Huge? Our side is not even old and we just won the league. He doesn't even have to worry about squad rotation as there's no Europe. If we can fix our defence and get some support in the middle to take the load of Matic, and have a solid pre-season, we could have a very good season. Remember the Euro's will mean a lot of tired players coming back at the start of the season, so is having no Europe is an even bigger advantage. I'd be shocked if we were lower than 3rd next season.

We haven't just won the league though have we, we've just finished the season in 10th.

We've not got a settled centre back pairing, haven't got a first choice left back, Ivan and JT haven't really got the legs any more.

I wouldn't be building a midfield around Matic, he was arguably our worst player this season.

We're struggling for goals when Costa isn't scoring. Hazard is the only other one with it in him.

I really don't think we can down play the job Conte has inherited.

Not sure about that, AVB had a pretty impossible job.

I think he will also benefit from reduced expectations but that remains to be seen.

AVB made the job harder for himself, he alienated too many senior players and tried to implement a playing style not suited to the squad or Premier League.

I think he had a much better foundation to work with than Conte is inherited.

AVB made the job harder for himself, he alienated too many senior players and tried to implement a playing style not suited to the squad or Premier League.

I think he had a much better foundation to work with than Conte is inherited.

He had a much better set of players than we do now. If he hadnt pissed off so many older players he could still be in charge now. I think he'll do big things in the future. I think he did better at Spurs than Pochettino has so far

Edited May 22, 201610 yr by TheChelseaBlues

We haven't just won the league though have we, we've just finished the season in 10th.

We've not got a settled centre back pairing, haven't got a first choice left back, Ivan and JT haven't really got the legs any more.

I wouldn't be building a midfield around Matic, he was arguably our worst player this season.

We're struggling for goals when Costa isn't scoring. Hazard is the only other one with it in him.

I really don't think we can down play the job Conte has inherited.

If we can go from 1st to 10th then we can go from 10th to top 4 and beyond just like Leicester have done. All we need is a solid game plan worked from a structured training regime and a squad of players that want to fight for their pride and the club. We can challenge no doubt.

I know nothing about conte but I know he will be up against guardiola, jose,wenger,klopp,bilic,ranieri and pochectino to name a few so he's really got a job on his hands.

I know nothing about conte but I know he will be up against guardiola, jose,wenger,klopp,bilic,ranieri and pochectino to name a few so he's really got a job on his hands.

 

He is better than wenger, klopp, ranieri for sure.

 

Ultimately it will come down to how well the club backs him with transfers.

He better be the real deal. We really can't afford for him not to be.

He is better than wenger, klopp, ranieri for sure.

 

Ultimately it will come down to how well the club backs him with transfers.

 

I agree, he cannot be set up to fail.

I would be just be happy for him to get us back in the champions league to be honest anything else is a bonus. If he can get hazard playing again then we are half way there.

My only concern regarding Conte is the players that we are being linked to. I know it is only media speculation and i know that being out of Europe reduces our appeal to certain players, but it seems to me that we only seem to be linked with players from the Italian league. 

 

The best players are at Juve and it is questionable as to why they would leave to join us. Bonucci, Pogba etc.

 

I haven't seen a huge amount of Italian football but i have watched some. Whilst i quite like Roma's pressing style, generally I think the teams are nowhere near as good as they once were and of the big European leagues, I think the Italian league is probably the weakest.

 

I'm firmly in the camp where i think a major overhaul of the entire squad is needed; i just hope that Conte brings a blend into the squad beyond just the realms of Italy.

I think we'll be in good hands. His defensive reputation is a good thing in this league. Lots of players say its harder to score in Italy than here so I dont expect he's going to run into a tactical wall here so to speak. I think its fair to say plenty of managers with attack minded reputations have tried and failed in England so it may suit us to have someone in charge who is defensively oriented which is the main criticism I hear about Conte.

We could do with a good turnover but I also would trust him to do that given what he did with the squad at Juve.

The biggest question is how or what he does for big games IMO. As many have already said there wasnt much top quality opposition in Italy and now he's got to deal with Klopp, Jose, Pep and Ranieri twice a season.

My only concern regarding Conte is the players that we are being linked to. I know it is only media speculation and i know that being out of Europe reduces our appeal to certain players, but it seems to me that we only seem to be linked with players from the Italian league. 

 

The best players are at Juve and it is questionable as to why they would leave to join us. Bonucci, Pogba etc.

 

I haven't seen a huge amount of Italian football but i have watched some. Whilst i quite like Roma's pressing style, generally I think the teams are nowhere near as good as they once were and of the big European leagues, I think the Italian league is probably the weakest.

 

I'm firmly in the camp where i think a major overhaul of the entire squad is needed; i just hope that Conte brings a blend into the squad beyond just the realms of Italy.

 

Most young players players at Juve, Roma and Napoli and good enough to be top level PL players.

 

Also I think Bonucci is easily attainable for us if we go for him. I dont think we will go for him though because he is 29 and a bit on the older side for the liking of our transfer guys.

 

It does not matter where the players come from. If we can get lets say Higuain, Naingollan and Bonucci we will challenge for the title.

We are being linked with Nainggolan. Why couldn't we hijack Arsenal's xhaka bid? Much better option imo. Linked to Lukaku FFS who still doesn't handle possession based football. Why not Griezmann?

Media speculation but our transfer targets are concerning.

Xhaka is a good player without a doubt but not combative which Nainngolan clearly edges him at. I'm not worried if Conte or perhaps the club are targeting the Serie A are a market for transfer because given the amount of technical and flair players we have in the team (down to the youth level) what we need are players who are tactically sound and disciplined. No better place to get them than in the Italian league imo.

We are being linked with Nainggolan. Why couldn't we hijack Arsenal's xhaka bid? Much better option imo. Linked to Lukaku FFS who still doesn't handle possession based football. Why not Griezmann?

Media speculation but our transfer targets are concerning.

 

Signing someone like Griezmann isn't realistic at all, we have next to no chance. He's playing for a team that is competing for the Champions League title on Saturday. When it comes to football, we can't give him anything better than he's already got. The only reason he would move to us is if we offered him crazy amounts of money, and i'm not sure i would want a player that joins us just for the money.

AVB made the job harder for himself, he alienated too many senior players and tried to implement a playing style not suited to the squad or Premier League.

I think he had a much better foundation to work with than Conte is inherited.

He was instructed to revamp the squad, which included making tough decisions about senior players. Unfortunately for him the squad at the time had strong personalities and leaders so he was at a great disadvantage from the get go. 

 

AVB had the better team, no doubt, but Conte is coming in to take over a group of players who are willing to accept and do anything he will ask of them to get back to the top. He also seems to have more say on transfers than AVB did, which is always useful when trying to implement your style.

We can't buy great players. There aren't many around anyway. We need to create great players.

How long did it take Conte to win the rebuild and win the league with Juve? Was it one season rebuilding and then three straight titles?

Really hope the Lukaku rumours are untrue. £65m must be better options at that sort of money.

Signing someone like Griezmann isn't realistic at all, we have next to no chance. He's playing for a team that is competing for the Champions League title on Saturday. When it comes to football, we can't give him anything better than he's already got. The only reason he would move to us is if we offered him crazy amounts of money, and i'm not sure i would want a player that joins us just for the money.

While I agree partially, he would command the same transfer fee as Lukaku. So if we are interested in Lukaku, griezmann is a much better option. The only difference in cost would be the wages. Griezmann is at around 110k at Atletico. We can easily afford to bring him on par with Hazard @ 200k. Not saying he WILL come but London life and big salary bump could be enticing.

Depends on where the club wants to be. We can be aggressive and try for someone big (it is just our first year out of the CL, we should have aspirations to be back in it next year) or we can try getting the Pedro types and hope we hit a jackpot somewhere.

Edited May 23, 201610 yr by JoseBlues

Worry is you can never bank on someone coming into this league and doing well. In the past we have had world cup winners come in and flop big style.

IMO it will really come down to how the board back him with signings and money, if we go down the route of last season we will be in big trouble. The season we won the league we got our transfers done as soon as the window was open and could concentrate on the seasons goals, we might not have that luxury depending on how long Conte lasts at the Euros.

While I agree partially, he would command the same transfer fee as Lukaku. So if we are interested in Lukaku, griezmann is a much better option. The only difference in cost would be the wages. Griezmann is at around 110k at Atletico. We can easily afford to bring him on par with Hazard @ 200k. Not saying he WILL come but London life and big salary bump could be enticing.

How do you know we would be willing to put another player on that sort of money? If anything the last few years have shown we are trying to get the wage bill lower.

Scott is correct in saying Greizmann will have FAR better offers than Chelsea if he was looking to leave both financially and for football reasons. Just about every top club in Europe will be looking at him and right now we cannot compete with that.

United were able to attract Di Maria from Madrid but that was because they had the revenue streams (that dwarf our own) which meant offering him over 200k a week was a drop in the ocean to them...that's not how we are these days.

How long did it take Conte to win the rebuild and win the league with Juve? Was it one season rebuilding and then three straight titles?

 

he won it straight away in his first season there

Worry is you can never bank on someone coming into this league and doing well. In the past we have had world cup winners come in and flop big style.

 

 

When you bring in an Italian you do sort of guarantee a certain standard, you know you're going to get a manager with technical ability.

When you bring in an Italian you do sort of guarantee a certain standard, you know you're going to get a manager with technical ability.

In a way but there have been Italians who have underperformed in the league too.

I do think it comes down to if he is allowed to bring in the players he wants, we saw with Carlo that when the board said "work with what you have" it fell apart. Conte sides always have a midfield with bite and guile...we have the guile in Cesc but no bite with the players available. I do wonder who we will go for in that respect and who he has identified to do that role.

How do you know we would be willing to put another player on that sort of money? If anything the last few years have shown we are trying to get the wage bill lower.

Scott is correct in saying Greizmann will have FAR better offers than Chelsea if he was looking to leave both financially and for football reasons. Just about every top club in Europe will be looking at him and right now we cannot compete with that.

United were able to attract Di Maria from Madrid but that was because they had the revenue streams (that dwarf our own) which meant offering him over 200k a week was a drop in the ocean to them...that's not how we are these days.

Regarding your first question, if we are willing to put in 65 million pounds! for Lukaku, we can very well put that money to better use in Griezmann. You make it sound like we are Stoke in front of United. Our revenue stream albeit not on par with them, has steadily increased over the years. The new TV deals and Nike/Yokohama sponsorships have given us a lot to play with. Now if we want to buy 10 Pedros or 1 griezmann is another matter. This was the hole that arsenal fell into and now have realized it.

I am not saying Griezmann will not have better suitors or he will definitely come. But from an ambition point of view, if we are going to put up that much money for Lukaku, I would rather prefer the club shell out a little more for a vastly superior player. I would atleast try to get him before laying out 65 million for someone like Lukaku.

Just my 2 cents anyways.