Antonio Conte may be taking the Premier League by storm at Chelsea but his Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti has revealed he could always see the makings of something special in the Italian.
Conte arrived at Chelsea with a track record of success in Serie A and with the Italian national team and swiftly adapted to the Premier League, where he looks the favourite to claim the title after a 13-match winning streak that has handed the Blues a five point lead at the top of the table.
Should Conte win the title in his first season he would follow in the footsteps of his compatriot Ancelotti, whose Chelsea side became the first Premier League champions to score over 100 goals in the 2009-10 season.
Bayern Munich boss Ancelotti managed Conte at Juventus between 1999 and 2001 with the latter captaining a side stocked with the attacking talents of Zinedine Zidane, Filippo Inzaghi and Alessandro del Piero. Even then it was apparent the now Chelsea boss was management material.
“I think that Conte had this kind of [managerial] quality, also for his style of play. He was a really tactical player,” Ancelotti told ESPN FC. “He was intelligent on the pitch, really focused.
“He was the captain of Juventus at the time. I thought he could be a good manager at the time.”
Chelsea’s bid for domestic glory has been at least partly aided by a lighter fixture list than their rivals, most of whom are competing in Europe whilst the Blues are free from midweek excursions following their disastrous title defence in 2015-16.
Like Arsene Wenger, Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino in the Premier League Ancelotti has struggled to deal with a more intense fixture list at Bayern than many of his title rivals; Germany’s perennial champions are just three points clear of newly-promoted RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.
Ancelotti added: “I think it’s not a coincidence; the fact that the first teams in the Premier League now — Liverpool and Chelsea — didn’t have international games in this first part of the season is really important.
“It’s the same in Germany. Leipzig, Hoffenheim, Hertha Berlin; teams that don’t have international games are better prepared in this period. When you have one week to prepare a game, it’s really better.”
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