So Antonio Conte thinks that it is easier to manage a “lower priority” club like, for example, Burnley.
His reasoning is that, because they are not expected to win the Premier League or the Champion’s League, then it must be a very straightforward job to exceed or reach the very simple expectations placed on the team by the owners/board.
That being the case then for Burnley to finish seventh in the Premier League, which they probably will, above the likes of Everton and Newcastle who are both bigger clubs must have been a breeze for Sean Dyche!
Imagine not having much money to spend and only having a small squad. Then, when the time is right to spend some of the hard-earned money, having to rely on a professional scouting system because you can’t simply just go and buy the best players.
Then imagine what it must be like when, having sold your best striker, (examples being Charlie Austin, Andre Grey and Danny Ings), the replacement who has cost almost all of the transfer budget is then injured and out for months.
Fortunately, for Sean Dyche, none of this was a problem because Burnley is not a big, rich club and, consequently, is easy to manage.
Chelsea, on the other hand, must be the opposite. Whenever a new player is needed they go and buy one, with money rarely an object. If one of their stars gets injured then, depending upon his importance to the team, he will be replaced by another international from within the massive squad or a replacement will be bought.
The manager of Chelsea is expected to compete for the Premier League title, the Champion’s League, the FA Cup and, in emergencies, the Carabao Cup and the Europa League.
The Premier League will see the Chelsea manager face serious competition from, at the most, five other teams, so he only has to be the best of six.
The cup competitions are a bit of a lottery but still don’t have that many realistic contenders. For example, this season’s FA Cup final will be contested between Chelsea and Manchester United. The Carabao Cup and the Premier League were both won by Manchester City. The Champion’s League will be won by either Real Madrid or Liverpool barring any upsets in which case it could be won by either AS Roma or Bayern Münich.
The point is that none of the aforementioned competitions have been, or will be, won by a small club despite their being easier to manage.
For Burnley to finish seventh they had to be better than THIRTEEN other teams none of whom are a smaller club than themselves. It’s lucky for Sean Dyche that he has such an easy job otherwise he may have found this to be an impossible task.
Antonio Conte and his Chelsea team, with all their international stars and all that money will finish above Burnley. They may not make it into the top four and may only be two places above the Clarets.
Their missions this season included finishing in the top four of the Premier League, (assuming they did’t win it), and they will probably fail in this quest meaning that, out of six clubs realistically fighting for the top four places they were only better than ONE of them!
Their Champion’s League campaign ended with defeat to Barcelona who were then defeated by Roma who had also defeated Chelsea in the group stages!
If they lose to Manchester United in the FA Cup final then they will end the season empty-handed and with no Champion’s League to look forward to next term.
But hey, it’s a hard job, give a guy a break!
Antonio Conte is proving what a hard job it can appear to be whilst Sean Dyche is proving what an easy job it appears to be. In actual fact, the Burnley manager is making a very hard job look easy and the Chelsea manager is doing the opposite.
At the end of this season there may well be vacancies at Stoke City, Southampton and West Bromwich Albion to name but three. Which one of these “easy” jobs do you think Antonio Conte will be applying for?