Month: August 2016

Chelsea’s new head coach Antonio Conte believes that the club’s absence from the Champions League could be a blessing in disguise as they bid to re-capture the Premier League title.

Last season was Chelsea’s worst of the Roman Abramovich era, with José Mourinho leaving the club in December having masterminded the Blues’ worst start to a top-flight campaign since the 1960s. Abramovich decided to pull the plug on the second reign of the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ after they endured the worst ever defence of a Premier League title.

Mourinho was replaced by Guus Hiddink on an interim basis, much as Luis Felipe Scolari had been in 2009 when the Brazilian was also removed from the managerial hot-seat when Chelsea were under-performing. Back then Hiddink won the FA Cup with the Blues and led them to a third-placed finish, but this time around he couldn’t repeat the trick.

Chelsea were beaten in the FA Cup quarter-final by Everton in a stormy match at Goodison Park, as former Stamford Bridge striker Romelu Lukaku scored twice and both Diego Costa and Gareth Barry were sent off. The Spaniard appeared to bite the Everton midfielder, but the Football Association decided not to extend a ban to him in the same way that they had to Liverpool striker Luis Suarez when he did the same thing to Chelsea player Branislav Ivanovic.

The Dutchman also couldn’t help the Blues to recover from their poor start to the campaign and they ended the Premier League season in tenth place, missing out on the Champions League for the first time since Abramovich bought the West London club.

However former Italy national team manager Conte is not convinced that missing out on the Champions League is actually all that disastrous for the Blues’ upcoming league campaign. The club’s riches mean that they can still attract top players and the lack of a European distraction means that they can concentrate fully on the Premier League.

Speaking to the London newspaper the Evening Standard Conte said, “Not playing in the Champions League could be an opportunity because I will be able to work more with my players. If you ask me if I prefer this situation, I don’t because Chelsea must be in this competition. But because we are not, I will have a whole week to train with my players and that gives me a chance to work with them more compared to Chelsea managers in previous seasons”.

With the former Juventus player and manager known to play to a specific system there’s little doubt that time on the training ground will give him an advantage that previous Chelsea managers did not enjoy. Given that Manchester City, Tottenham, Arsenal and Leicester are all in the Champions League and former Blues manager Mourinho’s new club Manchester United are in the Europa League, Chelsea and Liverpool are in the fortunate position of having no European football to distract them from a siege on the Premier League title.

Conte was quick to point out that Chelsea need to return to the Champions League as soon as possible, however. The only time the club have finished outside the top four since Abramovich bought it from Ken Bates was in 2012 when they won it under Roberto Di Matteo’s management. Conte said, “You do feel like you’re missing something when you’re not involved in the Champions League. It is a special competition and you want to play in it every year”.

German side Schalke have signed Chelsea defender Baba Rahman on a season-long loan, it has been revealed.

Rahman signed for the Blues in August of last year when José Mourinho was the club’s manager. He brought the 22-year-old in from Bundesliga outfit Augsburg as cover for the team’s first-choice left-back Cesar Azpilicueta.

Rahman appeared in 23 matches for Chelsea in all competitions in the last campaign, even after Mourinho departed the club in December. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ was sacked by owner Roman Abramovich after leading the Blues to their worst start to a top-flight campaign since the 1960s. He was replaced on an interim basis by Guus Hiddink who continued to use the Ghanian international sparingly during his time at the helm.

Antonio Conte has now been brought in as Chelsea’s permanent head coach and the former Italy national manager has decided that Rahman is surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge. Rahman is not the first player that Conte has allowed to leave on loan, with Nathan Ake, Charly Musonda and Lewis Baker all temporarily leaving the club during the window so far.

Rahman was signed by Mourinho after some impressive performances in the Bundesliga over the previous few years. He made 48 appearances at Greuther Furth, a Bundesliga 2 team, scoring two goals. Those appearances earned him the move to Augsburg in August of 2014 and he played for them 51 times in all competitions. That caught Mourinho’s eye and he sanctioned the £21.7 million signing of the player.

Now, though, he’s returning to Germany to be reunited with his former Augsburg boss Markus Weinzierl. Weinzierl took over as Schalke manager in June of this year and is delighted at the prospect of working with the defender once more.

Speaking to the German newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten the player himself revealed that he thinks he was allowed to leave Stamford Bridge as his style of play is ‘too attacking’ for Antonio Conte. He said, “Chelsea manager Antonio Conte told me that he wants his team to be very defensive, but I am a rather offensive full back. So I would have had very little playing time. Conte advised me to leave on loan. We will see what happens after this season”.

Rahman also made something of a scathing remark about the quality of Premier League football, suggesting that he’s better suited to the German game. He said, “A lot of players in England are very powerful, whereas in Germany you see some better football. A lot of Premier League teams are still very much playing kick and rush football”.

The Ghanian’s departure means that Chelsea only have two senior full-backs in the squad moving into the 2016-2017 campaign. It increases the likelihood that Conte will dip back into the transfer market to add to the signings he’s already made. Michy Batshuayi was brought in from Marseille for £33 million and N’Golo Konte was bought from Premier League champions Chelsea in a deal believed to be worth around £30 million.

Chelsea’s new manager Antonio Conte has admitted that Diego Costa may not be at Stamford Bridge at the start of next season, with speculation rife that he may well be returning to Atletico Madrid this summer.

Costa missed Saturday’s match between the Blues and Real Madrid with a back injury, having already missed out on Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Liverpool during the pre-season tournament the International Champion’s Cup on Wednesday. Speaking before the Real game the manager said, “I have to see the players in training. If I cannot see them in the training session, I cannot put them in a game…This is normal, for me. In the last few days, Diego had pain in his back. So he didn’t train, and for this reason he didn’t play”.

Speaking after the game in Michigan the Italian couldn’t confirm that Costa would definitely remain a Chelsea player for the 2016-2017 campaign. He said, “I can say that today Costa is a Chelsea player. He didn’t play in these games because of injury and if he solves the injury and I see in training that he is in good shape it can be possible to see him in the next game against Milan. But I can say only this. I speak only for today and today Costa is Chelsea’s player. Tomorrow if you ask me if Costa will remain with us, I don’t know”.

The comments contradicted what Conte said a couple of weeks ago when he seemed to suggest that Costa would be going nowhere. Speaking when Chelsea were on the Austrian leg of their pre-season tour the manager said, “For me, Costa is a fantastic player, one of the best strikers in the world. We are Chelsea and Chelsea are one of the best clubs in the world and for this reason, I think Diego Costa must stay. I see him very happy and I don’t know any other situation. Diego Costa is Chelsea’s player”.

The former Italian national manager is notoriously strict and may not have been impressed with Costa’s attitude since he took over as Chelsea’s first permanent manager since the departure of José Mourinho. The Spaniard is a fiery player, having been given several retrospective bans by the Football Association for his behaviour in previous Premier League campaigns.

Chelsea have already strengthened their attacking options with the signing of Michy Batshuayi from Marseille for £33 million. The Blues are also rumoured to be interested in signing Batshuayi’s Belgian team-mate and former Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton, but Conte refused to be drawn on those links.

Speaking during his post-match press conference in the wake of the 3-2 loss to Real Madrid at the weekend Conte said, “I do not want to speak about the players of other teams. This is not respectful to the club or to their players. I prefer not to speak. The transfer market is not the most important thing. The important thing is to build a team – a team that plays in good and bad situations and concentrates and works together”.

The reference to creating a good team spirit combined with the continued links to re-signing Lukaku could be part of the reason that Conte has changed his mind about keeping Costa at the club.