I don't really get the adulation of Conte. Don't get me wrong, he has a proven track record and is one of my favourite managers in the world for his passion, honesty and down to earth approach (the anti-Mourinho in a way). Confirming him as your manager in the summer made me hate you slightly less. That and Terry not playing as much. Get rid of Costa, Hazard and Fibreglass and it will be diluted even further. But I digress.
Look, he took over a team that won the league at a canter 2 seasons before that had underperformed massively last season. He added a couple of players to that formula (David Luiz wasn't his preferred option but knew the club and league very well, Kante was hardly rocket science - any manager in the league would've killed for his signature, and David Alonso tbh isn't that great. Then there's Michy who so far looks an even bigger waste of £30m than Sissoko.).
Maybe you guys have a perspective I am missing but in all honesty, taking over the squad he did and then spending massively in the summer (offset by Oscar's move in Jan to China, although your net spend this year is still over £50m) should lead to his team occupying top spot for most of the season.
I get the feeling that the admiration for Conte is largely fueled by the comparative failures taking place at the other major spenders. If anything, what Conte has done - in context - is normal. Nothing more than was to be reasonably expected.
For that matter, the true measure of his worth as a manager and tactician will surely be next season, when he will have to juggle CL football too?
Just my own perspective, but i am a blue:
Winning the league itself is a massive achievement (if we do it, theres still time for us to blow it).
I think you underestimate how big the changes were:
1. Firstly, last seasons explosion, you can say players downed tools (they did at some point but not at the start i suspect). Then bearing in mind Mr safe hands hiddink tookover and his record didn't fair much better to one challenging the league (win 8, 11 draws, 3 losses), extrapolate hiddinks record out and thats 60 points in the season. This team was done
2. Our defence has totally been rebuilt. To be honest it's looked a bit flakey recently but only 2 of that back 5 is from that championship winning team. That's 50% of the defence changed where Terry and Ivanovic were stalwarts. As you said, this has changed by us getting Luiz who everyone thinks is shocking and Gary Cahill who is a solid but nothing special defender, a journeyman in moses and alonso who whilst technically sound and energetic, is probably the worse 1 on 1 defender i have seen.
3. Mastered a change to a 3-4-3 formation. It's helped that he gets full weeks to prepare the team but that's still a big move to change to this system and create a system for these players.
4. Navigated the disaster that is Diego Costa. Whether it was the media or not, Costa could have singlehandedly ruined our season whether that is by moving or downing tools (although it feels like he has downed tools recently!). We are still on track barring you guys continuing your miracle run and us faltering.
5. He's transformed some of our players who looked like flops. Especially the ones who join from foreign leagues, sometimes they need to adapt, sometimes they can't. He's completely changed Pedro, Moses, helped Matic back to form (sort of) and Courtois.
We've been fairly fortunate to have been fairly injury free but man for man i actually think you're team is probably even better than ours. Your defence and depth is better than ours IMO and your midfield is too. Where we are slightly better is the depth and arguably first 11 quality in the creative side but even that is up for debate. On this note, if Poch is doing a fantastic job (he is), so is Conte.
There are things i think he could improve. He likes to give up possession against the more technical sides in favour of a more solid structure. That is fine but i feel he is too negative in these matches and takes far too long to change it up even when we fall behind. I think it's actually pretty easy to nullify us if teams are brave enough see spurs and united at their homes.
What he has done and what he's always done is steamroller the inferior sides.
It will be interesting how he fairs next year as you have said, less games, more time to prepare, less fatigue and less injuries
