The much respected sports journalist James Lawton has written an article in support of Chelsea`s beleaguered manager Antonio Conte. With Conte coming under increasing pressure as those around him fail to match his ambitions, Lawton believes the Italian should gaining plaudits for what he has done.
The article which is published in the Irish Independent asks three questions of Chelsea`s board and players,
`Did Chelsea either properly understand or deserve the onslaught of brilliance and passion and commitment Conte brought to Stamford Bridge last season in a memorable title win?
`Did they feed off the joy and the energy and did they draw any lessons on how they might begin to see a new way of presenting themselves?`
`Did they grasp that Conte sought to impose not only new methods but a different culture, one in which players were answerable to one insistent voice – and their own understanding of what they had to do to justify their huge rewards?`
Of course the answer to all three questions is, no. Will the board actually learn lessons from what Lawton perceives to be Conte`s attempt to oust player power from the Chelsea dressing room once and for all. The fact that Diego Costa has been moved on and David Luiz has been ostracised to a degree following disagreements over tactics, certainly points to that direction.
But, if those at the top don`t support him in his quest he has nowhere else to go, other than to simply go. Where Conte viewed the whole Costa saga as a footballing issue, Lawton says some of those in the background would have seen it differently,
`When he made a firm and negative judgment on the values of Diego Costa, when he measured the player’s ability to score goals against his contribution to a sense of team, he plainly did not realise that in the eyes of some at Stamford Bridge he was putting football values above those of commercial convenience.`
`It was perhaps not the smartest move under the command of an oligarch who became one of the world’s richest men after starting off selling plastic ducks from his Moscow apartment.`
Maybe, the fact that Conte is still around though, is the start of a seed change in Roman Abramovich`s attitude towards his managers. Of course, maybe he`s simply biding his time before pressing the eject button.
We`ve discussed this struggle for power at Stamford Bridge here on Vital Chelsea until we`re blue in the face, but it will make no difference in the end. The debate is a good one though, and differing views can only help to educate each one of us about our football club and that can only be a good thing.
To finish on a positive note, if Antonio Conte can change one small part of the Russians thinking in terms of how he runs his football club, then he will have achieved more than any manager has ever done in the last fifteen years.
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