Just a quick note.
Thanks so much for everything you have done for your club and ours.
Who would have thought that bringing in Antonio Conte would have been the final piece of the jigsaw?
Not me, I`m man enough to admit.
With the magnificent new stadium a more or less done deal – thanks again, sir – there`s just one, tiny little thing that needs to be resolved.
Urgently.
The Don – as we have come know Mr. Conte – simply wants to have the last word on transfers.
He feels that the current squad of, effectively, 13 starters won’t be enough to fight on all fronts next season and is loath to sign the contract extension that every single fan in Blue is desperate for him to sign until he knows he can control what happens this summer.
Just as it was he and he personally who identified N’Golo Kante as the first must-have player of his tenure, picking up the best controlling midfielder in the modern game, the engine of Chelsea’s success.
I know that when you first came to the club, Mr A, you needed a whole bunch of help.
Enough time has now passed for you to know which bits of advice worked and work and which don`t and won’t.
The biggest lesson seems to be that matters on the pitch must be controlled by the experts.
I know this hasn’t been an easy lesson to learn with the stints at the club of a former manager who didn’t seem to be happy until he made absolutely everybody else unhappy.
But we know enough about The Don to know that he is not the special one, he is The One.
He is The One that you have been waiting for to help you make Chelsea the biggest and best sporting institution in the world.
Of course you would have been nervous at handing transfer control to an irresponsibly-minded manager – that is not The Don.
While even I am prepared to admit that the former manager ultimately turned out to be a mirage (oh what a joy it is to watch the 1 goal leads that he specializes in without that twisting in the pit of the stomach that they might be equalized in the blink of an eye because it`s happening at some other club than ours!), whoever counsels caution regarding The Don is a false advisor and looking to safeguard their own authority.
We`ve all seen enough to know that The Don is the real deal – it was bad enough seeing the former one walk and win Champions Leagues with other clubs as we looked on.
That`s nothing compared to what we`ll have to observe if the man who is head and shoulders the best coach and manager in the world walks to somewhere like Barcelona.
We`d be looking at a decade of also-ran status at best, while the man who should be nailed to our colours for the next decade runs riot with his next team.
You know as well as I do, Mr A, that giving Antonio Conte what he wants is without serious downside: you give him transfer control, he commits to a new extended contract and we see what happens.
If it doesn’t work, you can deal with it then.
As you always have done, sir.
Spensierato, Big Stan.