to keep our cool and work hard. When we go out onto the pitch we have to give 100 percent, if we do that we will have the quality to record some good results. Our strengths? We will show them on the pitch. We will have to continue to work hard during the week to make sure that we are prepared.

vivoazzuro.it

 

 

[Tomo 21,751]

3 hours ago, Chelsea4 said:

These quotes are from 2007.

I thought they might have been, our transfer history since then has been quite limited and what I mean by limited is that it didn't look like Roman dipped into his own pocket, 2011 calendar year possibly but that's it.

[chrismada9 1,948]

10 hours ago, xPetrCechx said:

 

When you see a tweet like that, shit gets real! 

[Muzchap 8,966]

9 hours ago, chrismada9 said:

 

When you see a tweet like that, shit gets real! 

Yeah nearly as real as those ITK tweets ???

no offence - but it's bollox IMHO

ooh just noticed you're like 10 mins away from me in Peterborough  good ole Huntingdon

[Chelsea4 1,521]

I love this man.

[nyikolajevics 2,690]

20 hours ago, xPetrCechx said:

 

 

Nowadays you have to pay millions every year to have a top team. Real, Barca, PSG, Atletico, City, Bayern sign class players every year. It works like that.

[chrismada9 1,948]

8 hours ago, Muzchap said:

Yeah nearly as real as those ITK tweets ???

no offence - but it's bollox IMHO

ooh just noticed you're like 10 mins away from me in Peterborough  good ole Huntingdon

People simply write these things because it helps them to attract attention. A bit like what they were saying with the Willian to United for £60m reports!

 

OFF TOPIC: Seriously? That's awesome! Huntingdon is small but a great place!

[xPetrCechx 13,570]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wyqmz

 

Good english sir....

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

14 minutes ago, xPetrCechx said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wyqmz

 

Good english sir....

Sounds like an improved version of Carlitos Tevez to be fair 

[Captain Ahmed 528]

9 hours ago, Chelsea4 said:

I love this man.

Massive difference between talking and  do this type of things at the field. C'mon Capo One.

[Chelsea4 1,521]

Conte's English is great.His first interview.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36438987