Of course, because some people are not here for the glamour of winning trophies but want to see the club do well in the long-term.

It is still very early days with Conte. For all we know, this "revolution" may turn out to be another Leicester, or worse, a John Gregory-style Aston Villa.

Looking at the long-term, it's important that people recognise and criticise where the club is failing to develop younger players. Winning titles means having squad depth, and integrating and developing your younger squad players is crucial to long-term success.

Edited December 28, 20169 yr by SydneyChelsea

The only youngster really capable of holding his own at the moment is Chalobah, and he's been getting his minutes in. For whatever reason Antonio doesn't feel Michy is quite there yet, he sees him on the training ground every day (cliche, I know, but it's true) so I think people should hold fire and see how things pan out. Conte in the past has liked playing two strikers together so there's nothing holding him back from potentially going down that route in the future, but at the moment there's simply no case for Michy being in the side ahead of experienced and in-form old heads like Costa, Pedro, and I'd also argue Willian.

Other than that we're not dropping Azpi or Moses for Aina, Zoums is still recovering from a potentially career ending injury and RLC hasn't shown any aptitude for Premier League football. That's literally all we have in terms of young first team talent so I don't really buy that idea that Conte isn't 'developing' players, bluntly put there's not much there to develop, and what there is, he's doing his best with. Outwith the first team we'll wait and see, but the system lead by Emenalo would have already identified destinations for all the loanees this season long before Antonio arrived.

Mich has also made 11 substitute appearances in the league, so he's seen action in over half of our games even if you discount his 5 second cameo against Bournemouth.

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 20169 yr by Charles Ryder

Antonio Conte tells his friends he does not sleep after defeat because it feels like he is dying. Winning? Well, winning charges through his body and feels like life.

Conte named his daughter Vittoria, and the literal translation from Italian is victory. 'How could I choose another name?' he smiled when he shared his happy news with colleagues.

These are the levels of obsession you reach when an athlete with a natural desire to win is soaked for many years in the Juventus way. 

To her very core, the Old Lady of Italian football is all about the relentless pursuit of victory, even to the extreme point of domination.

'Win the Scudetto? There's the Champions League,' Marcelo Lippi once said. 'Win the Champions League? There's the Inter-Continental Cup. Win the Inter-Continental Cup? There's the Scudetto to win again. There's little time for celebration.'

These words from Lippi are embossed on the wall beside the entrance to the glittering trophy room of the museum attached to the new Juventus Stadium.

Conte carries this spirit inside him from his 16 years in the black-and-white side of Turin.

As an influential midfielder and often captain during the golden Lippi era he learned how to win and converted it successfully into a method of coaching.

Three years as manager at Juventus were defined by long unbeaten sequences, devastating winning bursts and ripped-up record books.

Four months into his first season as Chelsea manager and he has already set a club record with 12 successive league victories. 

His team will equal Arsenal's record of 13 straight wins in a single Premier League season if Chelsea beat Stoke on Saturday.

These victories are fuelling him and yet his eyes are fixed on the prizes at the end of the season. True to the Juventus tradition, the first serious target is always the title.

As boss, he led Juve to their first hat-trick of Serie A titles since the 1930s, clinching the third with a record 102 points. They won all 19 home games and took a grip on the title with 12 wins in a row from October to January.

In the same way this 12-match Chelsea run emerged from the wreckage of a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, the Juventus run began when they threw away a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 at Fiorentina, conceding four goals in 15 minutes.

Even at the season's end, Conte refused to ease up, winning the last seven games to smash the 100-points barrier and finish 17 clear of runners-up Roma. 

Ahead of the final game, against Cagliari, he exploded in a rage and branded Gianluigi Buffon 'stupid' when the veteran goalkeeper and team captain had the temerity to interrupt a video-analysis meeting to raise the subject of bonuses.

Conte's sights were set on the record points haul and he refused to tolerate the idea long since lodged in Italian football culture of coasting through the meaningless fixtures at the end of the season.

He was about to depart for the Italy job and wanted to leave with Juventus trampling on a scene of devastation. They won 3-0.

In his first season as Juve boss, his team became the first to survive unbeaten throughout a 38-game Serie A campaign and reached the Italian Cup final before losing to Napoli. They won 10 of the last 11 games and conceded just 20 goals.

Their form continued, winning nine of the first 10 games of his second season, despite him serving a touchline ban for match-fixing, something which he was later cleared of in court. 

Conte was unbeaten for his first 48 league games as manager and led all the way from the front to claim his second title, with his defence recording 19 clean sheets.

Parallels have taken shape at Chelsea since he knocked the team into his favourite shape and his infectious winning mentality took hold. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has been beaten just twice during the run of 12 wins, once by Gary Cahill, one of his own defenders.

Conte is fiercely driven. His passion connected him instantly to the fans who now sing his name when he would much rather hear them serenading his players.

Inside the club, he is popular, with a human touch to soften a ferocious work ethic. He arrived early one morning before Christmas to leave bottles of wine and Prosecco on the desks of all staff in the first-team building, together with a hand-written note thanking them for their efforts and promising they could achieve something great together.

The players will claim he understands the pressures of being an elite footballer and, while he is all about winning, he never fails to mention the pain of defeat.

Before the trip to Manchester City earlier this month he dodged comparisons to Pep Guardiola with a disarming reference to the major finals he lost as a player. As a coach, he has yet to achieve success on an international scale and for this reason refuses to accept he is on a level with Guardiola or Jose Mourinho.

He reached the last eight of the Champions League during his second year at Juventus, having helped eliminate champions Chelsea in the group stage. A year later, Juve failed to reach the knockout rounds.

Conte dwells on defeat as if picking at a scar. Maybe it keeps him fresh and focused. Remember how you feel, the players often say when they've lost a big one. It is one of the mantras of sports psychology at an elite level.

Conte refuses to forget how it feels. It feels like death. Maybe it is part of the secret to his drive and his relentless obsession with victory.

MailOnline

^That was a great read, thanks for sharing!

The only youngster really capable of holding his own at the moment is Chalobah, and he's been getting his minutes in. For whatever reason Antonio doesn't feel Michy is quite there yet, he sees him on the training ground every day (cliche, I know, but it's true) so I think people should hold fire and see how things pan out. Conte in the past has liked playing two strikers together so there's nothing holding him back from potentially going down that route in the future, but at the moment there's simply no case for Michy being in the side ahead of experienced and in-form old heads like Costa, Pedro, and I'd also argue Willian.
Other than that we're not dropping Azpi or Moses for Aina, Zoums is still recovering from a potentially career ending injury and RLC hasn't shown any aptitude for Premier League football. That's literally all we have in terms of young first team talent so I don't really buy that idea that Conte isn't 'developing' players, bluntly put there's not much there to develop, and what there is, he's doing his best with. Outwith the first team we'll wait and see, but the system lead by Emenalo would have already identified destinations for all the loanees this season long before Antonio arrived.
Mich has also made 11 substitute appearances in the league, so he's seen action in over half of our games even if you discount his 5 second cameo against Bournemouth.
 
 
 

This ^^^^

Hazard has said that this Chelsea team is better than Mourinho's 14/15 team. Looks like he also took a dig at Mourinho by saying "We try to do something that we didn't do in the past. We score some goals."

Almost all the current player's have taken a dig at him at some point

Conte and Chelsea are a match made in heaven!

16 hours ago, Charles Ryder said:

Antonio Conte tells his friends he does not sleep after defeat because it feels like he is dying. Winning? Well, winning charges through his body and feels like life.

Conte named his daughter Vittoria, and the literal translation from Italian is victory. 'How could I choose another name?' he smiled when he shared his happy news with colleagues.

These are the levels of obsession you reach when an athlete with a natural desire to win is soaked for many years in the Juventus way. 

To her very core, the Old Lady of Italian football is all about the relentless pursuit of victory, even to the extreme point of domination.

'Win the Scudetto? There's the Champions League,' Marcelo Lippi once said. 'Win the Champions League? There's the Inter-Continental Cup. Win the Inter-Continental Cup? There's the Scudetto to win again. There's little time for celebration.'

These words from Lippi are embossed on the wall beside the entrance to the glittering trophy room of the museum attached to the new Juventus Stadium.

Conte carries this spirit inside him from his 16 years in the black-and-white side of Turin.

As an influential midfielder and often captain during the golden Lippi era he learned how to win and converted it successfully into a method of coaching.

Three years as manager at Juventus were defined by long unbeaten sequences, devastating winning bursts and ripped-up record books.

Four months into his first season as Chelsea manager and he has already set a club record with 12 successive league victories. 

His team will equal Arsenal's record of 13 straight wins in a single Premier League season if Chelsea beat Stoke on Saturday.

These victories are fuelling him and yet his eyes are fixed on the prizes at the end of the season. True to the Juventus tradition, the first serious target is always the title.

As boss, he led Juve to their first hat-trick of Serie A titles since the 1930s, clinching the third with a record 102 points. They won all 19 home games and took a grip on the title with 12 wins in a row from October to January.

In the same way this 12-match Chelsea run emerged from the wreckage of a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, the Juventus run began when they threw away a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 at Fiorentina, conceding four goals in 15 minutes.

Even at the season's end, Conte refused to ease up, winning the last seven games to smash the 100-points barrier and finish 17 clear of runners-up Roma. 

Ahead of the final game, against Cagliari, he exploded in a rage and branded Gianluigi Buffon 'stupid' when the veteran goalkeeper and team captain had the temerity to interrupt a video-analysis meeting to raise the subject of bonuses.

Conte's sights were set on the record points haul and he refused to tolerate the idea long since lodged in Italian football culture of coasting through the meaningless fixtures at the end of the season.

He was about to depart for the Italy job and wanted to leave with Juventus trampling on a scene of devastation. They won 3-0.

In his first season as Juve boss, his team became the first to survive unbeaten throughout a 38-game Serie A campaign and reached the Italian Cup final before losing to Napoli. They won 10 of the last 11 games and conceded just 20 goals.

Their form continued, winning nine of the first 10 games of his second season, despite him serving a touchline ban for match-fixing, something which he was later cleared of in court. 

Conte was unbeaten for his first 48 league games as manager and led all the way from the front to claim his second title, with his defence recording 19 clean sheets.

Parallels have taken shape at Chelsea since he knocked the team into his favourite shape and his infectious winning mentality took hold. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has been beaten just twice during the run of 12 wins, once by Gary Cahill, one of his own defenders.

Conte is fiercely driven. His passion connected him instantly to the fans who now sing his name when he would much rather hear them serenading his players.

Inside the club, he is popular, with a human touch to soften a ferocious work ethic. He arrived early one morning before Christmas to leave bottles of wine and Prosecco on the desks of all staff in the first-team building, together with a hand-written note thanking them for their efforts and promising they could achieve something great together.

The players will claim he understands the pressures of being an elite footballer and, while he is all about winning, he never fails to mention the pain of defeat.

Before the trip to Manchester City earlier this month he dodged comparisons to Pep Guardiola with a disarming reference to the major finals he lost as a player. As a coach, he has yet to achieve success on an international scale and for this reason refuses to accept he is on a level with Guardiola or Jose Mourinho.

He reached the last eight of the Champions League during his second year at Juventus, having helped eliminate champions Chelsea in the group stage. A year later, Juve failed to reach the knockout rounds.

Conte dwells on defeat as if picking at a scar. Maybe it keeps him fresh and focused. Remember how you feel, the players often say when they've lost a big one. It is one of the mantras of sports psychology at an elite level.

Conte refuses to forget how it feels. It feels like death. Maybe it is part of the secret to his drive and his relentless obsession with victory.

MailOnline

 

With that record, one can only think that something's wrong when he's not getting what he came for. That's a really good mentality.

8 hours ago, adineen98 said:

Hazard has said that this Chelsea team is better than Mourinho's 14/15 team. Looks like he also took a dig at Mourinho by saying "We try to do something that we didn't do in the past. We score some goals."

PARK THE BUS it is! Hazard's talent gone into waste for that tactic.

POTY Eden Hazard?

24 minutes ago, Stim said:

POTY Eden Hazard?

It should be a 1 horse race in my opinion.

EDIT sorry didn't realize you were responding to Tibbers.

Edited December 28, 20169 yr by Argo

It should be a 1 horse race in my opinion.
EDIT sorry didn't realize you were responding to Tibbers.

Costa?

1 minute ago, JoseBlues said:

 

Costa?

 

Costas great but Hazard at even 70% throughout the season is beyond special and should render all Chelsea and PL POTY awards a one horse race.  Similar with United way back when, Tevez and Rooney were fantastic but ultimately couldnt compete with Ronaldo at awards time. Likewise Liverpool Sturridge, Coutinho great but not special like Suarez.

Costas great but Hazard at even 70% throughout the season is beyond special and should render all Chelsea and PL POTY awards a one horse race.  Similar with United way back when, Tevez and Rooney were fantastic but ultimately couldnt compete with Ronaldo at awards time. Likewise Liverpool Sturridge, Coutinho great but not special like Suarez.

While I agree, Costa on current form could easily hit 28-30 which will automatically make him a strong contender. In the end, a lot of people will look at numbers but Hazard has been scoring as well. Will be interesting if this run continues.

Sounds like he will give Musonda a go. 

3 hours ago, PythonLu said:

Sounds like he will give Musonda a go. 

He's a wicked wingback on my career mode. Not suggesting we should do that for real as i can't imagine his defendings upto scratch.

On 12/28/2016 at 22:58, adineen98 said:

Hazard has said that this Chelsea team is better than Mourinho's 14/15 team. Looks like he also took a dig at Mourinho by saying "We try to do something that we didn't do in the past. We score some goals."

Being able to score goals is crucial to having a good defense. In any sort of contest you need to be able to back up your threats. Teams will not fear your defenses if they do not fear consequences for them throwing numbers forward, and that is exactly what happened under Mourinho. 

Mourinho's problem was that he thought that the only way to improve a defense is to become even more defensive. The football world has long-since changed since that was last a viable strategy. When clubs like Bournemouth are able to spend 15m on an attacking player, more and and more clubs have quality attackers that will consistently create chances against teams that concede possession unnecessarily. We saw that in spades last season, with the amount of last-minute and late goals conceded after taking a lead, simply because other teams knew we didn't have the ability to punish them in attack on a consistent basis.

 

 

8 hours ago, Argo said:

He's a wicked wingback on my career mode. Not suggesting we should do that for real as i can't imagine his defendings upto scratch.

I think he's wasted out wide in any position. He lacks pace to play like Victor Moses or Willian, for example. I've only ever seen him play for Betis, but his best periods were when he was allowed to drift inside and play more centrally, because he combines extremely well with other players and is a great short passer. He'd be an awesome option in Pedro's role.

The two Jamie's sound desperate for us to lose

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/10712435/could-chelsea-cracks-appear

The two Jamie's sound desperate for us to lose
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/10712435/could-chelsea-cracks-appear

To be fair to a neutral us running away is not very interesting. Only to Chelsea fans.

Where's Conte's knighthood?

13 consecutive wins now, that tops anything the sweaty sock Andy Murray has achieved. 

 

could you imagine this conte instead of the one we have now. come over to the dark side! 

Edited January 1, 20179 yr by enigma

On ‎12‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 17:25, ForeverCarefree said:

tops anything the sweaty sock Andy Murray has achieved. 

 

Pat Nevin is a 'sweaty sock' and so was Charlie Cooke.

Just sayin'.

13 hours ago, 1905 said:

Pat Nevin is a 'sweaty sock' and so was Charlie Cooke.

Just sayin'.

Poor buggers. 

I love this man!