The music, the language, the pizza comes under the microscope for Italian boss
Monday 15 August 2016 19:10, UK
Antonio Conte will make his Premier League debut in the dugout when Chelsea face West Ham on Monday Night Football. Sky Sports' Patrick Davison meets a man already relishing a new adventure abroad...
When Antonio Conte was appointed four months ago, I wondered if, as reporters, we'd be spending most of the season now upon us interviewing him through an interpreter.
There was plenty said and written about him needing to learn English. And he didn't just need to learn it, he needed to get to a level where he could speak it confidently to a room full of journalists and under the glare of TV cameras.
It seemed likely that, at the very least, he would spend the first few weeks under the comfort blanket of his native language. But it would appear Conte doesn't do comfort blankets. A manager known in Italy for his dedication and hard work has been studying 'with intensity'.
On Friday, at Chelsea's Cobham training ground, having already conducted a warm and engaging press conference, complete with separate briefings for Saturday and Sunday newspapers, he walked into the room where our cameras were set up to do his first TV sit down since taking charge.
I wouldn't exactly say he strode in, he was keen to know what questions would be coming and former Chelsea goalkeeper turned coach, Carlo Cudicini was there if he needed help with his English.
But this wasn't just a man muddling his way through an interview. In good English he was open, honest and explained that learning the language was about more than success at Stamford Bridge. It was about embracing life in England.
"It's a big challenge for me, but not just for me, for my wife, for my daughter - for my whole family," says Conte, who, despite a great career as a player and manager, has never lived or worked outside Italy before.
"For the first time we arrive in a different country, a fantastic country with different language and different habits. It's important we respect the story of the country - that we breathe another air."
English will be the language of the Chelsea dressing room and Conte expects all the players to understand it (at the moment not all of them can, or at least that's what they tell us when they're asked for to interviews).
Some little customs will have to change. No more post-match pizzas. Others, Conte is getting used to.
"Music in the dressing room before the game in strange to me," he says, smiling.
"In Italy there's a lot of concentration and focus and you want your players focused. But here I look at the situation and say, 'Why not?'."
The music, the language, the pizza - every little detail has come under the microscope. The big detail is restoring Chelsea to the top of English football after last season's tenth-place finish.
I live football with great passion and this passion gives me the will to improve and the ambition to meet every challenge I face.
"I feel great pressure but it is important to live with that pressure and focus on my work," says the man who took over at Juventus after they'd endured successive seventh-place finishes and won Serie A in each of his three seasons in Turin.
"I live football with great passion and this passion gives me the will to improve and the ambition to meet every challenge I face.
"The story of this club is that very, very soon, we must return to fighting for the title. This is what the owner wants, what the fans want, what the players want and what I want."
He finished by saying that his Premier League bow against West Ham on Monday Night Football would be special to him. The real start of a new challenge in a new league and a new country.
If he gets to grips with the Premier League as quickly as he has the language, Chelsea could be in for a big season.
Hear from Antonio Conte on Sky Sports News HQ and watch Chelsea v West Ham on Monday Night Football from 7pm on Sky Sports 1.
