After netting just four Premier League goals and putting in a number of inept performances last year, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard was a shadow of the player who romped to the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and the Blues’ Player of the Year the season before. However, with Antonio Conte taking over the managerial reins
The debut installment of a brand new column about everything Chelsea-related titled “The Mind of Conte” by Charles Codo. Following much excitement, speculation, and anticipation, Antonio Conte has finally coached his first games in the English Premier League, home against West Ham and away to Watford. Following last season’s horror start, Chelsea fans will have
Chelsea have been associated with heavy spending ever since Abramovich took over the club in 2003. Such massive outlays helped propel the Blues to the pinnacle of European club football and are now considered among the continent’s elite sides. Can you name each and every Chelsea signing from their 2014/15 campaign? Created by Sporcle
Antonio Conte joined Chelsea with the idea to use a variation of the 4-4-2 formation, which he had previously adopted at Siena and Bari. Last month, Oscar revealed the following in an interview with the Mail Online: “The idea is to play 4-2-4. We tried this every day in training - we’re getting better.” Indeed,
It is not often that a player makes the return to one of his former clubs. However, this season could see the end to that buck. Paul Pogba has now broken the world transfer record to move back to his former club Manchester United, from Juventus. It seems like massively overpaid training in hindsight. It
The 2016-17 season is nearly upon us, and as we’re gearing up with great anticipation, here are a few takeaways from Antonio Conte’s first three games in charge of Chelsea. Team shape Many questions have been asked about the shape Antonio Conte would employ at Chelsea, and based on what we’ve seen so far
Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes has officially been unveiled by Barcelona after completing a €35 million switch from La Liga rivals Valencia. The 22-year old- who was formally introduced during a short ceremony at Barcelona’s mini Estadi- becomes the club’s fourth signing thus far after the acquisition of: David Suarez from Villarreal, Samuel Umtiti from Lyon
Borussia Dortmund have confirmed the acquisition of German international Andre Schurrle from Bundesliga opponents Wolfsburg. Although an official figure is yet to be released by the club, reliable sources in Germany depict the transfer to be around £26.9 million or €32 million, making him Dortmund’s most expensive signing of all time. The 25-year old becomes
Napoli full-back Elseid Hysaj has been the subject of much transfer speculation this summer with Chelsea one of the clubs said to be looking at the talented Albanian. The right back has four seasons of first team football under his belt in Italy in addition to 20 international caps so he already has quite a
2016 has definitely been the year to remember for N’Golo Kante. From a fairytale story of winning the league title with the underdogs to reaching the Euro finals, Kante had it all. The driving force in Leicester City’s league triumph and said to be one of the best in his position, the midfielder then decided
Arsenal came out the blocks quickly and just 4 days in, signed Granit Xhaka who is a great midfielder as well as the fairly unknown Takuma Asano. The signings of Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have shown Manchester United mean business. The likely signing of Paul Pogba for a reported £100 million would
Leicester City have apparently placed a £45 million price tag for winger and Algerian international Riyad Mahrez, according to reports by BBC Sport. Intricate role in title triumph Jamie Vardy may have stolen all the headlines last season for his goal scoring capabilities, inspiring grass to grace story and not forgetting the simple fact
Reports emerging from Spain suggest that Chelsea are expected to intensify their pursuit for Real Madrid forward Alvaro Morata. The 23-year old- who is now valued at around £66 million- joined Juventus in 2014, but has only recently resigned with the Los Blancos. Since departing for the Old Lady, the Spaniard has improved in skill
One thing we know about Antonio Conte is that he loves centre-backs, with the new Chelsea boss regularly employing three during his time in charge of both Juventus and Italy. Atletico Madrid’s Jose Gimenez is one of the best young players around in this position and the 21-year-old is a target for the Blues if
Chelsea have officially confirmed that they have reached a mutual agreement with Leicester City for the transfer of defensive midfielder N’Golo Kante. Although the fee remains undisclosed as both clubs are yet to release the official figures, Sky Sports sources reveal that the deal cost slightly in excess of £30 million. The 25-year old was
The battling French midfielder was one of the players of the season during the last campaign. He was one of Leicester’s most important players as they charged towards an unlikely Premier League title. The little man was so impressive he was nominated for the PFA Player Of The Season award. However, after such a great
Chelsea are reportedly ready to add to their Belgian contingent with midfield duo Axel Witsel and Radja Nainggolan on their radar. The pair featured prominently as their country’s first-choice central midfield partnership at Euro 2016 with Tottenham’s impressive Mousa Dembélé left looking on from the sidelines and it would no surprise to see at least
Chelsea announced this weekend that they had completed the signing of Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi from Marseille for a fee of £33 million. With numerous clubs said to be interested in the player, his capture represents a bit of a coup for the Blues given they can’t offer European football this coming season but unquestionably
Perhaps the most talked about transfer in Italy this summer has been that of Miralem Pjanić who ended his 5 year association with Roma in favour of joining rivals Juventus. It has left fans of the capital club furious but it’s not hard to see why Pjanic came to the conclusion that his future was
Antonio Conte will be in charge at Chelsea after his Euro stint coming to a close, with his Italy side impressing so far at the tournament grabbing a fine 2-0 victory over holders Spain in their wake. Given the ex-Juventus manager’s love of the 3-5-2 formation, attention has now turned to who he might buy
At a time when clubs used money they earned to spend big on players, in 2010 Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea FC for £140 million and has spent £2 billion in 10 years at Chelsea. Now Chelsea are more concerned on selling for the most and by succeeding in the big money sales of David Luiz,
April 4th 2016, the following statement was published on Chelsea FC’s official website: “Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Antonio Conte as First Team Head Coach”. Since then, there has been a fixation by fans, pundits, former players and others, on guessing what formation the Italian coach will play at the Bridge,
Alexandre Pato has made his feelings regarding life in London and more specifically life in the Chelsea team as exciting for him and has underlined his intentions to stay in either London or at Chelsea. However, the 26-year-old dubbed the ‘Duck’ has yet to make a splash in the Premier League. Despite the limited opportunities
This season was quite difficult and rather unsuccessful for the top 5 clubs of the EPL. We have a look at the things/players they want to do more next season. The 2015/16 EPL season was one of the most surprising seasons in the past few decades, if not in the history of the English top
Antonio Conte will take over at Chelsea this summer but already finds himself a march behind his future rivals. Whereas Pep Guardiola, new to the Manchester City hot-seat, and Jose Mourinho, the new manager of Manchester United, are free to get their business done early, Conte still has to take Italy through the European Championships