It is now, surely, a matter of time before ruthless Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich makes Antonio Conte the eighth permanent head coach dismissed during his transformational near 15-year stint on the King’s Road.
That is what a 4-1 defeat at Watford during a ‘must-win game’ will do to your job prospects.
Thanks for the 2016/17 Premier League title, but arrivederci. Can the revolving door please stop to let ex-Barcelona boss Luis Enrique embark.
As ever when the time for a purge at Stamford Bridge arrives, institutional impatience gets blamed. Yet unalloyed acceptance of this reality underpins their success.
Chelsea’s model exhibits a long-term commitment to short-term cycles.
Their triumphs make a mockery of the trope that continuity is key. They win with Conte – and win without him.
Claudio Ranieri, Jose Mourinho, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Carlo Ancelotti and Andre Villas-Boas are just some of the luminaries who can attest to this.
The Abramovich style has more in common with the managerial shark tank of Serie A’s middle ranks than it does the old-boys network found in many Premier League boardrooms. The scales are just different.
70.3% - Antonio Conte has the joint-best win rate of any manager in Premier League history (min 5 games), level with Pep Guardiola. Tension. pic.twitter.com/AxhxPCE5kw
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 6, 2018
Sir Alex Ferguson witnessed 10 different incumbents, permanent or temporary, on the Chelsea bench from Abramovich’s takeover in June 2003 until he called time on his epoch-defining, 26-year spell in charge of Manchester United in May 2013. The comparative major trophy haul between the clubs throughout this spell stood at United 11-11 Chelsea.
Vastly contrasting approaches, but the same end result.
Chelsea’s cold-blooded adherence to their principles sets them apart. It takes a unique club to sack Mourinho twice.
Too many sides in England vacillate between future desires and an immediate pursuit of results – see United’s fumbles in the post-Ferguson vacuum.
The traditional role of manager does not exist at Stamford Bridge. Neither does the job title.
Head coaches are anathema to the traditional British school. They are intrinsic to Chelsea.
Roman Abramovich (c) in happier times at Chelsea.
Interchangeable figures man the training pitch, plan out tactics and select the match-day squad. They have input to recruitment, but overall responsibility falls to someone else – in recent years technical director Michael Emenalo, now director and Abramovich-acolyte Marina Granovskaia.
The emasculation of the manager figure has increased since powers were devolved to Mourinho, with mixed results, upon his return from 2013-15. During this spell, supreme talents such as Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah and Romelu Lukaku were sold for figures way below their current market values.
Granovskaia, who is officially “mainly responsible for player transactions”, is entrusted to guarantee this will not reoccur.
Despite his protestations, Conte must have been aware of this reality. It was no secret that he tore himself away from Juventus – the club of his heart – in 2014 because of terminal disagreements about transfer policy.
Both he and Chelsea will have thrashed out the rules upon his hiring. Or the contract extension that followed last July.
As with any model, it is not without its hitches. No matter how fluid.
Conte says for sure this is a difficult moment but he does not believe you solve it by looking for excuses. He adds that winners find solutions, losers find excuses. That is all from the boss here but there will be more words from him on the official Chelsea website soon. #WATCHE
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 5, 2018
Chelsea are the Premier League’s second-biggest spenders behind Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City since the Spaniard’s arrival in 2016. Comparative – and approximate – net spends of £88.8 million (Dh455.3m) to £342.7m (Dh1.8 billion), however, speak volumes of where the clubs are currently at.
A new bully is in town.
Then Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein vividly claimed less than two months after Abramovich’s entrance that he had “parked his Russian tanks on our lawn and is firing £50 notes at us”. But with a costly divorce and £1bn (Dh5.1bn) development of a new Stamford Bridge to pay for, ammunition is in shorter supply these days.
Conte’s recent gripes about recruitment also ring true. Midfielder Ross Barkley appears damaged goods, while United seem to have the better end of the Lukaku-Alvaro Morata and Nemanja Matic-Tiemoue Bakayoko transfers.
A leaner Chelsea have to fight smarter to usurp the division’s current top two.
Recent history shows they will keep faith in their core strategy, refine it and ultimately conquer. Whoever is in the dugout to oversee this is almost incidental.
