Chelsea Unveil Antonio Conte

Antonio Conte was unveiled to the media as Chelsea head coach at Stamford Bridge on Thursday, three months after being confirmed as the permanent successor to Jose Mourinho. He will head to Austria with the squad for a week-long training camp and two friendly matches on Friday, but how did he perform in front of the assembled British and international media?

It was interesting to contrast Conte’s entrance into Stamford Bridge’s Harris Suite with that of Jose Mourinho three years ago. Whereas the Portuguese strode confidently into a far more crowded room and posed deadpan for the wall of photographers ready to greet him, Conte wore a nervous smile and looked almost sheepish as he held up his personalised Chelsea shirt for the cameras.

But once the fear of the unknown quickly ebbed away, Conte struck exactly the tone that he and Chelsea desired: humble and personable, but possessed of an iron-clad conviction of how he wants his team to play and utterly uncompromising when it comes to the question of winning.

Unlike the workmanlike tracksuit look sported by Mourinho at his unveiling as Manchester United manager, Conte set out to strike an understated yet businesslike tone, wearing a smart dark suit with a black tie. It was a look that fit his overarching message of work over posturing and substance over style.

A consistent theme in Conte’s message was the difficulty of the Premier League, and how “six or seven” clubs will go into next season with genuine hopes of winning the title. This was less an exercise in managing expectations than a way to underline just how hard he expects Chelsea to work in order to achieve their targets. There was no shying away from the reality of the club’s aims.

“The pressure for me is not important,” Conte insisted. “I was born with pressure. It’s normal. When you are a player, a footballer, or a manager of a great club like Chelsea you must play to win the title or to fight at the end to compete with the other teams, to win the title, to reach your targets.

“The best important message is that I’m a worker. I like to work. I know only this road, to win. I know only this: work, work and work. I’m very happy because I found a right attitude in Cobham [in the last two days].”

It is clear he expects Chelsea to be title challengers immediately, and while John Terry may not always be on the pitch to enforce that message, Conte made it clear that his captain will have a crucial role to play in setting the right tone.

“John Terry is the captain of Chelsea when he plays, when he doesn’t play,” he added. “You are always the captain. He’s captain of this team, he’s a great player, with a great personality, with great charisma.

“I like to speak to him because he knows the club, the right spirit to play in this club, and for me he’s an important player.”

Conte would not be drawn on specific transfer targets. “It’s not right to say names because the players are on other teams. I don’t like when managers speak about my players.” However, it’s clear that Chelsea will adopt a collaborative approach to finding the players he wants this summer.

“On this I prefer always to speak with my club, to take a decision on how a player can adapt to our idea of football,” Conte said when asked about transfer strategy.

Nor was Conte too forthcoming on tactics, though he made it clear that he will not be wedded to the idea of a three-man defence. “A good manager is like a tailor,” he said. “You must build the best dress for the team and respect their characteristics.”

Flashing a nervous smile as he sat down, Conte asked the assembled media to excuse his English — an unnecessary warning, given that his command of the language proved easily fluent enough for purpose and only required the repetition of a couple of more complex questions.

Once Conte settled into his task he proved an entertaining and interesting guest, detailing his vision for Chelsea’s development and talking the British media through his footballing philosophy. At the end of the news conference the floor was opened to questions from Italian journalists, and unsurprisingly, Conte proved far more expressive in his native tongue.

One of the final questions yielded a metaphor to rival anything trotted out by Mourinho in recent years; asked about Chelsea’s title hopes next season, he described his new team as “slightly underrated” before adding that he hopes “there is a little flame that can grow into a blazing inferno” by the time the Premier League title is handed out in May.

“A good manager is like a tailor. You must build the best dress for the team and respect their characteristics.” — Conte’s response when asked what system he will favour at Chelsea, and whether he will deploy a three-man defence.

With most Mourinho news conferences, it was often a challenge to pick the best of what were usually several explosive or at least interesting lines.

Hiddink, while open to talking eloquently about matters in the wider world of football, rarely offered too much in the way of memorable quotes or stories about Chelsea, though admittedly he was not helped by a season drifting listlessly towards mid-table mediocrity.

Conte found a middle ground. He won’t be dynamite in every Friday news conference, and one suspects his slightly flawed English will provide a convenient excuse for any questions he would rather avoid answering in the early days. But if even one-tenth of his passion and intensity on the touchline comes across in front of the media this season, he will be compulsive viewing.