With Roman Abramovich having dropped in at Chelsea’s training ground in the past week, it would have been understandable if a sense of angst had fallen over Antonio Conte as Stamford Bridge prepares for the return of José Mourinho. It was only a week, after all, since Conte was reacting to rumours of dressing-room discontent and talk of Carlo Ancelotti being lined up to replace him by turning the air blue in leafy Cobham. “Bullshit” was the Italian’s word of choice, but he may well have found himself using more industrial language to his players after their performance in Rome on Tuesday did nothing to alleviate the mounting pressure on their manager.
It is a compliment of sorts to say that life is never dull at Chelsea. They host Manchester United on Sunday afternoon knowing that defeat would plunge them deeper into crisis and leave their title defence in tatters after 11 games. Conte is already openly wondering if Manchester City, who hold a nine-point lead over the champions, can be caught and the mood is low after the humbling by Roma. News of Abramovich popping by has inevitably raised a few eyebrows.
But Conte is not running scared. The Italian stressed that his relationship with his boss remains convivial but he also talked up his arrival at Chelsea last year and suggested he is unfazed by the prospect of the axe falling on him.
“Honestly, I think I earned my time here with the win of last season,” he said. “I earned my time. I don’t like to ask for time. I like to tell the truth. The situation is very clear. My task is to work and to put all myself for this club. Then if it’s enough? OK. It won’t be enough? OK. The same. I will continue to live.”
From a man regularly described as itching to return to Italy and unlikely to reach the end of a contract that runs out in 2019, there was an insistence that he is straining to lead Chelsea from a transitional period to a new era of success.
Conte referred to last season’s title as a miracle, pointing out that he inherited a side that had failed to qualify for Europe after finishing 10th and that his first job in a foreign country came at a club in the process of rebuilding after parting ways with several legendary players, and he has not shied away from making that clear to his bosses.
“I always like to tell the truth, first of all to my club,” Conte said. “Sometimes it’s better a good lie than a bad truth but I’m a person who always prefers to tell a bad truth than a good lie. In this way I have the respect of the people that I tell the truth to. I think this is not a bad truth. I think this is the truth.
“We are trying to build something important. It’s important to have the patience and then to have the time to do this. I understand that it’s not for all to have patience. But patience is a big quality. For example, I have not a lot of patience, honestly. But after last season, last season, I’m improving a lot.”
Ask Conte a tactical question and he often clams up, preferring not to reveal any secrets, although he did admit that it was a blunder to use Gary Cahill on the right of his back three against Roma. There will not be a repeat of an experiment that ended with the captain being withdrawn early in the second half.
Conte is desperate to see Chelsea regain their solidity. How they have toiled without N’Golo Kanté, who is touch and go to face United after a month out with hamstring trouble.
In general, though, Conte tends to become more animated when the discussion turns to hard work. He might not possess the kind of purist vision that marks out Pep Guardiola but no one can accuse Conte of a lack of effort. Winning, he explained, requires sacrifice.
“You don’t win because one day you wake up and decide: ‘Oh, today I’ll win,’” he said. “For a winner, you have to have a path. In this path there is sacrifice. There is work. Hard work. There is humility to put yourself every day in competition with yourself. If you’re ready to have this type of path, you have the chance to win, but it’s not sure you will win. If you think you can win because you like this verb, this word, to win. It’s not simple.”
It is not uncommon in sport for winners to lose a little desire. Chelsea’s recent title defences have not gone well – ask Mourinho. “It’s not simple to repeat,” Conte said. “Above all in this league. Now we are trying to build something important. In the last four, five years we lost a lot of important players: Drogba, Cech, Lampard, Terry, Ivanovic, Mikel. Matic is last season. I’m talking about players that wrote history in this club. Now we are restarting.”
For all the calls for patience, however, Chelsea could do with some instant regeneration against United. Conte’s champion credentials are not in doubt but he would not be the first manager in the Abramovich era to see control slip away before there is time to respond.