Chelsea haven’t received the Premier League since Antonio Conte led them to the 2016-17 title – and dealing with the Italian’s Napoli aspect on Wednesday brings that into sharp focus.
Conte’s triumph got here within the season when Pep Guardiola started his reign as Manchester Metropolis boss.
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It was Conte’s first marketing campaign in England, too, and Chelsea loved a club-record 13 consecutive league wins on their strategy to lifting the championship with 93 factors.
Their fifth Premier League crown in 13 seasons matched Manchester United’s achievement in that very same interval. Chelsea – or certainly United – have not dominated the roost since, amid an intensive turnover of gamers and coaches.
9 years down the road, we attain a dramatic finale to the Champions League’s opening part. Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea want a win in opposition to Conte’s Napoli on the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to go immediately into the last-16 stage. Their hosts – Serie A champions final season – should win to remain within the competitors.
Like so many points of Chelsea’s current historical past, you’d wrestle to jot down this script.
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Thomas Tuchel’s Champions League triumph in 2021 and two Membership World Cup triumphs have been notable achievements since Conte’s departure.
However in strictly Premier League phrases, the height of Conte’s quick stint on the wheel has not been repeated at Chelsea. They have not actually come shut.
Rosenior, 41, is the most recent of seven head coaches, not together with interim appointments, to have led Chelsea since Conte was sacked in July 2018. He has been in put up for a matter of weeks.
Talking about Conte on Tuesday in Naples, Rosenior stated: “I’ve enormous respect for him. Firstly as a participant, he was an impressive footballer. He then went on to – and nonetheless has – an unimaginable profession as a coach.
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“I believe his ardour as a participant transmits to the fervour in his groups and clearly after I was youthful watching Chelsea play within the method that they did, defensively so sturdy.
“[Eden] Hazard was unimaginable in these moments, and he [Conte] has gone on to show what a tremendous supervisor he’s and he is received many titles, together with an unimaginable title right here final yr.”
How far-off have Chelsea been?
Conte’s 30 league wins within the 2016-17 marketing campaign was a document till Manchester Metropolis produced 32 in 2017-18 [Getty Images]
After profitable the Premier League, Conte fell out with the Chelsea hierarchy below then-owner Roman Abramovich – a rift that sparked his season‑lengthy downfall.
Chelsea missed out on a number of key switch targets as Romelu Lukaku went to Manchester United, Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool and Kyle Walker to Manchester Metropolis.
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As an alternative, they signed Tiemoue Bakayoko, Alvaro Morata, Davide Zappacosta and Danny Drinkwater, with solely Antonio Rudiger proving a hit among the many membership’s 5 main additions.
Conte’s second season marked the start of Chelsea’s transition into what many have described as a ‘cup crew’, as they lifted the FA Cup.
Within the Premier League they completed fifth, 30 factors behind Guardiola’s 100-point Manchester Metropolis, and missed out on Champions League qualification.
Even when Chelsea received the title in 2017, Conte described his success as a “miracle” as a result of it concerned the “similar gamers that the season earlier than completed tenth.”
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Regardless of having had an ill-fated spell at rivals Tottenham since his Stamford Bridge reign, Conte will probably be remembered fondly by Chelsea supporters and took a optimistic tone when recalling his two years at Stamford Bridge.
“It was an important expertise,” Conte stated on the eve of the reunion along with his former membership.
“We’re speaking a couple of unbelievable membership with an important imaginative and prescient, a profitable mentality and the identical want to win.”
Napoli additionally boast three former Chelsea gamers in Romelu Lukaku, Kevin de Bruyne and Billy Gilmour, however all three are injured and anticipated to overlook Wednesday’s match.
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Napoli have confronted Chelsea earlier than – in a dramatic Champions League final‑16 tie in 2012.
Chelsea misplaced the primary leg 3–1 in Naples earlier than producing a 4–1 comeback win at Stamford Bridge on their strategy to lifting the trophy for the primary time below Roberto di Matteo, a mid‑season managerial appointment very similar to present boss Rosenior.
Can Rosenior emulate Conte’s success?
Liam Rosenior has received 4 of his 5 video games in command of Chelsea [Getty Images]
This winter, the breakdown in relations between Enzo Maresca and Chelsea’s sporting administrators and possession felt eerily much like the circumstances surrounding Conte’s departure.
In the end, Maresca’s place turned untenable and he didn’t make it to the tip of the season, with Rosenior changing him.
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In his first marketing campaign, Maresca diminished the hole to the league leaders to 16 factors, though Liverpool’s whole of 84 was the bottom title‑profitable tally since 2016.
Nonetheless, instability has been Chelsea’s enduring downside in comparison with commonplace‑setting golf equipment corresponding to Manchester Metropolis, Liverpool and Arsenal, who’ve dominated the Premier League in recent times.
All three have loved continuity within the dugout and boardroom, a basis that has helped to underpin sustained success.
Chelsea had hoped to construct for the long run round Tuchel, who had shut working relationships with director Marina Granovskaia and technical adviser Petr Cech, however UK authorities sanctions led to the tip of the Abramovich‑period management.
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When Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital accomplished their BlueCo takeover in 2022, they emphasised their ambition to win the Premier League. However relations quickly soured with Tuchel, who appeared more and more strained below the brand new possession.
Graham Potter was then appointed, with the intention of replicating the crew‑constructing fashions of Liverpool below Jurgen Klopp and Arsenal below Mikel Arteta, whereas drawing inspiration from Brighton’s recruitment technique.
But Chelsea recruited too many gamers in the course of the first season below new possession, which created a chaotic dressing room surroundings that Potter couldn’t handle. The membership subsequently opted for a better‑profile supervisor, appointing Mauricio Pochettino in 2024, however he didn’t align with their imaginative and prescient and was adopted by the youthful Maresca.
There stays widespread appreciation for Maresca’s work regardless of his acrimonious departure over a distinction in imaginative and prescient with the possession.
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His successor, Rosenior, was promoted from inside the BlueCo construction – having been head coach at associate membership Strasbourg – in an effort to minimise mid‑season disruption, work inside a construction that’s constructed to concentrate on creating younger gamers, and keep an analogous type of play to his predecessor.
Conte can have a look at Chelsea from a distance now, fascinated by how the strategy has modified.
He stated: “Each coach desires to signal younger gamers, but when younger gamers are over £100m like [Moises] Caicedo and [Enzo] Fernandez, it is not for all golf equipment, particularly in Italy. They’re doing very effectively and are doing one thing vital for the longer term.”
The membership he led to glory 9 seasons in the past sit fifth within the Premier League and are 13 factors behind leaders Arsenal with 15 matches remaining.
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Manchester Metropolis – nonetheless led by Guardiola – are within the hunt.
Chelsea haven’t been thought-about a part of this season’s title race since December.
Chelsea are battling monetary realities
The newest Deloitte Soccer Cash League desk positioned Chelsea tenth of all European golf equipment, behind all 5 of their fellow ‘large six’ Premier League rivals.
Chelsea had been above Tottenham since 2024, however revenues of £506.85m now put them behind these golf equipment, with Aston Villa additionally closing the hole.
That monetary image can partly be attributed to Tottenham having a brand new 60,000‑seat stadium, which has considerably boosted their matchday and industrial revenue.
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Chelsea have additionally wanted to play catch‑up with golf equipment corresponding to Manchester Metropolis and Manchester United in securing main sponsorship offers, having fallen behind in the course of the later Abramovich years – and so they stay and not using a entrance‑of‑shirt sponsor.
Chelsea’s hectic switch exercise, each incoming and outgoing, has added additional complexity.
Greater than £1.5bn has been spent on signings because the 2022 takeover, whereas over £750m has been raised via participant gross sales. That strategy has been pushed partly by the need to rebuild the squad, but additionally by the necessity to handle decrease revenues that restrict spending energy below monetary laws via fixed participant buying and selling.
Rosenior’s objectives are focused on what he can affect.
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“The goal for us long run and within the quick time period as effectively is to compete for trophies,” he stated.
“Whether or not [nine years without a Premier League title] is simply too lengthy or not, that comes all the way down to the crew, the teaching and the infrastructure of the membership.”