Can Chelsea avoid a ‘Mourinho season’? Recruitment will be key for Antonio Conte

THE spectre of a ‘Mourinho Season’ hangs heavy over Antonio Conte.

It’s the Italian’s own phrase. It refers to what happened to the last manager who won the League for Chelsea.

Two years ago, a summer of transfer inertia, poor pre-season results and a dip in the hunger levels of players with medals in their pockets led to a disastrous start. The December dismissal of the Portuguese and a dismal 10th-place finish followed.

You would think that having already experienced a post-triumph hangover, Chelsea would be forewarned and forearmed.

Yet the evidence seems to indicate that lessons haven’t been learned.

When the title was wrapped up with a record number of victories and games to spare in May, it seemed very straightforward.

Conte would sign a contract extension and the players he’d transformed from losers into winners would be supplemented by a few hand-picked big names.

Then the Italian made a gaffe by texting Diego Costa to tell him he wasn’t wanted and contract talks stalled.

Manchester United then beat them to Romelu Lukaku and the club decided to sell or loan out everybody but Conte’s core XI.

The contract was eventually signed but significantly there was no extension.

It made Conte the best-paid manager in the club’s history. But it certainly didn’t suggest that he was over-committing himself to the club.

Decent money was spent on Antonio Rudiger, Alvaro Morata and Tiemoue Bakayoko, but it smacked of book-balancing, especially when Nemanja Matic was allowed to rejoin Mourinho at Old Trafford.

At the moment, the numbers just don’t add up.

It may be true that only 16 outfield players started for Conte in the Premier League last season before the title was secured – partly because there was no European football to rotate for and partly because he didn’t really seem to trust the club’s younger players. But this time round he doesn’t even have 16.

Oscar and Branislav Ivanovic were jettisoned in January, John Terry moved on, Nathaniel Chalobah, Nathan Ake and Matic have just been sold with Costa to follow, and Kurt Zouma and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have been sent out on loan.

Eden Hazard and Bakayoko will miss the start because they are recovering from surgery, and though he can play in today’s Community Shield Victor Moses is suspended for the season opener against Burnley.

It’s little wonder that the Italian is concerned that his options are so limited.

“We are in a moment where we can’t make a mistake because it’s very dangerous,” he says. “We don’t have a lot of space to make mistakes.

“We need to improve and increase our squad to be something important for the present, but also for our future.”

The quest to bolster numbers is likely to continue right up until the deadline. It has to be said that while last season’s late signings – David Luiz and Marcos Alonso – initially looked like panic buys, they proved absolutely key to the title win.

Conte has proven that he has a talent for extracting the best from the players he’s given. But that’s only ever a short-term solution.

Sooner or later, players who have been playing above themselves revert to their true level.

Leicester found this after Claudio Ranieri’s title win, and while Chelsea wouldn’t expect such a steep a drop-off, even a small dip would be very costly considering the strength of their rivals.

Conte’s season is now in the hands of the club’s technical director Michael Emenalo and Marina Granovskaia, Roman Abramovich’s right-hand woman in charge of doing deals.

It makes no sense to deplete your numbers so drastically when you have more matches to play, so you have to assume they have something up their sleeves.

If they do, Conte will again make Chelsea very competitive this season.

If they don’t, he will find out what a ‘Mourinho Season’ actually means.