MAY 19 — If this is the end for Antonio Conte at Chelsea, as seems to be generally assumed, he is surely ready to do everything he possibly can to go out on a high.
The fate of the Italian manager is a reminder of just how fickle sporting fortunes can be.
Just a year ago, Conte was being widely hailed as a tactical genius and an all-round good guy after leading Chelsea to a comfortable Premier League title triumph at the end of his first season in charge at Stamford Bridge.
Back then, Conte’s team finished the season with an impressive 93 points, seven points clear of second-placed Tottenham and 15 points ahead of a Manchester City side who had endured a relatively disappointing first year under the management of Pep Guardiola.
That achievement led to widespread praise for Conte, who had first set foot in England slinking into the shadows cast by fellow arrivals Guardiola and Jose Mourinho but ended up easily outshining both of them. A new dynasty appeared to be in the offing at Stamford Bridge.
Now look how the tables have turned.
Fast forward a year and Guardiola is being heralded as the best thing since sliced bread after inspiring City to play some beautiful football en route to their 100-point title-winning campaign, while Conte’s Chelsea never looked like mounting a decent title defence and slipped out of the Champions League at an early stage amid regular rumblings of internal discord.
This summer is expected to see the departure of last season’s EPL-winning coach and it’s surprising how little surprise that would cause. Yes, this season was a bad one for Chelsea, who only managed to finish in fifth place and therefore didn’t even qualify for next season’s Champions League.
But will they get a better manager than Conte? A man who won the Premier League by a big distance just 12 months ago? A coach with considerable global pedigree and prestige?
It seems unlikely, but hire ‘em and them fire ‘em has always been the way for demanding Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who seems almost certain to pull the trigger on Conte after Saturday’s FA Cup Final against Manchester United, whatever the result.
Ah yes, the small matter of Saturday’s FA Cup Final against Manchester United.
The season is not over yet, and Conte has a chance to bid his likely farewell by gaining another trophy at Wembley this weekend.
There is probably no opponent he would prefer to defeat — or be more pained to lose against — than United manager Jose Mourinho, his predecessor at Stamford Bridge and long-standing bitter personal foe.
Mourinho and Conte probably hate each other so much because they remind themselves of themselves. There are certainly plenty of similarities: they are both short-tempered, emotional, capable of withering sarcasm, somewhat vain and have been accused of purveying an excessively negative brand of football.
That’s on the negative side. Flip over the coin and you will find a pair of relentlessly driven, disciplined and hugely competitive winners. If there’s one manager in the Premier League who loves to win more than Mourinho, and doesn’t really care how, that man is Conte. And that, perhaps, is why they get under each other’s skins: they don’t want to lose to another version of themselves.
And it will be interesting to see how these two managers set up their teams for the final. Which one of them will be prepared to seize the initiative? Or will both of them be prepared to sit back and allow the game to slowly develop, focussing on keeping the back door locked rather than leaving any spaces to be exploited?
Considering the defensive reputations of both managers, the second option would not be a surprise and we can probably expect a game of few goals.
But Conte, for all the disappointments his team have endured this season, has an outstanding ability to set up his teams for individual games, and he will head into the Wembley encounter with a very clear idea of how his team can win.
The bigger question is whether he can sufficiently motivate his players to share that vision. If he succeeds in that aim, there could well be a happy departure for this enigmatic Italian.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
