Given all the squabbling behind the scenes, and the discontent which has festered on both sides, it was appropriate the divorce should end up seeming rather undignified. Antonio Conte finally took his leave of Chelsea on Thursday, with news of his departure inevitably leaked from his native Italy. The official club statement will follow at some stage, possibly burying the bad news beneath confirmation of the appointment of Maurizio Sarri as his successor. Conte has felt incidental for a while. And that, in truth, sums it all up.
Theirs had been a relatively fleeting and distinctly acrimonious relationship, soured by disagreements almost from the outset over transfer policy, for all the significant silverware to celebrate. Maybe Conte had been wildly unrealistic in his demands, presuming there would be a return to the lavish spending of Roman Abramovich’s early ownership, particularly as he sought to build on the unlikely league-winning success of that first campaign in 2016-17.
Perhaps the club could have relaxed what had become in effect a one-in, one-out approach on signings and added greater depth before last season’s return to the Champions League. As it was, neither party was ever going to agree on the identity of those to come in: one wanted experience which came at a premium; the other preferred younger talent who could be developed, or players in a £30m-£40m bracket.
That brief, frosty handshake between the head coach and the hugely influential board member turned de facto director of football, Marina Granovskaia, up in the royal box at Wembley in the giddy moments before Chelsea hoisted the FA Cup 55 days ago provided a snapshot of how dysfunctional it had all become. Conte, who had never been comfortable at the lack of direct contact he had with Abramovich, announced post-match that he was never going to change. “When you decide to take a coach like me, you must know who you are taking on,” he said. “I cannot change my personality.”
His belligerent style would be maintained and another year of spats with the board, infecting the collective mood, whether played out in public or private, was unthinkable. The hope at the time was that both parties could swiftly go their separate ways, with Conte courted and claimed by a suitor – Italy, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Napoli – and the club efficiently securing a successor.
It would have been the cleanest separation and more in line with most of the managerial changes that Chelsea have instigated over the last 14 years. As it transpired, the ensuing weeks brought only inertia, the kind of which can drag into a new campaign.
Virtually all communication ceased. The head coach had expected the axe to fall at any minute but was greeted instead by radio silence. There was a theory the club were getting their own back after Conte had subjected them to a period last summer where his mobile consistently rang out once it had become clear the close season would not be decorated by a procession of his preferred new arrivals.
Such sulkiness did not go down well. The hierarchy’s apparent intransigence over the payment of a compensation package, either to Conte for the last year of his £9m-a-season contract or to Napoli for the successor in waiting, Sarri, seemed self-defeating at times. But the antipathy was deep and mutual.
The club had grown tired of Conte’s griping and felt aggrieved over the impromptu text he had pinged to Diego Costa last summer, informing the striker he was no longer in his plans. Costa was always likely to move on in 2017 but they suspected that throwaway SMS – a sharp elbow in the ribs to a disruptive if effective striker – had undermined their negotiating position with prospective suitors and cost them millions of pounds, for all that the advertised £57m price secured from Atlético Madrid for Costa’s return felt hefty. Regardless of the reasoning for the delays, and with Abramovich’s priorities elsewhere given his visa issues, the resulting sense of drift has been damaging.
Uncertainty has gripped the club. The first-team players not involved at the World Cup were given little more than a week’s notice that they were expected back for pre-season fitness tests on 7 July, with full training to begin two days later. The 14 at the World Cup had been left equally baffled as to how long their extended breaks would be once their nation was eliminated. Victor Moses suggested he “might get a telephone call tonight telling me how long I have off” on the evening Nigeria exited to Argentina, and did not have a clue who would be overseeing the sessions.
As it transpired, that would be Conte. Yet the Italian’s pre-season programme, compiled on the off-chance he would still be in charge, had the squad returning for tests on the Monday, not the Saturday. He had dutifully if grudgingly reported back to his office at Cobham but had no real input until the players took to the pitches 48 hours later. By Chelsea’s standards it has all seemed uncomfortably haphazard.
Conte had always insisted he would be professional, whatever the summer would bring, but he had no real desire to remain at the helm. Relations had become strained with a number of players over a difficult second season in charge, when the intensity of training had been only marginally tweaked despite the cluttered fixture list. David Luiz was apparently hampered by a thigh complaint over the last months of the campaign but had barely featured after openly questioning the tactics. He would not have played even if fully fit.
Willian took to Instagram after the FA Cup final win against Manchester United and, on a photograph of the triumphant squad on the pitch at Wembley, childishly covered Conte with three trophy emojis. There was no real prospect of the Brazilian featuring again under the Italian’s regime. Courtois has his own issues with the club and is likely to move on this summer regardless of the identity of the manager but, most alarmingly for Chelsea, Eden Hazard was not entirely content last season. Retaining the playmaker, rather than the head coach, was always the club’s priority.
The potential for everything to descend into petty spite was obvious and ultimately a parting of the ways benefited everyone. Conte may now enjoy a sabbatical, living off the last year of his Chelsea contract. The club, still ferociously ambitious, albeit operating in a different market from the Manchester clubs, will expect to compete for honours.
They will look to Sarri, whose arrival will come with the considerable sweetener of the appointment of Gianfranco Zola in some capacity, and hope he produces something as miraculous as Conte’s Premier League success in his first season.
That trophy remains his greatest triumph in London: to have hoisted a team who had finished 10th the previous year and restored them to the pinnacle was remarkable. Recall briefly the champagne-drenched celebrations at the Hawthorns after the title had been secured and it had looked the perfect fit. In reality, once the fizz was flat, that was to be nothing more than a mirage.
The Guardian Sport
