Antonio
Conte will make his Premier League debut in the dugout when Chelsea face
West Ham on
Monday Night Football. Sky Sports' Patrick Davison
meets a man already relishing a new adventure abroad...
When Antonio Conte was appointed four months ago, I wondered if, as
reporters, we'd be spending most of the season now upon us interviewing him
through an interpreter.
There was plenty said and written about him needing to learn English. And he
didn't just need to learn it, he needed to get to a level where he could
speak it confidently to a room full of journalists and under the glare of TV
cameras.
It seemed likely that, at the very least, he would spend the first few weeks
under the comfort blanket of his native language. But it would appear Conte
doesn't do comfort blankets. A manager known in Italy for his dedication and
hard work has been studying 'with intensity'.
On Friday, at Chelsea's Cobham training ground, having already conducted a
warm and engaging press conference, complete with separate briefings for
Saturday and Sunday newspapers, he walked into the room where our cameras
were set up to do his first TV sit down since taking charge.
I wouldn't exactly say he strode in, he was keen to know what questions
would be coming and former Chelsea goalkeeper turned coach, Carlo Cudicini
was there if he needed help with his English.
But this wasn't just a man muddling his way through an interview. In good
English he was open, honest and explained that learning the language was
about more than success at Stamford Bridge. It was about embracing life in
England.
"It's a big challenge for me, but not just for me, for my wife, for my
daughter - for my whole family," says Conte, who, despite a great career as
a player and manager, has never lived or worked outside Italy before.
"For the first time we arrive in a different country, a fantastic country
with different language and different habits. It's important we respect the
story of the country - that we breathe another air."
English will be the language of the Chelsea dressing room and Conte expects
all the players to understand it (at the moment not all of them can, or at
least that's what they tell us when they're asked for to interviews).
Some little customs will have to change. No more post-match pizzas. Others,
Conte is getting used to.
"Music in the dressing room before the game in strange to me," he says,
smiling.
"In Italy there's a lot of concentration and focus and you want your players
focused. But here I look at the situation and say, 'Why not?'."
The music, the language, the pizza - every little detail has come under the
microscope. The big detail is restoring Chelsea to the top of English
football after last season's tenth-place finish.
"I feel great pressure but it is important to live with that pressure and
focus on my work," says the man who took over at Juventus after they'd
endured successive seventh-place finishes and won Serie A in each of his
three seasons in Turin.
"I live football with great passion and this passion gives me the will to
improve and the ambition to meet every challenge I face.
"The story of this club is that very, very soon, we must return to fighting
for the title. This is what the owner wants, what the fans want, what the
players want and what I want."
He finished by saying that his Premier League bow against West Ham on Monday
Night Football would be special to him. The real start of a new challenge in
a new league and a new country.
If he gets to grips with the Premier League as quickly as he has the
language, Chelsea could be in for a big season.
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