Antonio Conte is causing unnecessary problems at Chelsea, says Paul Hayward

The Sunday Supplement panel questioned Antonio Conte after Chelsea’s shock opening defeat to Burnley.

Chelsea began the season with a 3-2 defeat on Saturday, seeing both Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas sent off.

The champions’ critics have argued that they are weaker than they were at the end of last season after John Terry’s departure, Nemanja Matic’s sale to Manchester United and Diego Costa’s impending exit, but the Daily Telegraph’s chief sports writer Paul Hayward put the spotlight on Conte himself.
„I think Chelsea have got good reason to feel aggrieved with the way Conte is carrying on,“ he said. „This grumbling began at the end of last season, and it picked up momentum from the minute they won the title.

„This message went around that Conte felt he didn’t have enough players to compete on two fronts the following season, that’s standard fare for a manager, pushing early to get bodies in.
„But it has continued unabated. When you look at the players they’ve bought, they’ve done reasonably well in the transfer window. Bakayoko is a very dynamic central midfield player, a potential upgrade on Nemanja Matic I believe. Morata is a perfectly good A-list centre forward, they’ve bought a good centre-back in Antonio Rudiger.

„But Conte has appeared relentlessly unsettled or unhappy. Everyone knows that with the Chelsea manager, the owner and the people around him like to play the transfer game, like a bit of a hobby, almost like a poker game that they all enjoy.
„Conte knew that, but he also knows they won the title and had an extremely good season and had built something to progress from, and yet he seems to want to destabilise everything.“

The Chelsea head coach was asked after the Burnley defeat whether his starting XI had been a message to the board about his need to improve the squad, but denied the suggestion, saying: „You don’t know me well. In pre-season we always play the best formation and it happened also today.

„With my choices, I put the best players in this moment. I repeat: I don’t like this type of question. Why do I have to send this message [to the board]? I want to win.“

Chelsea are now as long as 13/2 to win the title, with Conte tipped to be first Premier League manager to leave this season, despite recently signing an improved deal.
But Hayward said: „You can blame this cultural structural issue at Chelsea that is always there, but in this instance I think there is an individual causing problems that aren’t there.

„Chelsea’s hierarchy are entitled not to be very impressed with a manager who they have just handed an improved contract to, and are entitled to be aggrieved that he is just causing problems. There’s no need to cause these problems, I believe.“Euro Soccer Bonus

Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.

This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.

The maximum bonus that you can receive is €100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.

If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:

Bet Type Bonus

14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus €100,000 or currency equivalent. Euro Soccer Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.

If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.

If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.

Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.

In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.

All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.

bet365 reserves the right to amend, cancel, reclaim or refuse any promotion at its own discretion.