Antonio Conte came as a breath of fresh air for the Chelsea fans and a necessity for the lethargic and disillusioned players. As he cracked his whip of enthusiasm and tactics, the players fell into place. After a horrendous last season, the players would have been lucky to have been spared unlike Jose and they will look to make amends along with the new arrivals this summer.
TRANSFER
INS
Michy Batshuayi – Marseille, £33.2m
N’Golo Kante – Leicester, £32m
Eduardo – Dinamo Zagreb, undisclosed
Marcos Alonso – Fiorentina, £23m
David Luiz – PSG, £30m
OUTS (Warning – Chelsea’s loan list is long)
Mohamed Salah – Roma, £12m
Stipe Perica – Udinese, £3.2m
Marko Marin – Olympiakos, undisclosed
Charly Musonda – Real Betis, loan
Nathan – Vitesse Arnhem, loan
Lewis Baker – Vitesse Arnhem, loan
Mitchell Beeney – Crawley, loan
Nathan Ake – Bournemouth, loan
Jeremie Boga – Granada, loan
Tomas Kalas – Fulham, loan
Alex Kiwomya – Crewe Alexandra, loan
Reece Mitchell – Chesterfield, free
John Swift – Reading, free
Marco Amelia – released
Tika Musonda – released
Kevin Wright – released
Baba Rahman – Schalke,loan
Alex Davey – Crawley, loan
Michael Hector – Eintracht Frankfurt, loan
Jamal Blackman – Wycombe, loan
Izzy Brown – Rotherham, loan
Mario Pasalic – AC Milan, loan
Patrick Bamford – Burnley, loan
Loic Remy – Crystal Palace, loan
Kenedy – Watford, loan
Cristian Cuevas – Sint-Truidense, loan
Christian Atsu – Newcastle, loan
Lucas Piazon – Fulham, loan
Juan Cuadrado – Juventus, loan
Jake Clarke-Salter – Bristol Rovers, loan
Charlie Colkett – Bristol Rovers, loan
SOURCE: Sky Sports
WHAT CONTE GOT RIGHT
Chelsea had a talented team and it was exactly the same team which had won the league so confidently a season back but they failed to click as a unit for consecutive years. Coming to the transfer window, Michy Batshuayi was signed early on and added to the physical presence up front along with Costa. Marcos Alonso was brought in to provide a conventional left-back and an option to move Azpilicueta to right-back and Ivanovic to provide defensive cover. While David Luiz was bought to bolster their wafer-thin defence. But their most important signing already looks like midfield General N’’Golo Kante. His commitment and unrelenting energy and drive will surely serve the Blues well.
WHAT HE MIGHT NOT HAVE
It is a known fact Chelsea were thwarted in several of their attempts to sign their desired candidates. The lack of Champions League football might have played a part but they would now hope that David Luiz will be able to improve his defensive game and that the £23m paid for Alonso will be somewhat justified come the end of the season. Luiz’s signing seems like a panic buy as Chelsea were rejected by a raft of clubs in their quest to sign a proven Centre-back. Conte targeted players from the Italian league, but he simply failed to get he wanted and it’s all too evident that they went after a player who was deemed to rash to play as a centre-back.
But luckily for Chelsea and Conte they possess players like Kante and Hazard and they are the best in their respective positions.
