Why Chelsea Must Sack Antonio Conte To Progress Forward
Antonio Conte made quite an impact at Chelsea when he took over as Blues boss but if latest reports are to be believed, the fiery Italian might be on his way out of Stamford Bridge in the near future. He may have won the Premier League in his debut campaign last term but things are not great in the Blues’ camp at present. From having issues with veteran players to making controversial public statements, Conte has earned the ire of a lot of supporters as well. The 4-1 loss against Watford looks like the final nail in the coffin for him.
It might be unfair to sack him solely based on the club’s performances. After all, they are gracing the 4th spot in the points table and are merely one point behind third-placed Liverpool. However, the general environment in the club seems to be tainted.
They lost their opening day game to Burnley despite being the defending champions and since then, Chelsea have been on a whirlwind rollercoaster of ups and downs. It almost feels like they are stagnated at one point now and unless they replace Conte with another manager, it does not seem like they will move forward anytime soon.
More than anything else, the biggest reason behind that is the way he has dealt with the club’s fan favourites. The whole situation with Diego Costa turned into such a nasty affair and it intensified to a point where the player just decided to leave in a haphazard manner. Regardless of what the issue was, it is Conte’s duty as a manager to look to sort things out before they get ugly – especially when it comes to a player as crucial as Costa.
His absence has cost the club in a dire manner. They might have signed Alvaro Morata to replace him but the Spaniard has struggled with form throughout the season and it is important for any club to have at least two quality strikers – let alone a team like Chelsea that’s competing on so many different fronts. Costa plays for Atletico Madrid now and whether Conte likes to admit it or not, losing him was a major mistake.
However, it seems like he is not ready to learn from his mistakes. A similar situation appears to be brewing with veteran defender David Luiz, who has been with Chelsea for quite some time now. He has been iced out of the squad following a disagreement with Conte and that just goes to show how the team is poorly managed.
Besides all this, there have also been alleged disparities between the board and the manager and tensions seem to have worsened after their recent 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth, with the latest 4-1 defeat to Watford doing no good for the Italian.
With reports earlier claiming that the Italian would be sacked in the event of Chelsea losing to Watford, it would be interesting to see what Abramovich does next. In my opinion, sacking Conte looks like the way to go forward.