So far in his English journey, Antonio Conte has been able to create a Chelsea team capable of 13 consecutive Premier League wins. Between the 36 pitches in Cobham, each cured to perfection in hopes of emulating the grass from Stamford Bridge, there is also space for an interview with Michael Emenalo, sporting director for Chelsea. A rare and exclusive interview, featuring his thoughts on the impact that Antonio Conte has had in England:
“I think that as a club, we always expect and ask of our coach to win the title. Jokes aside, we spoke about it. I don’t think that any manager has the league title as a mandatory win, because at the end of the day, only one club finishes on top every season. That being said, you never tell a coach not to win the title. You can support him, give him the resources to be competitive, but when it's all said and done, the coach decides what targets to meet. Either way, it was Conte himself who spoke about title aspirations. After all he wouldn’t be a world class coach if he thought ‘No, I just came to be competitive, not to win’. At the same time, we know that we’re coming off of a 10th place finish in last seasons premiership, so there’s a lot to improve on. I believe that without having a specific target, we all know that assuming things keep going well, we’ll have great chances. We still haven’t won anything, but we know that we’re a competitive side. We find ourselves exactly where we would have wanted to be’.
'Choosing Conte was easier than the process of getting to him. He was managing Italy, a nation that loves football. We were very impressed with him when we had played against him during his Juventus tenure. He brought to us not only world class tactical knowledge, but also the ability of how to approach a game. The players love him, and so do we. There's a possibility that he'll stay with us forever, we hope so at least. He's very, very good".
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