Or he'll burn the team out and leave/get let go. This is Chelsea we're talking about. They fired Ancelotti the year after he won the league and finished 2nd.
exactly. And they sacked Mourinho after two first place and one second place finish. Let's pump the breaks a bit here.
Things have changed to be fair. Agree that sacking Ancelotti was a bit disrespectful, but with Mourinho we were a sinking ship. The atmosphere at the club was toxic, Mourinho was picking fights with everybody and their dog both at the club and the entire PL. He had to go, he is a yesterday's manager, playing outdated tactics. Don't get me started on the favoritism and the usual suspects he was playing week in week out even though they were in abysmal form.
Roman Abramovich is a very tough owner to deal with, but at the same time a very passionate one. Even though he's never given any interview, the media has learned one important thing about him that Ancelotti has stated in his book, too - he wants Chelsea to have an "identity". He is obsessed to have a club that once they play a football match, people would recognise the style of the football they are playing and they are able to say "this football is Chelsea trademark". Wants the club to be similar to Barcelona, not in terms of football style, but in terms of "identity".
Conte has brought this to Chelsea and I've seen Roman Abramovich in the stands this season and he looked over the moon. We've never played this 343 before and frankly it's not only about Chelsea - the three at the back formation in general is something new to this league and this is exactly what Abramovich wanted - a manager to come to the club with something new that every other fan and manager would be impressed with and maybe replicate it. Lately the media has been banging on Chelsea and Conte's 343 and this is music to Roman Abramovich's ears. Finally Chelsea is not that club that parks the bus anymore or tries to replicate Barcelona. Now they have their own identity with this new 343. Of course, Conte did not discover the wheel for the 2nd time, nor this 343 is something new to the world of football, but still as I said earlier, it's something new to the PL and the fact that it works so good for Conte and Chelsea makes it even better. Especially after Van Gaal tried it with United, failed big time and the media ripped him to pieces saying the three at the back has never and is never going to work in this league. Now Conte has proved all them doubters wrong.
One of Chelsea's biggest issues until now was the locker room power. Certain players were always considered to be untouchable and imo this is one of the reasons that kept us from going forward as a club. Scolari, Villas Boas, Mourinho felt the locker room's wrath on their own. But now is a total different thing with Antonio Conte. Once dubbed as untouchables, now Ivanovic, Terry, Oscar, Willian, Fabregas, Mikel sit on the bench and they can't do anything about it. And I think this has something to do with Abramovich, too. He's not falling for the player's prayers anymore and has given the manager the full support to reshape the club his way.
Rumour is that Roman Abramovich is so impressed with Conte that he is ready to back him in the winter transfer market with a lot of money. At least €130-150m for Conte to improve the squad and go all in for the league title.
As you may know we're moving away from Stamford Bridge next summer, or in the summer of 2018. The stadium is going to be demolished and rebuilt from the scratch. In the meantime will be probably playing at Wembley. And Roman Abramovich has decided not to interfere with the club's finances and build the stadium from his own pocket. So Conte will have an enourmous amount of money in the future to build his very own squad.
You probably are aware about the fact that the new TV deal kicks in next summer when the revenue will be huge - the last placed team in the league will get at least €110m and the first places will earn up to €180m. And that's only money coming from the TV rights. Chelsea have recently signed a new kit deal with Nike worth €70m per year. Currently United have the biggest kit deal in world football worth €85m per year, but this could change next summer when it could drop to about €55m per year because of one clause in their Adidas contract that states that if United is not playing Champions League football in the 2017/18 season (next season), the contract gets lowered to €55m.
So Chelsea could potentially have the biggest kit deal in world football next season. Add to this the Yokohama deal worth €50m per year and the Carabao deal (training kit sponsor) worth €12m per year and you get a whooping €130m that will go directly into the transfer budget. Conte will have absurd amounts of money to spend in the next seasons.
He is at Chelsea to stay for a long time by the looks things stand right now. He is a gift that keeps on giving week in week out and we could not have asked for a better manager to be fair. He is full of charisma, his passion is 2nd to none in this league and has already created a strong bond with the Stamford Bridge crowd.
Buy on AliExpress.com
Happy days