Football pundits have been in the news a lot in recent days. At times they have been scathing in their judgement of Antonio Conte and his managerial methodology.
After Chelsea`s defeat up at the Etihad on Sunday, Conte has drawn substantial criticism, particularly from Sky`s Jamie Redknapp. The former Tottenham and Liverpool pundit called Conte`s negative approach to the game as ‘a crime against football`. Strong words. In the Irish Independent former Leeds United midfielder John Giles, comes to Conte`s defence.
The article titled ‘Antonio Conte is being undermined by a serial culprit from within Chelsea – and pundits are ignoring it`. In it the former Republic of Ireland player makes some points, that have also been made on this site. He believes Conte`s failure this season comes down to one man,
“The real crime here is against Conte and has been committed by a serial culprit, Roman Abramovich. If Redknapp can`t see that, he shouldn`t be doing punditry.”
Giles thinks, Chelsea`s problems this season started before the season even began. It`s been well discussed, not least by Conte, that he didn`t get the players he wanted in the summer transfer window. Giles says,
“Conte should have cut the cord with Stamford Bridge in July when it became clear that his transfer wish list was not the document Chelsea were working with. Conte chose to tough it out and he has been in a stand-off with Abramovich ever since.”
Whenever a player leaves a football club, or for that matter arrives, it`s generally the manager who gets the credit or blame. That doesn`t apply at Chelsea as Giles points out,
“They sold Nemanja Matic out from under him and his best player, N`Golo Kante was injured. Troublesome as Diego Costa was and accepting that Conte made the call to get rid of him, he left a gap when he left which hasn`t been filled.”
“Conte`s employers offered him Peter Crouch or Andy Carroll and when they couldn`t get either of them on loan, they spent £18m on Olivier Giroud. It was almost as if they were making a point, quite childishly I think, that Conte must take what he is given.”
It`s a well worn argument, but the failure of those at the top of our club have conspired once again to scupper yet another Chelsea manager.
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