Antonio Conte needs time to make mark on Chelsea – Michael Emenalo

Antonio Conte will need time to make his mark on Chelsea and turn an underachieving squad into winners again, according to technical director Michael Emenalo.

The Italian’s reign got off to an underwhelming start on Saturday as Chelsea suffered a 2-0 defeat to Rapid Vienna at Allianz Stadion, with Emenalo and owner Roman Abramovich both in attendance.

Chelsea flew from Vienna to the southern Austrian town of Velden on Sunday to begin a week-long training camp that will include another friendly against WAC RZ Pellets on July 20, before travelling to the United States to participate in the International Champions Cup at the end of the month.

Many of the players granted extended leave after participating in Euro 2016 and the Copa America Centenario are expected to be available to Conte by the time he makes the trip across the Atlantic, and Emenalo has warned that patience will be required while Chelsea’s new coach communicates his ideas to his players.

“The only thing that is difficult for him [Conte] is that he’s just come from working with players who understood his methods and it was probably easy,” Emenalo told ChelseaTV.

“Coming from that and going into a completely different new arena to try to introduce your methods again is a little bit disconcerting.

“But he is an experienced manager and understood that. We all know that it will take time.

“We have a mix of players at different stages of their physical development in terms of the preseason.

“All in all, it’s a good test. The next three days will be much better and in a couple of weeks we should be ready.”

Only hours before the Rapid defeat, Chelsea announced the signing of midfielder N’Golo Kante from Premier League champions Leicester City in a deal reportedly worth around £30 million — a move that Emenalo believes underlines Abramovich’s commitment to Conte and enduring ambition to bring major trophies to Stamford Bridge.

“It just shows we are very lucky to have the kind of owner who understands what we need and is always willing to support that need,” Emenalo said of Abramovich.

“He has always been very generous with every single manager that has been here and once again he has responded. We are very grateful and the fans should be happy.

“We are building toward something and we are not just looking at what other people are doing. We have our targets and are working very carefully to achieve our aims.

“Kante is an exciting signing for our fans, but especially for the manager because he fits perfectly with the way he wants to play football.

“We welcome a very young talent, who is already very experienced and we are looking forward to working with him. I think he is delighted to come to Chelsea and he will make us better.”