Graeme Souness has said that Antonio Conte will have a tough task at Chelsea next season with them failing to qualify for the Champions League.
Souness has indicated that without the Champions League, Chelsea will be a less attractive prospect to transfer targets who want to play at the highest level.
Speaking to Sky Sports , Souness said:
I think he’s got a monster job on now, Chelsea this year have been disappointing to say the least.
Souness added:
That’s the dilemma [no Champions League], the attraction of Chelsea in recent years can be put to two main reasons, the wages plus the attraction of the Champions League. So there is no quick fix to Chelsea.
Souness also said that Jose Mourinho got lucky to win last season’s Premier League title, however, whatever he had done to motivate his players to win last season was ineffective in this campaign.
I think Jose saw the writing on the wall, he knew he had been lucky to win the league last year, he must have driven them, cajoled them, bullied them, to get to that point to win it, and at the start of the season he wanted more players and better players, and for some reason he didn’t get them.
The 62-year-old also indicated that Conte will not be able to solve Chelsea’s problems on his own and that it is only with the assistance of his squad that Chelsea can come back from their poor season.
He’s a different voice, has different thoughts. Does he have a magic wand? No coach has a magic wand, it’s all about players. He has a hard job on his hands, so will need a lot of support from the owner, will have to buy well, and then Chelsea will be challenging again. They’ve still got the nucleus of a really good team, but the fact they really couldn’t get going again when they replaced the so-called ‘problem’ with Jose falling out with people, they didn’t really go on from there.
Chelsea are currently sat 10th and are still unbeaten in the league since Guus Hiddink took charge in December. Their next match is an away game against Swansea.
