Antonio Conte had asked for Roman Abramovich’s backing ahead of Chelsea’s 4-1 humiliation at Watford.
It was Bruce Buck, rather than the Blues owner himself, who was in the stands to cast a disdainful eye over what he saw at Vicarage Road – and what unfolded has all but turned Conte into a dead man walking, if he wasn’t already one.
Will he care when the inevitable happens? The Italian has long expressed his desire to return home, lamenting in equal measure the club’s failure to back him in the transfer market.
In short, he shouldn’t be the least bit worried. If, in his last season in charge, his side miss out on the top four – now a genuine possibility as they sit just one point ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham – it will not damage his reputation irrevocably.
Italy have appointed Luigi Di Biagio as an interim coach, which keeps his seat conveniently warm for the end of the season.
What is more, there are too many people in the game who will agree that this is not all Conte’s fault.
The results have been damning; before Watford, a 3-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth. The trip to Roma, which ended in the same scoreline, was another low point, as were the shock upsets at the hands of Burnley and Crystal Palace.
However, while on the one hand, Conte’s claims that Chelsea hadn’t spent enough are laughable, he is unfortunately having to contend with a new reality. There are the very rich, and then there are the mind-bogglingly rich. Anyone outside the second category cannot afford to be short-sighted.
- Chelsea 0-3 Bournemouth
- Watford 4-1 Chelsea
The first time they have suffered successive 3 goal defeats since Oct 1995
A year is a long time in football. This time last season, think of the contrasting fortunes of Conte and Pep Guardiola. The latter had seemingly been found out in the Premier League, whereas the former was a tactical genius whose implementation of a 3-4-3, ironically in the wake of back-to-back defeats, was soon mimicked by others. It seemed innovative, though in fact English football enjoyed a similar flirtation with the formation in the 90s.
Now, Guardiola has silenced his critics. What makes City’s dominance most frightening is that there is no reason to believe it won’t continue for seasons to come. Leroy Sane is 22, Raheem Sterling 23, and Gabriel Jesus 20. At the back, their latest addition of Aymeric Laporte may well be found alongside John Stones in five years’ time.
Sheikh Mansour learned the hard way during Manuel Pellegrini’s final campaign that Premier League squads must now be continually tweaked and cannot be neglected for a moment.
If anything should remind Guardiola of the need to build a proper dynasty, a long-lasting machine rather than a team that can blitz to the title but fizzle out soon afterwards, it’s Chelsea.
Abramovich does not deal in happy endings. Jose Mourinho’s final term was an unmitigated disaster and it is a well-publicised statistic that the last three managers to have won the league met their end the very next season.
There is a familiar feeling that the players do not want to play for the manager, which is perhaps understandable in an environment where there is no hope of stability, and never enough planning for the future.
The obvious failure in the summer was allowing Nemanja Matic to join Manchester United and bringing in Tiemoue Bakayoko, whose turbulent Chelsea career hit a new low with his sending off at Watford. All the while, the loanees – Tammy Abraham, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kurt Zouma, and when fit, Nathaniel Chalobah - have had their shining moments elsewhere.
Chelsea’s squad is not particularly old, but nor does it look fresh. Gary Cahill appears untouchable, when in fact, there should be some serious debate about whether he deserves to be an automatic starter at the World Cup. David Luiz has reverted to his old self. And were it not for individual moments of brilliance from Eden Hazard, things could be much worse.
Conte is set to become the latest casualty of the hapless chaos in west London. This cautionary tale is unlikely to teach Abramovich much, but it will remind other clubs that becoming king for a day is no guarantee of uninterrupted success.
