How Past Failures Are Fuelling Antonio Conte’s Chelsea Revolution

As Chelsea’s season gradually petered out in 2015/16, Guus Hiddink remained adamant he was targeting European qualification for the club.

The Blues were already out of the Premier League title race by the time he returned for a second spell as interim manager, replacing the sacked Jose Mourinho in December.

The FA Cup and UEFA Champions League were the Dutchman’s only opportunities of silverware that would have provided European football for this season, while Chelsea had an outside shot of qualifying through the Premier League.

As such, the debate that ensued was: Given Chelsea’s position, would it benefit the club to take a year out of Europe, thus playing less games and focusing on developing a team to serve beyond one season?

The collapse that had followed Chelsea winning the 2014/15 title told us the issues were many. It wasn’t surface damage, but something that ran much deeper. There was an imbalance brought about by years of hiring and firing managers who had signed players to suit their systems.

It was all disjointed, and the notion was that Chelsea needed some time out in order to put things right. In boxing terms, they needed to lean on the ropes for a few rounds, accept a few blows to their ego, but take the breather to come back stronger in the later rounds.

A footballing man to his core, Hiddink couldn’t fathom that. For him, any sort of legacy he would leave behind wouldn’t look good—on paper at least—if he led Chelsea out of European competition for the first time in two decades.

“It’s not Chelsea standard to be happy to be out of the relegation zone, and sit back and relax a bit,” Hiddink said in March after the Blues defeated Norwich City 2-1 at Carrow Road. That victory extended a good spell of form and continued their rise up the table, away from the bottom half where they had spent too much time for comfort.

“We have to set new targets now with the ambition of Chelsea in the direction of Europe,” Hiddink continued. “[…] We’d like to go as high as possible towards the European spots.”

Chelsea never would. Come the end of the season, they finished in 10th place with no silverware. Hiddink’s European dream was gone. Out of darkness comes light, however; that failure was actually the Dutchman’s biggest success. It was the best possible gift he could give Antonio Conte when he was unveiled as Chelsea’s …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com