Antonio Conte will bring 'something totally different' to Chelsea, says former Blues defender Ashley Cole

1/6
Vaishali Bhardwaj27 July 2016

Former Chelsea defender Ashley Cole has backed Antonio Conte and new signings Michy Batshuayi and N'Golo Kante to help bring back the good times at Stamford Bridge.

Conte became Chelsea's new coach in April, although he only officially took up the role this month, after the Blues suffered their worst campaign in the Roman Abramovich era - which saw the club end last season in 10th place, just a year after they won the Premier League title.

The Italian has already been quick to bolster his squad through the recruitments of midfielder Kante from champions Leicester and striker Batshuayi from Marseille, and his tactical and indeed fitness work in just two weeks of pre-season training has seen Chelsea win two of their three friendlies so far.

Cole, who now plays for LA Galaxy, met up with his former teammates at their Beverly Hills hotel on Tuesday and, after admitting he was left "disappointed" with how Chelsea's 2015/16 season panned out, insisted Conte is the right man to lead the club back to major silverware.

"Of course I’m still paying attention!" Cole told Chelsea's official website. "Last year was disappointing for me, speaking as a fan now, and speaking to some of the boys they were disappointed too.

"But with the new manager, and with the signings that have come in, we will see something totally different and similar to the old Chelsea."

The Blues will have the chance to try out their new tactical approach when they take on Liverpool in the International Champions Cup on Thursday morning.

Chelsea will then face further games against Champions League holders Real Madrid and Italian side AC Milan before returning to Europe to play Werder Bremen in Germany.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in