Gianfranco Zola: 'Antonio Conte is not the main problem at Chelsea'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 12 February 2018

Zola: 'Conte not main problem at Chelsea'

Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola claims that underfire manager Antonio Conte is "not the main problem" at the club amid speculation over his future.

Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola has claimed that Antonio Conte is not the main problem at the club amid speculation over his future as manager.

Conte could be one game away from the sack ahead of this evening's Premier League clash with West Bromwich Albion, having lost successive matches against Bournemouth and Watford to drop out of the top four.

Zola experienced similar speculation over the future of managers Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli during his time at Stamford Bridge, but he stressed the importance of the current players ignoring the reports surrounding Conte.

"As a footballer, you can't allow this to take away from your job. Your focus has to be there all the time. It is much more difficult these days because in my era the talk used to come from two sources, now the stories come from everywhere. When there was talk [about Gullit and Vialli], we attempted to face the problems and just forget the noise when we got out onto the pitch," Zola told the Evening Standard.

"The current players will be doing the same. I saw them train on Friday morning and it didn't look like there was anything wrong. When you start running everything is forgotten. As the adrenaline gets going and you enjoy playing football, you forget about the rest.

"The pitch is where you want to be at times like this. I understand the concern surrounding Antonio but he is not the main problem. Competition has grown and Chelsea are not as strong. They are not playing as well or scoring as many goals as they're used to.

"They have had some injury problems recently - they miss Alvaro Morata a lot and Olivier Giroud has only just arrived. But Chelsea are still playing for the FA Cup, Champions League and they're not far away from the top four in the Premier League. It can still end in a good way."

Zola also insisted that Conte is more than capable of dealing with the speculation over his future.