Antonio Conte is the right man to lead Chelsea after sack-race betting shock but he’s working with limited tools

When three bookies stopped taking bets on Antonio Conte being the next Premier League manager to be sacked, I could only explain it as an absurdity.

Now we all know Chelsea and Roman Abramovich have made some questionable decisions over the years, but even this would be a step too far for the club.

Just seven games into the season I can safely presume and reassure Chelsea fans that this was all a publicity stunt by the media outlets/bookies rather than there actually being any chance of the Italian being sacked.

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Further to this, Chelsea have come out and said the rumours are absolute nonsense and Antonio Conte was allowed to prepare his side as normal – if not better –for their 3-0 demolition of Leicester City.

I fully believe in Antonio Conte and feel that he is the right person for the job, but the man can only work with what he’s got.

I believe Chelsea had a poor transfer window, one which resulted in the club going back to ‘an ex’ at the last minute in David Luiz. Not that I’m saying David Luiz has been poor since signing, as he’s probably been our best defender, but it is clear that he wasn’t the clubs nor Antonio Conte’s first choice centre-back.

Of the players we signed in the summer, only David Luiz and N’Golo Kante have been given clear shots. Marcos Alonso and Michy Batshuayi have found first-team opportunities limited whereas Eduardo hasn’t played at all yet, although that is understandable and whether or not he’ll ever play for the club remains to be seen.

Antonio Conte dropped Branislav Ivanovic for the 2-0 win over Hull and he returned from the international break with Serbia with an injury so was not involved for the Leicester win when the defence looked solid again in his absence.

As good a servant Branislav Ivanovic has been to Chelsea, his time is up. If he wants to stay at the club and be a squad option then so be it, but Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso are the ones who should be starting now.

One thing Antonio Conte deserves credit for is getting the best out of forward Diego Costa. The striker currently has seven goals in the Premier League this season, more than any other player.

Costa has looked the part and there’s only been a couple of occasions when his anger has got the better of him.

With Costa, it isn’t only the goals where he’s looking better. He’s looking fitter and as a result both he and the team are benefiting.

Last season, under Jose Mourinho, there were times when Costa wasn’t given minutes due to his confidence not being there.

Whereas this season Diego Costa is probably the first Chelsea player to go down on the team-sheet and it would be absurd to say he is suffering from any confidence issues.

All in all, I believe Antonio Conte is still the right man for the job and there is no argument against it, we are here speaking about this after a day of madness at the bookies. His job isn’t in question whatsoever.

Hopefully Conte will be given funds over the next two transfer windows to bring in the players he wants and put down a statement on this squad.

As for the 2017-18 season, Chelsea will earn a staggering £60m per year from Nike in the new kit deal which was made official last week, hopefully this will be something which we see fund top signings and furthermore possibly a marquee signing, one of which the club has lacked in recent years.